Department of Applied Mathematics

and Computational Sciences

University of Cantabria
UC-CAGD Group

ILLUMINATION MODELS
Andrs Iglesias
e-mail: iglesias@unican.es
Web pages: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias
http://etsiso2.macc.unican.es/~cagd

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

COMPUTER-AIDED GEOMETRIC DESIGN

AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS:

Illumination Models
Light energy falling on a surface can be:

reflected light

heat
Absorbed

Reflected

Transmitted

transmitted light

The amount of energy absorbed, transmitted or deflected depends on the

wavelength (w.l.) of the light.
If

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

They make an object visible

absorbed
light (heat)

then, the object

all the incident light energy is absorbed.................................................is invisible

nearly all the incident light energy is absorbed..................................... appears black
only a small fraction is absorbed ...........................................................appears white
the incident light energy is nearly equally reduced for all w.l. .............appears gray
the incident light energy is selectively reduced for all w.l. ...................appears colored

Illumination Models
Rogers, D.F. Procedural Elements for Computer Graphics, McGraw-Hill, 2nd. Edition, 1998

depends on:
Composition of the light source
Direction of the light source
Geometry of the light source

The surface orientation

The surface properties of the object

and can be:

Diffuse: light that has penetrated
below the surface of the object,
been absorbed and then reemitted

Especular: light does not penetrate

below the surface
It is not scattered

Scattered equally in all directions

Character of light reamins unchanged
Observers position is unimportant

Light is independent of surfaces color

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

The character of the light reflected or transmitted...

Illumination Models
Each point may have several sources of illumination:

According to how they handle these sources, algorithms can be grouped into:

global illumination algorithms

Both kinds of sources are considered

local illumination algorithms

Only direct lights are taken
into account

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

direct illumination
indirect illumination
light arrives straight from the light light arrives after interacting with
sources
the rest of the scene

Illumination Models
Some useful definitions:
Normal vector
N

to light source

N is the surface normal

L is the direction to light source
Vectors N and L are unit vectors
is the angle of incidence

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

L - light source
direction
N - Normal vector
angle of
incidence

Illumination Models
Illumination model 1: Ambient light

Problem: an object is illuminated uniformly

K= 0.7

K= 0.5

K= 0.6

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Ambient light
Intensity of
I = K I
Uniform from all directions
ambient light
K measures reflectivity of
surface for diffuse light
Ambient reflection coefficient
(values in the range: 0-1)

Illumination Models
Illumination model 2: Ambient + diffuse light
Lamberts Cosine Law
incident intensity from a point light source
diffuse reflection function
wavelenght

Id() = Il () Kd() cos()

(0 Kd() 1)

0
2

intensity of reflected diffuse light

Therefore, the Lambertian illumination model becomes:

I() = Il () Kd() cos() + K() I()

diffuse light
2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

ambient light

Illumination Models
Illumination model 2: Ambient + diffuse light
In practice, dependence on the wavelength is usually omitted:

0
2

I = Il Kd cos() + K I
diffuse light

K + Kd < 1

ambient light

Since N and L are unit vectors, it holds that:

cos()= N.L
dot product

I = Il Kd (N.L) + K I
diffuse light

ambient light

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

0
2

K + Kd < 1

Illumination Models
Illumination model 2: Ambient + diffuse light
Surfaces with a simple Lambertian diffuse reflection appear to have
a dull matte surface:
K= 0.7
Kd= 0.2

K= 0.5
Kd= 0.4

K= 0.6
Kd= 0.3
2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Illumination Models

Many surfaces are shiny

At certain viewing angles,

shiny surfaces produces highlights

Highlights are due to specular reflection

Specular reflection
is directional

Highlights occur over a narrow range of angles

Highlights color same as the
illuminating light rather than
the color of the surface

Highlights move with the observer

For a perfect reflecting surface (a mirror) the angle of reflection is equal

to the angle of incidence
For smooth surfaces, the spatial distribution of specular light is narrow.
For rough surfaces, it is spread out.

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Illumination model 3: Ambient + diffuse + specular light

Illumination Models
Illumination model 3: Ambient + diffuse + specular light
Normal vector
N
L
to light source

If =0, we have a perfect reflecting

surface (a mirror). An observer
located here sees any specularly
reflected light. Otherwise, we have
a spatial distribution like:
2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

V
line of sight

L - light source direction

N - Normal vector
angle of incidence
V - line of sight
R - direction of ideal
specular reflection
angle between
R and V

Illumination Models
Illumination model 3: Ambient + diffuse + specular light
Phong Model
Because of the complex
physical characteristics of
the specular light, an
empirical model based on
taking the function:

n=1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2

f()=cosn()
where n depends on surface
properties. For:
a perfect reflector, n=
very poor reflector n=1
in practice use 1 n 200

n=5

--1.5
2

-1

-0.5

n=50

0.5

1.5

In general, we use:
Larger values of n for metals and other
shiny surfaces
Small values of n for nonmetallic
surfaces (e.g., paper)
2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Illumination Models
Illumination model 3: Ambient + diffuse + specular light
Phongs empirical model controls the size of the specular highlight
incident intensity from a point light source
wavelenght
reflectance curve

Is() = Il () w(i,) cosn()

intensity of reflected specular light

w(i,): ratio of the

specularly reflected
light to the incident
light, as a function of
the incidence angle, i,
and the wavelength

Combining this term with model 2:

Total
Intensity
light

I() = K() I()+

Il () Kd() cos() +
Il () w(i,) cosn()

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Ambient light +
Diffuse light
Specular light

Illumination Models
Illumination model 3: Ambient + diffuse + specular light

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

In practice, dependence on the wavelength is usually omitted. In

addition, w(i,) is a very complex function, so it is replaced by an
aesthetically or experimentally determined constant ks
Ks= 0.0

Ks= 0.2

Ks= 0.4

Ks= 0.6

Illumination Models
Illumination model 3: Ambient + diffuse + specular light

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

I = K I + Il Kd cos() + Il Ks cosn()
K= 0.6
Kd= 0.3
Ks= 0.2

K= 0.5
Kd= 0.4
Ks= 0.4

K Ambient reflection
Kd Diffuse reflection
Ks Specular reflection
K= 0.7
Kd= 0.2
Ks= 0.8

Illumination Models
Illumination model 3: Ambient + diffuse + specular light
Noting that:

the model becomes:

cos()= N.L
cos() = R.V

I = K I + Il Kd (N.L)+ Il Ks (R.V)n

However, two objects at different distances but with the same

orientation to the light source exhibit the same intensity.
The intensity of light decreases inversely as the square of the distance.
Objects farther away appear dimmer !!!!! I= Isource
d = source
4 d2
distance
In practice, this model produces unrealistic variations in intensity.
Experimental model:
0p2

I=

Isource
dp + K

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

K is an arbitrary constant
used to prevent infinite
intensity when d=0

Illumination Models
Illumination model 4: Ambient + diffuse + specular + attenuation light
Phong, B. T. Illumination for Computer Generated Images, Communications of the ACM,
Vol. 18, pp. 311-317, 1975.

Phong Model:

Il
n())
(K
cos()
+
K
cos
d
s
p
d +K

I = Ambient + attenuation ( diffuse + specular )

I
I = K I + p l
(Kd (N.L)+ Ks (R.V) n)
d +K
Individual shading functions are used for each of the three primary colors

Multiple light sources: their effects are to be linearly added.

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

I = K I +

Illumination Models
Polygon shading
Until now, we compute the intensity light at a single point on a surface

But, many objects are given by meshes of polygons !!!!!

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Polygon shading
How to compute the intensity across the polygon ?
1. Compute the shade at all points: 3. Compute shade at key points
Unnecessary and impractical
and interpolate for the rest:
2. Compute the shade at the centre Gouraud and Phong shading
and use this to represent the whole
polygon: Flat shading
Flat

Gouraud

Phong

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Illumination Models

Illumination Models
Polygon shading: Flat shading
Is the simplest method and the most computationally efficient.
But it is also:

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

1. Not realistic: it exhibits polygon structure.

Faceted Appearance

Illumination Models
Polygon shading: Flat shading
3. Mach banding: brightness perceived
by the eye tends to overshoot at the
boundaries of regions of constant
intensity

Ibackground = 1 Ibackground = 0
Icenter = 0.5 Icenter = 0.5

Abrupt changes in the shading of two

adjacent polygons are perceived to be
even greater

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

2. Simultaneous contrast: an area

of constant brightness surrounded
by a dark area is perceived to be
brighter than the same area
surrounded by a light area

Illumination Models
Polygon shading: Gouraud shading
Gouraud, H. Computer Display of Curved Surfaces, IEEE Transactions on Comput.,
C-20, pp. 623-628, 1971.

Given a polygon and a scan-line,

the problem is to determine the
intensity at an interior point,
such as P

Output: IA, IB, IC, ID

2. Next compute the intensity at points
Q and R using linear interpolation

A
Scan
line

1. First compute the intensity values at

each polygon vertex

Output: IQ, IR
P

3. Finally, linearly interpolate between

IQ and IR to get intensity at point P

Output: IP

B
2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Illumination Models
Polygon shading: Gouraud shading
1. First compute the intensity values at each polygon vertex

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

We need the vertex normal vector Nv

Cross product
w

w=uxv=
i
j
k
v
u1 u2 u3
v1 v2 v3

v1

Nv

N4

N1

v4
v
N3

v2
N2

avering the cross products x of all the

edges that terminate at the vertex

v3

Nv = v.v1 x v.v2 +v.v2 x v.v3 +v.v3 x v.v4 +v.v4 x v.v1

N1

N2

N3

N4

Illumination Models
Polygon shading: Gouraud shading
2. Next compute the intensity at points Q and R using linear
interpolation
D

IQ=u IA+(1-u) IB
where u=

AQ
AB

Intensity at a point R:

IR=v IC+(1-v) ID
CR

where v=
CD

u
Scan
line

x
Q

x
v

C
B

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Intensity at a point Q:

 2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

Illumination Models
Polygon shading: Gouraud shading
D

3. Finally, linearly interpolate between

IQ and IR to get intensity at the point P
A

Intensity at a point P:

IR=t IQ+(1-t) IR
QP
where t=
QR

Scan
line

Problems of Gouraud shading:

x
Q

This method yields only to continuity of intensity, but not

continuity of changes of intensity => Mach banding
Silhouette edges are still polygonal

Illumination Models
Polygon shading: Phong shading

2001 Andrs Iglesias. See: http://personales.unican.es/iglesias

It is similar to Gouraud shading, except we linearly interpolate

the surface normal vector across the polygon
Determine:
NA, NB, NC, ND

NQ=u NA+(1-u) NB
NR=v NC+(1-v) ND
NR=t NQ+(1-t) NR
It is computationally
more expensive.

Gouraud shading loses specular reflection if

the hightlight lies inside a single polygon
Gouraud

Phong