FAST AND REALISTIC RENDERING OF DEFORMABLE VIRTUAL CHARACTERS USING IMPOSTOR AND STENCIL BUFFER

Abstract

Algorithms for rendering numerous virtual characters often achieve interactive frame rate by reducing the computation load. The major drawback of this approach is that the rendering quality is degraded. This project aims to develop a fast rendering scheme that can be used on realistic virtual human characters. We have made two contributions. Firstly, we have created a high quality human model and designed three basic deformation methods. The deformation of each body part is composed of the basic deformation methods. Our aim is to generate visually similar deformed and seamless character efficiently. Rendering of numerous characters at high frame rate can be maintained by using impostor. It is well known that impostor has the visibility problem. Secondly, to correct the visibility problem, we propose to incorporate the depth information to each character by using stencil buffer and bounding box. Our rendering scheme compares favorably, in terms of the frame rate and the rendering quality, with multi-layered impostor.