Style Transfer Functions for Illustrative Volume Rendering

Abstract

Illustrative volume visualization frequently employs non-photorealistic rendering techniques to enhance important features or to suppress unwanted details. However, it is difficult to integrate multiple non-photorealistic rendering approaches into a single framework due to great differences in the individual methods and their parameters. In this paper, we present the concept of style transfer functions. Our approach enables flexible data-driven illumination which goes beyond using the transfer function to just assign colors and opacities. An image-based lighting model uses sphere maps to represent non-photorealistic rendering styles. Style transfer functions allow us to combine a multitude of different shading styles in a single rendering. We extend this concept with a technique for curvature-controlled style contours and an illustrative transparency model. Our implementation of the presented methods allows interactive generation of high-quality volumetric illustrations.