Assignment 3: Camera Simulation
Due: Thursday May 4th, 11:59PM
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Description
Many rendering systems approximate the light arriving on the film plane by assuming a pin-hole camera, which produces images where everything that is visible is sharp. In contrast, real cameras contain multi-lens assemblies with different imaging characteristics such as limited depth of field, field distortion, vignetting and spatially varying exposure. In this assignment, you'll extend pbrt with support for a more realistic camera model that accurately simulates these effects.
Specifically, we will provide you with data about real wide-angle, normal and telephoto lenses, each composed of multiple lens elements. You will build a camera plugin for pbrt that simulates the traversal of light through these lens assemblies. With this camera simulator, you'll explore the effects of focus, aperture and exposure. Using these data you can optimize the performance of your simulator considerably. Once you have a working camera simulator, you will add autofocus functionality to your camera.
Step 1: Background Reading
Please re-read the paper "A Realistic Camera Model for Computer Graphics" by Kolb, Mitchell, and Hanrahan.
Step 2: Implement a Compound Lens Simulator
Step 3: Play around with Cameras
Step 4: Autofocus