Production Volume Rendering : Design and Implementation

This book provides the first full account of volume rendering techniques used for feature animation and visual effects production. It covers the theoretical underpinnings as well as the implementation of a working renderer. The author presents techniques and algorithms that are actively used in production work. He also describes both volumetric modeling and rendering techniques, illustrating how effects are created from start to finish. A companion rendering library of open source code is freely available online.

Due to limited publicly available software and lack of documentation, those involved with production volume rendering often have to start from scratch creating the necessary elements to make their system work. Production Volume Rendering: Design and Implementation provides the first full account of volume rendering techniques used for feature animation and visual effects production. It covers the theoretical underpinnings as well as the implementation of a working renderer.

The book offers two paths toward understanding production volume rendering. It describes:

• Modern production volume rendering techniques in a generic context, explaining how the techniques fit together and how the modules are used to achieve real-world goals
• Implementation of the techniques, showing how to translate abstract concepts into concrete, working code and how the ideas work together to create a complete system

As an introduction to the field and an overview of current techniques and algorithms, this book is a valuable source of information for programmers, technical directors, artists, and anyone else interested in how production volume rendering works.

Web Resource
The scripts, data, and source code for the book’s renderer are freely available at https://github.com/pvrbook/pvr. Readers can see how the code is implemented and acquire a practical understanding of how various design considerations impact scalability, extensibility, generality, and performance.