Efficient representation of bidirectional reflectance distribution functions for metallic paints considering manufacturing parameters

Abstract

Metallic paint has been widely used to provide for special visual appearance to various products so that photorealistic rendering of this material has been an important issue in the development of new products. We introduce a new approach that predicts the reflectance of metallic paint while considering manufacturing parameters. Our main idea is to simulate the appearance of various metallic paints having different composition of constituent materials by combination of measured bidirectional reflectance distribution functions and thereby to find a paint that provides optimal appearance of a product with appropriate composition of constituent materials. We mainly focused on two paint parameters, average size and density of aluminum flakes, because they significantly affect the appearance of metallic paint. We also present a compact representation to approximate a large size of measured data using a few curve functions. We demonstrate the efficiency and usability of our reflectance estimation method using some examples. C 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).