Section: Research Program

Computer Graphics

Keywords: texture synthesis, shape synthesis, texture mapping, visibility

Content creation is one of the major challenges in Computer Graphics. Modeling shapes and surface appearances which are visually appealing and at the same time enforce precise design constraints is a task only accessible to highly skilled and trained designers.

In this context the team focuses on methods for by-example content creation. Given an input example and a set of constraints, we design algorithms that can automatically generate a new shape (geometry+texture). We formulate the problem of content synthesis as the joint optimization of several objectives: Preserving the local appearance of the example, enforcing global objectives (size, symmetries, mechanical properties), reaching user defined constraints (locally specified geometry, contacts). This results in a wide range of optimization problems, from statistical approaches (Markov Random fields), to combinatorial and linear optimization techniques.

As a complement to the design of techniques for automatic content creation, we also work on the representation of the content, so as to allow for its efficient manipulation. In this context we develop data structures and algorithms targeted at massively parallel architectures, such as GPUs. These are critical to reach the interactive rates expected from a content creation technique. We also propose novel ways to store and access content defined along surfaces [23] or inside volumes [14] [17].

The team also continues research in core topics of computer graphics at the heart of realistic rendering and realistic light simulation techniques; for example, mapping textures on surfaces, or devising visibility relationships between 3D objects populating space.