Abstract: Reproducing the appearance of the real world using computer graphics requires a detailed understanding of how light interacts with materials and shapes. In this talk, I will cover a number of research projects into simulating the appearance of materials such as human skin, human hair, milk, fur, cloth, and more. The goal is to produce a photorealistic visualization of a given 3d model with a given material description. For many materials this is often not completely understood and I will discuss some of the challenges and surprises that was uncovered in these projects. I will show use cases of this research in movies such as Avatar and Star Wars, and for product design and marketing, where software such as KeyShot is replacing the camera with virtual photography.

Bio: Henrik Wann Jensen is the Chief Scientist of Luxion (makers of KeyShot) and Professor Emeritus at the University of California at San Diego. His research is focused on creating photorealistic images from 3d models. His contributions to computer graphics include the photon mapping algorithm for global illumination, and the first technique for efficiently simulating subsurface scattering in translucent materials. He has rendered images that have appeared on the frontcovers of the National Geographic Magazine and the SIGGRAPH proceedings. He previously held positions at Stanford University, MIT, Weta, and Pixar. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Technical University of Denmark. He is the recipient of an Academy Award (Technical Achievement Award) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for pioneering research in rendering translucent materials. He also received a Sloan Fellowship, and was selected as one of the top 10 scientists by Popular Science magazine. For more information about Henrik and his research please visit: http://graphics.ucsd.edu/~henrik.

The talk is open for anyone to join. The 250 seats are given on a first come, first served basis.