Fast rendering of realistic faces with wavelength dependent normal maps

Abstract

Due to complex nature of the facial reflectance, high end rendering techniques often require too much data or too much computation time to be suitable for production or real time rendering. In this work, we present a novel and efficient face rendering technique based on the use of wavelength dependent normal maps. Normal maps are typically used for the high frequency surface details they contain. Previous work showed that normal maps can be adjusted to include more complex effects such as ambient occlusion We extend this further and demonstrate that by using a separate normal map for each color channel it is possible to represent complex wavelength dependent material properties such as subsurface scattering. Our technique is easy to integrate into both real time and global illumination rendering frameworks. We demonstrate how to use these normal maps to produce photorealistic digital faces.