This course serves as a guide to the considerable potential of layered surface models that are available in many commercial products.The key advantage of using such layered materials over traditional shading language constructs is that the end result is highly physically plausible because it simulates real materials more precisely. However, this does not mean that these models cannot be used for artistic purposes. Using simple layered surface models, we demonstrate how a surprisingly large number of interesting and important surface types can be efficiently represented. We also show how handy such an approach is for the end-user, whose main concern is the ease with which one can describe object appearance based only on a few intuitive parameters. We first discuss layered surface models in general and the constraints of modeling object appearance in a physically plausible fashion by explaining basic material properties. We then demonstrate the techniques that are used to analyze such materials, both for high quality offline rendering as well as in a real-time setting. We then give examples of the surface types that can be described in this way and demonstrate how we create them in our company.

Level
Intermediate

Intended Audience
Graphics researchers and artists who, in the course of their work, have to deal with the simulation of object appearance.

Prerequisites
We assume the participants to have a working knowledge of global illumination, physically based rendering, and reflectance modeling.

Course Schedule
16:15: Introduction
16:16: Alexander Wilkie: Layered Surfaces in Computer Graphics
16:45: Alexander Wilkie: Classifying Materials - Using Layered BRDFs to Describe Object Appearance
17:15: Andrea Weidlich: Modelling with Layered Surfaces

Presenter(s)
Andrea Weidlich is currently a technical artist at Realtime Technology AG in Munich, Germany. She is also an external lecturer at Vienna University of Technology. Prior to this, she was an Assistant Professor at the university, after graduating in 2005 with a MSc and a PhD in 2009. In 2011, she graduated with a MA in Applied Media from the University for Applied Arts Vienna. Her current research interests include predictive rendering with a special focus on appearance modelings.

Alexander Wilkie is a senior lecturer at Charles University, Prague. He achieved his Habilitation in Applied Computer Science from Vienna University of Technology in June 2008, and between 2000 to 2008 served as an Assistant Professor at the university. He obtained both his MSc (1996) and PhD (2001) in computer science at Vienna University of Technology. His main research interests are predictive rendering, color science, and appearance modeling. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed papers about computer graphics, and has extensive teaching experience in the areas of photorealistic rendering and colour science, both at Vienna University of Technology, and now at Charles University.