3D-Printing Spatially Varying BRDFs
Publication
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 33(6), 2013
Authors
Olivier Rouiller, Bernd Bickel, Jan Kautz, Wojciech Matusik, and Marc Alexa
Abstract
A new method fabricates custom surface reflectance and spatially varying bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (svBRDFs). Researchers optimize a microgeometry for a range of normal distribution functions and simulate the resulting surface’s effective reflectance. Using the simulation’s results, they reproduce an input svBRDF’s appearance by distributing the microgeometry on the printed material’s surface. This method lets people print svBRDFs on planar samples with current 3D printing technology, even with a limited set of printing materials. It extends naturally to printing svBRDFs on arbitrary shapes.