[Bf-committers] Google Summer of Code Idea

[Scott Johnson]

Hello everyone.

I wanted to get some opinions on a project for SoC that I have been 
pondering.  In the latest (January, 2006) issue of ACM Transactions on 
Graphics, there was a paper on representing iridescent shaders common in 
Biology using RGB values.  According to Yinlong Sun, beautifully vivid 
colors are common in Biology and natural sciences due to the way light 
interacts with itself as it reflects off of multiple-layered surfaces.  
"Current RGB-based graphics renderers are not sufficient to simulate 
such phenomena. This is because biological iridescences are caused by 
interference or diffraction, which requires wavelength information to 
describe" [Sun, 2006].

He has developed a method of representing iridescent shaders (caused by 
interference) using RGB information through a complicated algorithm.  
Sun implemented this in Maya using Renderman shaders.  The ability to 
represent biological iridescences is necessary for scientific research 
in Biology and life sciences.  In addition, it would add a new amount of 
realism to movies and games developed with these effects.  I would like 
to propose a project for the Summer of Code which implements this 
algorithm into Blender.  I think that this new development in research 
in the area of Computer Graphics would be well suited to be incorporated 
into Blender. 

As I see it now, it would more than likely use raytracing for still 
images and movies, while using OpenGL 2.0's GLSL for game effects.  I am 
extremely excited about this project, and wanted to see what others on 
this list thought about the possibility of developing this for a SoC 
project.

If you would like to see the full article, please see:

**
	Sun, Yinlong.  *Rendering biological iridescences with RGB-based 
renderers*.
ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) archive 
<http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=J778&type=periodical&coll=Portal&dl=ACM&CFID=70020832&CFTOKEN=50962267>
Volume 25 ,  Issue 1  (January 2006) table of contents 
<http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1122501&type=issue&coll=Portal&dl=ACM&CFID=70020832&CFTOKEN=50962267>
Pages: 100 - 129  
Year of Publication: 2006
ISSN:0730-0301


Thanks,

~Scott
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