Writing mental ray® Shaders

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      Pages 1-7

3. Structure

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

      PDF

   2. The structure of the scene

      Pages 11-20

   3. The structure of a shader

      Pages 21-24

   4. Shaders in the scene

      Pages 25-46

4. Color

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 47-47

      PDF

   2. A single color

      Pages 49-55

   3. Color from orientation

      Pages 57-62

   4. Color from position

      Pages 63-68

   5. The transparency of a surface

      Pages 69-75

   6. Color from functions

      Pages 77-92

   7. The color of edges

      Pages 93-124

5. Light

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 125-125

      PDF

   2. Lights

      Pages 127-148

   3. Light on a surface

      Pages 149-165

   4. Shadows

      Pages 167-181

   5. Reflection

      Pages 183-196

   6. Refraction

      Pages 197-217

   7. Light from other surfaces

      Pages 219-243

The word "render" isn't unique to the vocabulary of computer graphics. We can talk about a "watercolor rendering," a "musical rendering" or a "poetic rendering." In each of these, there is a transformation from one domain to another: from the landscape before the painter to color on paper, from musical notation to sound, from the associations in a poet's mind to a book of poetry. Figure 1.1: Czar's Waiting Room, Main Railway Station, Helsinki, Eliel Saarinen, 1910, watercolor. But the type of rendering that may come closest to what we mean when we talk about rendering in computer graphics is in architecture. Geometric blueprints and technical specifications of building materials are transformed in the architectural rendering into a picture of the building 1 Introduction as it will appear when construction is complete. In addition to the designs of the building's geometry and its visual characteristics, the artist chooses a point of view to depict the scene in perspective. This is a transformation of a description of imagined space into a picture of that space. In a watercolor by architect Eliel Saarinen (Figure 1.1), the effect of light on marble is demonstrated in a way that would be lost in even a careful reading of blueprints and descriptions of materials. A mere brushstroke of a particular color in a particular place paradoxically transforms the dull matte appearance of watercolor into the sheen of polished stone.

• Performance
• computer graphics
• learning
• mental ray
• model
• reflection
• rendering
• shader programming
• software

• mental images GmbH, Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany

  Andy Kopra

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