Practical physically-based shading in film and game production

• Authors: Stephen McAuley;Stephen Hill;Naty Hoffman;Yoshiharu Gotanda;Brian Smits;Brent Burley;Adam Martinez
• Venue: ACM SIGGRAPH 2012 Courses
• Year: 2012

Physically based shading is increasingly important in both film and game production. By adhering to physically based, energy-conserving shading models, one can easily create high-quality, realistic materials that maintain that quality under a variety of lighting environments. Traditional "ad-hoc" models require extensive tweaking to achieve the same result, so it is no surprise that physically based models have increased in popularity in film and game production, particularly because they are often no more difficult to implement or evaluate. This course was last presented at SIGGRAPH 2010. With extensive updates, the SIGGRAPH 2012 course presents two years of advances in physically based shading. It includes new research in the area and more production examples from film and game. The course begins with a brief introduction to the physics and mathematics of shading before instructors share examples of how physically based shading models are being used in production. Real-world examples are a particular focus of this year's course, which is designed to give attendees a practical grounding in the subject.