Computer Graphics

- Shading -

Hanyang University

Jong-Il Park
 Objectives

 Learn to shade objects so their images appear

three-dimensional
 Introduce the types of light-material interactions
 Build a simple reflection model---the Phong model---
that can be used with real time graphics hardware
 Introduce modified Phong model
 Consider computation of required vectors

Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University

Why we need shading
 Suppose we build a model of a sphere using many
polygons and color it with glColor. We get
something like

 But we want

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Shading
 Why does the image of a real sphere look like

 Light-material interactions cause each point to

have a different color or shade
 Need to consider
 Light sources
 Material properties
 Location of viewer
 Surface orientation

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Rendering: 1960s (visibility)
 Roberts (1963), Appel (1967) - hidden-line algorithms
 Warnock (1969), Watkins (1970) - hidden-surface
 Sutherland (1974) - visibility = sorting

Images from FvDFH, Pixar’s Shutterbug

Slide ideas for history of Rendering courtesy Marc Levoy
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 Rendering: 1970s (lighting)
1970s - raster graphics
 Gouraud (1971) - diffuse lighting, Phong (1974) - specular lighting
 Blinn (1974) - curved surfaces, texture
 Catmull (1974) - Z-buffer hidden-surface algorithm

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Rendering (1980s, 90s: Global Illumination)
early 1980s - global illumination
 Whitted (1980) - ray tracing
 Goral, Torrance et al. (1984) radiosity
 Kajiya (1986) - the rendering equation

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Scattering
 Light strikes A
 Some scattered
 Some absorbed
 Some of scattered light strikes B
 Some scattered
 Some absorbed
 Some of this scattered light strikes A
and so on

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Rendering Equation
 The infinite scattering and absorption of light can be
described by the rendering equation
 Cannot be solved in general
 Ray tracing is a special case for perfectly reflecting
surfaces
 Rendering equation is global and includes
 Shadows
 Multiple scattering from object to object

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Global Effects

shadow

multiple reflection

translucent surface

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Local vs Global Rendering
 Correct shading requires a global calculation
involving all objects and light sources
 Incompatible with pipeline model which shades each
polygon independently (local rendering)
 However, in computer graphics, especially real time
graphics, we are happy if things “look right”
 Exist many techniques for approximating global effects

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 Light-Material Interaction

 Light that strikes an object is partially absorbed

and partially scattered (reflected)
 The amount reflected determines the color and
brightness of the object
 A surface appears red under white light because the
red component of the light is reflected and the rest is
absorbed
 The reflected light is scattered in a manner that
depends on the smoothness and orientation of
the surface

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Light Sources

General light sources are difficult to work with because

we must integrate light coming from all points on the
source

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Simple Light Sources
 Point source
 Model with position and color
 Distant source = infinite distance away (parallel)

 Spotlight
 Restrict light from ideal point source

 Ambient light
 Same amount of light everywhere in scene
 Can model contribution of many sources and reflecting
surfaces

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Surface Types
 The smoother a surface, the more reflected
light is concentrated in the direction a perfect
mirror would reflected the light
 A very rough surface scatters light in all
directions

smooth surface rough surface

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Phong Model
 A simple model that can be computed rapidly
 Has three components
 Diffuse
 Specular
 Ambient
 Uses four vectors
 To source
 To viewer
 Normal
 Perfect reflector

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Ideal Reflector
 Normal is determined by local orientation
 Angle of incidence = angle of reflection
 The three vectors must be coplanar

r = 2 (l · n ) n - l

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Lambertian Surface
 Perfectly diffuse reflector
 Light scattered equally in all directions
 Amount of light reflected is proportional to the vertical
component of incoming light
 reflected light ~cos qi
 cos qi = l · n if vectors normalized
 There are also three coefficients, kr, kb, kg that show
how much of each color component is reflected

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Specular Surfaces
 Most surfaces are neither ideal diffusers nor
perfectly specular (ideal reflectors)
 Smooth surfaces show specular highlights due
to incoming light being reflected in directions
concentrated close to the direction of a perfect
reflection

specular
highlight

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 Modeling Specular Relections
 Phong proposed using a term that dropped off as the
angle between the viewer and the ideal reflection
increased

Ir ~ ks I cosaf

reflected shininess coef

intensity incoming intensity
absorption coef

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The Shininess Coefficient
 Values of a between 100 and 200 correspond
to metals
 Values between 5 and 10 give surface that look
like plastic

cosa f

-90 f 90

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Ambient Light

 Ambient light is the result of multiple interactions

between (large) light sources and the objects in the
environment
 Amount and color depend on both the color of the
light(s) and the material properties of the object
 Add ka Ia to diffuse and specular terms

reflection coef intensity of ambient light

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Distance Terms
 The light from a point source that reaches a surface
is inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them
 We can add a factor of the form 1/(a + bd +cd2) to the
diffuse and specular terms
 The constant and linear terms soften the effect of the
point source

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 Light Sources

 In the Phong Model, we add the results from each light

source
 Each light source has separate diffuse, specular, and
ambient terms to allow for maximum flexibility even
though this form does not have a physical justification
 Separate red, green and blue components
 Hence, 9 coefficients for each point source
 Idr, Idg, Idb, Isr, Isg, Isb, Iar, Iag, Iab

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Material Properties
 Material properties match light source properties
 Nine absorption coefficients

 kdr, kdg, kdb, ksr, ksg, ksb, kar, kag, kab

 Shininess coefficient a

Roughness

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Adding up the Components
For each light source and each color
component, the Phong model can be written
(without the distance terms) as

I =kd Id l · n + ks Is (v · r )a + ka Ia

For each color component

we add contributions from
all sources

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Modified Phong Model
 The specular term in the Phong model is problematic
because it requires the calculation of a new reflection
vector and view vector for each vertex
 Blinn suggested an approximation using the halfway
vector that is more efficient

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The Halfway Vector
 h is normalized vector halfway between l and v

h = ( l + v )/ | l + v |

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Using the halfway vector
 Replace (v · r )a with (n · h )b
 b is chosen to match shininess
 Note that halfway angle is half of angle
between r and v if vectors are coplanar
 Resulting model is known as the modified
Phong or Blinn lighting model
 Specified in OpenGL standard

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 Example

Only differences in
these teapots are
the parameters
in the modified
Phong model

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Computation of Vectors
 l and v are specified by the application
 Can compute r from l and n
 Problem is determining n
 For simple surfaces n can be determined but
how we determine n differs depending on
underlying representation of surface
 OpenGL leaves determination of normal to
application
 Exception for GLU quadrics and Bezier surfaces
(Chapter 11)

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Plane Normals
 Equation of plane: ax+by+cz+d = 0
 From Chapter 4 we know that plane is determined by
three points p0, p2, p3 or normal n and p0
 Normal can be obtained by

n = (p2-p0) × (p1-p0)

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Normal to Sphere
 Implicit function f(x,y.z)=0
 Normal given by gradient
 Sphere f(p)=p·p - 1
 n = [∂f/∂x, ∂f/∂y, ∂f/∂z]T=p

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Parametric Form
 For sphere
x=x(u,v)=cos u sin v
y=y(u,v)=cos u cos v
z= z(u,v)=sin u
 Tangent plane determined by vectors
∂p/∂u = [∂x/∂u, ∂y/∂u, ∂z/∂u]T
∂p/∂v = [∂x/∂v, ∂y/∂v, ∂z/∂v]T

 Normal given by cross product

n = ∂p/∂u × ∂p/∂v

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General Case
 We can compute parametric normals for other simple
cases
 Quadrics
 Parametric polynomial surfaces
 Bezier surface patches (Chapter 11)

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Mesh Shading
 For polygonal models, Gouraud proposed we use the
average of the normals around a mesh vertex

n = (n1+n2+n3+n4)/ |n1+n2+n3+n4|

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Gouraud Shading – Details

I1 ( ys  y2 )  I 2 ( y1  ys )
Ia 
y1  y2

I1 ( ys  y3 )  I 3 ( y1  ys )
I1 Ib 
y1  y3
y1
I a ( xb  x p )  I b ( x p  xa )
Ip 
xb  xa
Ia Ip Ib
ys
y2 Scan line
I2

y3 I3

Actual implementation efficient: difference

equations while scan converting
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Gouraud and Errors
 I1 = 0 because (n dot v) is negative.
 I2 = 0 because (n dot l) is negative.
 Any interpolation of I1 and I2 will be 0.

v
l
n1 n2

I1 = 0 I2 = 0

area of
desired
highlight

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2 Phongs make a Highlight
 Besides the Phong Reflectance model (cosn), there is
a Phong Shading model.
 Phong Shading: Instead of interpolating the
intensities between vertices, interpolate the normals.
 The entire lighting calculation is performed for each
pixel, based on the interpolated normal. (OpenGL
doesn’t do this, but you can with programmable
shaders)

I1 = 0 I2 = 0

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Gouraud vs. Phong Shading

 Gouraud Shading
 Find average normal at each vertex (vertex normals)
 Apply modified Phong model at each vertex
 Interpolate vertex shades across each polygon

 Phong shading
 Find vertex normals
 Interpolate vertex normals across edges
 Interpolate edge normals across polygon
 Apply modified Phong model at each fragment

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Comparison
 If the polygon mesh approximates surfaces with
a high curvatures, Phong shading may look
smooth while Gouraud shading may show
edges
 Phong shading requires much more work than
Gouraud shading
 Until recently not available in real time systems
 Now can be done using fragment shaders (see
Chapter 9)
 Both need data structures to represent meshes
so we can obtain vertex normals

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