3D Rendering - Techniques and Challenges

Computer generated images and animations are getting more and more common. They are used in many different contexts such as movies, mobiles, medical visualization, architectural visualization and CAD. Advanced ways of describing surface and light source properties are important to ensure that artists are able to create realistic and stylish looking images. Even when using advanced rendering algorithms such as ray tracing, time required for shading may contribute towards a large part of the image creation time. Therefore both performance and flexibility is important in a rendering system. This paper gives a comparative study of various 3D Rendering techniques and their challenges in a complete and systematic manner.