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A Real-time, Multiscale and Procedural Feather Appearance Model
Chen, Xiang Chen, Bin Wang, Shouyi Montazeri, Zahra Yan, Lingqi Wang, Lu Zhu, Junqiu
Chen, Xiang
Chen, Bin
Wang, Shouyi
Montazeri, Zahra
Yan, Lingqi
Wang, Lu
Zhu, Junqiu
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3811328.pdf
Adobe PDF, 102.06 MB
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Computer Science
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Journal article
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Language
English
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Abstract
We propose a complete pipeline for modeling and rendering realistic bird feathers from a single photograph, achieving both high visual fidelity and practical efficiency. Given a single input image of a feather, our approach extracts the feather's shaft curve, outline, and albedo, then reconstructs a compact hierarchical representation in a planar/curve (UV) domain. This representation encodes fine barb and barbule details procedurally, enabling continuous multiscale rendering with correct self-shadowing and masking. We analyze the appearance phenomena of different feathers and propose a new feather scattering model for non-iridescent feathers (e.g., parrot feathers), while introducing an additional sheen lobe to capture the distinctive fluffy rim-lighting effect. Our pipeline produces consistent, realistic results under arbitrary lighting and viewing conditions, and achieves real-time performance with a minimal memory footprint (0.02% of explicit-fiber geometry models), making it a practical solution for digital feather rendering without compromising realism.
Citation
X. Chen, B. Chen, S. Wang, Z. Montazeri, L. Yan, L. Wang , et al., "A Real-time, Multiscale and Procedural Feather Appearance Model," ACM Transactions on Graphics, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 1-17, 2026, https://doi.org/10.1145/3811328.
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ACM Transactions on Graphics
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Keywords
46 Information and Computing Sciences, 4607 Graphics, Augmented Reality and Games
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Association for Computing Machinery