Shader UIs -- Multilister & Hypershader

Most commonly used shading models -- Blinn, Lambert(flat shading) & Phong(shinier objects)

Polygonal vs. NURB surface

Polygonal surface consists of faces each of which can be extruded independently, but is harder to texture map esp. when it has complicated surface geometry, as it cannot smooth itself as well as NURB surface.

Polygonal surface can still be smoothed by using Polygons>Smooth from modeling menu, and NURB surface can be smoothed by turning on tesselation in attribute spread sheet (Window>General Editors) which isn't shown until the object is rendered out.

Texture mapping

Ramp texturing (apple example): Gradual change of color map in one of 2 directions (uv)

Reflection map (a.k.a. environment map):

Map the surrounding world onto cubic or spheric surface (select environment texture for reflective color).

Easier to use sphere map than cubic map as 6 cameras must be set up for each view for the latter (and reprojected onto the sphere). Make the sphere totally black and reflective.

As it takes long to directly compute env. map, you can instead use an existing image of the environment reflected onto a ball (wine glass example).

Surface mapping from existing image (wine bottle example):

Can be placed both interactively with mouse or by numerical input.

Orientation can be flipped by rotating the image inside the shader, reversing the surface direction, or editing the image with photoshop or equivalent.

Spectral channel can be blocked out on the paper label by assigning equally aligned black image texture on the bottle surface. Likewise, you can simulate different transparency or bump map property for a specific part of the surface.

Projection map (cutting board example): Preferred option for objects consisting of multiple complex surfaces that's hard to uv texture map. Texture can be positioned and oriented in any way desired. Con: it doesn't deform with the object.

3D surface painting:

Render out the object in a certain view -> paint on the 2D image in photoshop -> reproject onto the object -> convert it into a uv map to make it deform with the object

Alternatively (and preferrably) use the new 3D paint plugin. Allows the user to paint directly on the 3D surface with different brush properties and textures. Associate it with the object and save as .iff file (surface texture).

Rendering out a scene

Parameters to consider: file format (.tga/.tiff for compatibility with other tools), view (persp, front, side, user defined cameras, etc.), resolution (image size; CCIR 601 for video), antialiasing level (low for preview)

IPR (interactive photorealistic renderer): Allows the user to interactively update shader properties. Takes longer to compute.

Standard (scanline) renderer vs. raytracer (bounces rays off objects; computes reflection & refraction)