Final Project
Author
David Trainor
Proposal
Overview
For this project I plan on modeling a plant growing out of (fairly) dark shallow water. There are plenty of effects that derive from this scene, but it was hard to pick ones that I knew I would have the time and the skill to execute. I wanted to add droplets to the leaves to create interesting refraction patterns. I also wanted to add rays of light because I find those to create beautiful forest scenes. I believe this will be a tricky feature to properly render but I'm hoping you guys can point me in the right direction here.
While I have been unable to find an exact picture of what I want, I have found plenty of sub pictures to help me get a solid idea of the scene I want to create and of the effects I want to place in that scene. Due to the nature of plant life, finding a picture and a corresponding model that accurately represents the plant in that picture would be impossible. So as long as I have pictures of the effects and the general scene idea I think I should be okay.
Technical Difficulties
1. Refraction: While we have already covered refraction through lenses, I hope to extend this out into the scene by refracting and reflecting light off the surface of the water as well as the dew/droplets on the leaves.
2. Bump Mapping: I plan on using subtle bump mapping to simulate the surface of the water. This could also be applied to the leaves of the plant to make the veins more apparent.
3. Light Shafts/God Rays: I hope to use Light Shafts (although I am not what the correct technique is) to model light rays coming down through the leaves onto the surface of the water. I believe this will be the most difficult part of the project but I think I can do it.
4. Photon Mapping: If I have time I would like to do photon mapping to the underwater part of the scene. It would be nice to be able to model the perturbing light on the bottom of the shallow waterbed. I am not sure how necessary this is as it might be a lot of work for a small result given the nature of the scene.
Approach
In order to tackle this project, I first plan on creating a scene file that places the plant model in the correct position relative to the camera. I figure if I start from the ground up I will be able to make sure everything is working and looking right before moving to the next step. Therefore the next logical step would be to add the water. I would tweak the height until I had the desired environment to showcase some effects (a leaf or two half way in the water, for example). I would implement refraction/reflection for the water (and for spheres, for when I add the droplets later). Once these are implemented I would add slight bump mapping to the surface of the water and to the surface of the leaves. Finally I would tackle the Light Shafts to create the rays of light coming through the leaves and hitting the water. This one will be difficult so I am saving it for last. I will then add the required environment map to give good water reflections and the right environmental feel. If I have time I will add some simple photon mapping to the water and make the surface lighter so that the bottom can be seen.
Other Images
Plant/Leaf Models
I am hoping to use this model for my plant.
Links
Light Shafts: http://ati.amd.com/developer/gdc/Mitchell_LightShafts.pdf