Interactive Interpolation of Metallic Effect Car Paints

Abstract

Metallic car paints are visually complex materials that, among others effects, exhibit a view-dependent metallic sparkling, which is particularly difficult to recreate in computer graphics. While capturing real-world metallic paints is possible with specialized devices, creating these materials computationally poses a difficult problem. We present a method that allows for interactive interpolation between measured metallic automotive paints, which can be used to generate new realistic-looking metallic paint materials. By clustering the color information present in the measured bidirectional texture function (BTF) responsible for the metallic sparkling effect, we set up an optimal transport problem between metallic paints' appearances. The design of the problem facilitates efficiently finding a solution, based on which we generate a representation that allows for real-time generation of interpolated realistic materials. Interpolation happens smoothly, no flickering or other visual artifacts can be observed. The developed approach also enables to separately interpolate the larger-scale reflective properties, including the basic color hue, the local color hue, and the sparkling intensity of the metallic paint. Our method can be used intuitively in order to generate automotive paints with a novel appearance and explore the space of possible metallic paints spanned by given real-world measurements. The resulting materials are also well suited for real-time rendering in standard engines.