The Basics of Optics in 3D

Printer Friendly Versions - html format.

Getting used to all the settings and terms used in material editor within a 3d program
for a beginning can be overwhelming. However, alot of the concepts used in 3D are
real world concepts. I found using a material editor become easier once i understood
some of the basic principles of optics as they are in reality. In this tutorial i will be
explaining some of these "real-world' concepts and how they relate to 3D.

Refractive Index
As light passes through a transparent object it warps. Like looking through a drinking
glass, the image on the other side will appear distorted. This is known as "Refraction"
and the "Refractive Index' is the scale of how much refraction a material will cause on
light beams.

All transparent objects have refraction, even air (1.003) even if it is a very small
amount. Magnifying glasses and telescopes are examples of how when accurately
applied refraction can be used to enlarge an image. Some other examples are:

Vacuum: 1.000 (Zero Refraction)

Air: 1.003
Ice: 1.3050
Water: 1.3330
Glass: 1.52
Emerald: 1.576
Ruby: 1.711
Crystal: 2.000
Diamond: 2.418

Note: In real life, these values can vary slightly depending on factors like
impurities in the substance, temperature, etc.

Here are some rendered examples using the above refraction values. Note that the
only setting that has changed in these examples is the refractive index.
 Click to enlarge

You can simulate any transparent materials refraction using the refractive index, all
you need to know is its value.

Diffusion
Generally speaking, the word diffusion means to "spread out" or to "not concentrate in
one place". A real life example of this is when the sun shines on a 3 dimensional
object it creates a sharp, well defined shadow. When the sky is overcast, the light from
the sun passes through the sky's cloud cover and the light spreads out. The 3D objects
shadow becomes softer in this instance and the scene has less contrast. This is called
diffusion and the effect in 3d is the same. As we increase diffusion the shadows
become smoother:

Click to enlarge

Bump Mapping and Displacement

Bump Mapping: Usually controlled through a "bump height" setting, this creates the
illusion of a tactile texture (eg, bumpy, jagged, sharp surface etc) but does not effect
the outer geometry of the object.
Displacement Mapping: Displacement mapping when applied to a texture will
displace the geometry of the texture around the outer edge of the object so that it
appears rough. Displacement mapping requires a pre-existing bump-map before it can
define edge roughness i.e. you must have bump mapping enabled before you can use
displacement mapping. Furthermore, enabling displacement mapping will add an
additional overhead to rendering times.

The following examples show the difference between these 2 settings:

Click to enlarge

Note: All 3 of the above examples use the same perfect sphere shape and the
same material. Also, some rendering engines will not show either effect until
rendered.

Ambience
When an object has ambience it is "self-illuminating". The object will resist shadows
and at the extreme end it will glow in the dark. As an example, in an natural scene
with a bright sun, the terrains and plants in this scene would look best to have little to
no ambience; their shadows are dark and harsh. Please note : we are referring to the
shadows that appear around the body of the object here. not the shadows that are cast
onto the ground plane.

In the example below, as we increase ambience, the portion of the object that would
usually be undefinable due to a dark shadow, becomes lighter and more visible:

Click to enlarge

Please note that the above example has an extreme effect because i have used standard
raytracing rendering. Ambience will still have a similar effect with other rendering
models, like radiosity, global illumination etc, however the effects will be more
subtle.

Tip: in most cases, making ambience consistent in a scene for all objects will
create more natural looking lighting. An exception to this rule might be for an
object underneath a desk lamp. This object should appear brighter then the rest of the
objects inside of the room.

Reflection and Specular Highlights

Reflection: The reflectivity of an object is linked to its shininess. For instance the
shininess of a metal object would be higher then that of, say, bark from a tree, which
has no reflectivity. A mirror will have 100% reflectivity as it reflects back everything
infront of it. Here are some examples of materials and their reflectivity settings.
Notice how the rock in the foreground becomes clearer as the reflectivity is increased:

When you are rendering in 3D, the rendering engine "shots" out a raytrace to find out
what color each pixel will be according to the scene that you have constructed. If you
have an object that is reflective in your scene when the raytrace hits this object it will
bounce off in the direction of the objects surface to gather further information about
the color of that pixel. So the data it will collect for this pixel will be influenced by
the objects surroundings, not just from the object itself. In the reflection examples
above you can see how the raytrace has bounced off the bottom left corner of the
sphere and hit the back of the rock in the foreground. This whole process can be
likened to taking a photo in the mirror. The image of the final shot would show you
standing in the mirror holding the camera.

Note: there are also other properties that can be visible in a reflective surface,
like a color tint, or a bump map for example. These are combined with the
properties of the object to make the final look of the material.

Going back to our previous example, If the rock was replaced with another reflective
sphere, it too would bounce the raytrace to yet another object until the process stops.
The amount of bounces that a raytrace will make is usually controlled by a setting
within the 3D program. In the real world there is no limit, but this must be avoided in
3D as a "hall of mirrors" render would cause a computer to lock-up as it tries to make
an infinite calculation.
Specular Highlights: When light hits a solid, reflective object, it creates a specular
highlight. The term specular highlight refers to the bright white hotspot that appears
on the object. This happens in reality and in 3D alike.

In my reflection example screenshots above, you can see the hotspot in the top right
corner of the the sphere. Notice how the "Brushed silver" specular highlight is fuzzy
and larger? This creates the illusion of a brushed, rough surface.

This concludes the basics of optics tutorial