Screen-Space Perceptual Rendering

of Human Skin
Jorge Jimenez, Veronica Sundstedt and Diego Gutiérrez
The problem of skin rendering
BRDF vs. BSSRDF
 Index
 What is subsurface scattering and why it is
important
 Texture-space approach
 Our screen-space approach
 Perceptual validation
 Results
 Future work
 Diffusion profiles
 A diffusion profile R is a function that defines how the light
attenuates as it travels beneath the surface of an object.

 In homogeneous objects, the diffusion profiles are radically

symmetric, they only depend on r.

[EON07]
 Diffusion profiles
DIPOLE (JENSEN01) MULTIPOLE (DONNER05)
 Irradiance maps
 Applying a diffusion profile implies calculating the
irradiance at incident and adjacent points, this
implies repeating calculations.

 If we store the incoming light at each point of the

surface in an irradiance map, we can calculate the
lighting at each point once.

 Using this map, applying a diffusion profile consists

in a simple but costly 2D convolution.
 Irradiance maps
 Simply stores the incoming lighting at each point of
the surface.
Irradiance maps
Approximating diffusion profiles
with gaussians
 Guassians

[EON07]
 Texture-space approach problems
 Backface culling and viewport clipping optimizations lost
 Irradiance map size needs to be managed
 Early-Z rejection optimization lost
 Each subject to be rendered requires her own irradiance
map
 The irradiance map forces the transformation of the
model vertices twice
 Lighting is usually calculated twice
 Seams in texture space cause artifacts in screen space

Details in the paper.

 Index
 What is subsurface scattering and why it is
important
 Texture-space approach
 Our screen-space approach
 Perceptual validation
 Results
 Future work
 Texture- vs. screen space
 The main concept of our work is the translation of the
diffusion from texture to screen space
 The Big Picture

 The use of the depth map makes our process different

from simply blurring the image in Photoshop
 Kernel width modulation
 Pixels need narrower kernels when:
• They are far from the camera
• They representing surfaces that are at steep angles
with respect to the camera
Demo
 Index
 What is subsurface scattering and why it is
important
 Texture-space approach
 Our screen-space approach
 Perceptual validation
 Results
 Future work
 Perceptual Validation
 The realism of the shaders was validated using
a 2AFC preference experiment
 Comparing four different shaders
• No SSS, TS, SS Jittered, and SS Full
 Participants
 16 volunteers (14M, 2F; age range: 23-43)
 Naive as to the purpose of the experiment
 Normal or corrected-to-normal vision
 Varied experience
• 7 reported no expertise in art (drawing, photography,
computer graphics, digital art,...)
• 9 reported that they had this expertise
 Hypotheses
 No SSS, SS Jittered and SS Full would produce
as high visual realism as the ground-truth TS
shader
 Participants with expertise in CG are better at
judging realism
 Stimuli
 XYZRGB head model
 12 images per shader
• 3 camera distances (28, 50, 132)
• 4 light angles (0°, 60°, 110°, 150°)
 72 trials = each comparison twice
 Setup
 Images were displayed on a monitor with a
1650 x 988 resolution
 Dimmed lighting
 Participants were seated on an adjustable
chair with their eyelevel ~ level with the
screen centre
 Viewing distance was ~ 60 cm
 Procedure
 Consent form and questionnaire
 2AFC (no reference)
 Task description
• Choose the image which you think look most realistic
(i.e. most like real human skin)
• Unlimited viewing time (10 sec recommended)
• Person has the same age (45 years old)
Results
 Index
 What is subsurface scattering and why it is
important
 Texture-space approach
 Our screen-space approach
 Perceptual validation
 Results
 Future work
 Performance
 Against a texture-space implementation
 Limitations
 Small haloes produced by incorrect diffusion from nose to
cheek
 We cannot account for the diffusion produced in thin, high
curvature features
 Forward Scattering
 Forward scattering should be seen through thin parts (like the ears).

 Current forward scattering algorithms rely on textures-space

diffusion and thus they cannot be easily translated to screen-space

Image taken from Whelan’s Thesis

Future work
 Conclusion
Our algorithm, when compared against a texture-
space approach:

 It brings back GPU implicit optimizations

 Scales better as the number of objects increases
 Reduces artist side efforts
 Has a very simple implementation
 Being a post-process it will not require major
changes to be integrated into a 3D engine
 Experiment Conclusions
 Our new shader can produce stimuli with as
high visual realism as a previously developed
physically based shader
 No statistical difference in the number of error
selections made by experienced vs. non
experienced participants (p > 0.05)
 Acknowledgments
 XYZRGB Inc. (for the high quality scans)
 The members of the GV2 group at Trinity College Dublin
and everyone that participated in the experiments
 Carl Vogel (for his help with revising the consent and
questionnaire forms)
 Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (TIN2007-
63025)
 Gobierno de Aragón (OTRI 2009/0411)
 I3A (research grant)
 Josh Checa (for his longtime support)
Thanks for you attention