Lecture 13

CSC418 Computer Graphics

Illumination

Lights

Lightinging models
Illumination
Illumination Models

Illumination
–The transport of luminous flux from light sources between
points via direct and indirect paths

Lighting
–The process of computing the luminous intensity reflected
from a specified 3-D point

Shading
–The process of assigning a color to a pixel

Illumination Models
–Simple approximations of light transport
–Physical models of light transport
Two Components of Illumination

Light Sources
– Emission Spectrum (color)
– Geometry (position and direction)
– Directional Attenuation

Surface Properties (Reflectors)
– Reflectance Spectrum (color)
– Geometry (position, orientation, and micro-structure)
– Absorption
– Transmission
Ambient Light Source

Even though an object in a scene is not directly lit it will still be
visible. This is because light is reflected indirectly from nearby
objects. A simple hack that is commonly used to model this
indirect illumination is to use of an ambient light source.
Ambient light has no spatial or directional characteristics. The
amount of ambient light incident on each object is a constant
for all surfaces in the scene. An ambient light can have a
color.

The amount of ambient light that is reflected by an object is
independent of the object's position or orientation. Surface
properties are used to determine how much ambient light is
reflected.
Directional Light Sources

All of the rays from a directional light source have a common
direction, and no point of origin. It is as if the light source was
infinitely far away from the surface that it is illuminating.
Sunlight is an example of an infinite light source.

The direction from a surface to a light source is important for
computing the light reflected from the surface. With a
directional light source this direction is a constant for every
surface. A directional light source can be colored.
Point Light Sources

The point light source emits rays in radial directions from its
source. A point light source is a fair approximation to a local
light source such as a light bulb.

The direction of the light to each point on a surface changes
when a point light source is used. Thus, a normalized vector
to the light emitter must be computed for each point that is
illuminated.
Other Light Sources

Spotlights
– Point source whose intensity falls off
away from a given direction
– Requires a color, a point, a direction,
parameters that control the rate of fall off

Area Light Sources
– Light source occupies a 2-D area
(usually a polygon or disk)
– Generates soft shadows

Extended Light Sources
– Spherical Light Source
– Generates soft shadows
Ideal Diffuse Reflection

First, we will consider a particular type of surface called an
ideal diffuse reflector. An ideal diffuse surface is, at the
microscopic level a very rough surface. Chalk is a good
approximation to an ideal diffuse surface. Because of the
microscopic variations in the surface, an incoming ray of light
is equally likely to be reflected in any direction over the
hemisphere.
Lambert's Cosine Law
Ideal diffuse reflectors reflect light according to Lambert's cosine

law, Lambert's law states that the reflected energy from a small
surface area in a particular direction is proportional to cosine of
the angle between that direction and the surface normal.
Computing Diffuse Reflection

The angle between the surface normal and the incoming light
ray is called the angle of incidence.

Ilight : intensity of the incoming light.

kd : represents the diffuse reflectivity of the surface at that
wavelength.
 What is the range of kd
Specular Reflection
When we look at a shiny surface, such as polished metal, we
see a highlight, or bright spot. Where this bright spot appears
on the surface is a function of where the surface is seen from.
The reflectance is view dependent.
Snell's Law
Reflection behaves according to Snell's law:


– The incoming ray, the surface normal,

and the reflected ray all lie in a
common plane.
– The angle that the reflected ray forms
with the surface normal is determined
by the angle that the incoming ray
forms with the surface normal, and the
relative speeds of light of the mediums
in which the incident and reflected rays
propagate according to the following
expression.
(Note: nl and nr are the indices of
refraction)
Reflection

Reflection is a very special case of Snell's Law where the
incident light's medium and the reflected rays medium is the
same. Thus
angle of incidence = angle of reflection
Non-ideal Reflectors
Snell's law, applies only to ideal mirror reflectors.



In general, most of the reflected light travels in the
direction of the ideal ray. However, because of
microscopic surface variations we might expect
some of the light to be reflected just slightly offset
from the ideal reflected ray. As we move farther and
farther, in the angular sense, from the reflected ray
we expect to see less light reflected.
Phong Illumination

Phong Illumination approximates specular fall-off with no
physical basis, yet it is one of the most commonly used
illumination models in computer graphics.
n shiny
I specular = k s I light cos f


The cosine term is maximum when the surface is viewed from
the mirror direction and falls off to 0 when viewed at 90
degrees away from it. The scalar nshiny controls the rate of this
fall off.
Effect of the nshiny coefficient

The diagram below shows the how the reflectance drops off in
a Phong illumination model. For a large value of the nshiny
coefficient, the reflectance decreases rapidly with increasing
viewing angle.
Computing Phong Illumination
n shiny
( )
I specular = k s I light Vˆ ×Rˆ
Blinn & Torrance Variation

In this equation the angle of specular dispersion is computed
by how far the surface's normal is from a vector bisecting the
incoming light direction and the viewing direction.
n shiny
I specular = k s I light Nˆ ×Hˆ( )
Phong Examples
Phong Illumination model
é n shiny ù
I total = k a I ambient
êë
( ) ( )
+ I light êk d Nˆ ×Lˆ + k s Vˆ ×Rˆ ú
ú
û
Where do we Illuminate?

To this point we have discussed how to compute an illumination model at a
point on a surface.
Which points on the surface is the illumination model applied?


Illumination can be costly…


…and then God said

Next Lecture
…let there be “shading”

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CSC418 Computer Graphics

Ideal diffuse reflectors reflect light according to Lambert's cosine

Reflection behaves according to Snell's law:

– The incoming ray, the surface normal,

Snell's law, applies only to ideal mirror reflectors.

Which points on the surface is the illumination model applied?

Illumination can be costly…

…and then God said

…let there be “shading”

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