Texture maps from photographs of scanned 3d surfaces.

Technical report PCG-97-1, Program of Computer Graphics, Cornell University, April 1997.

Many techniques for measuring three-dimensional objects for computer graphics record the radiance reflected from the object in order to describe the variations in its surface color. Examples include texture maps from range scanners and photographs [Debevec96], and image-based rendering techniques [McMillan95, Levoy96]. Because these techniques do not consider the lighting conditions under which the measurements are taken, the color information is not suitable for rendering the object under different lighting conditions. This prevents their use in realistic rendering systems that simulate lighting. This paper describes a method for building texture maps on 3D surface models from a range scanner using photographs taken of the scanned object under controlled lighting conditions. A simple technique is presented to account for lighting so that the texture map stores reflectance, making the models suitable for realistic rendering. An implementation for diffuse reflectance is demonstrated on a test object and on complex natural objects.