An Interactive Fur Modeling Technique

A technique for modeling fur, but not long human hair, quickly using the facilities of common graphics workstations is described. The user selects a variety of parameters to achieve the desired appearance for a particular animal, such as hair density, length, stiffness, and color properties. Undercoat and overcoat may have separate specifications, and degrees of randomness may be specified, for added realism. Standard GL facilities are used for modeling, lighting, and rendering. Hair density is automatically adjusted for viewing distance to compensate for the limit of single pixel resolution, thus avoiding the tendency to “melt” into a surface of uniform appearance. Gravitational effects are approximated. Four drawing methods are compared: single line, polyline, nurbs curve, and nurbs surface. The polyline method is judged to offer reasonable realism at substantially faster rendering rates than previously reported hair techniques.