Watercolor Illustrations of CAD Data

In this paper we describe a project that integrates a non-photorealistic rendering pipeline into an existing CAD system. The pipeline enables the customers of the CAD company to create aesthetically appealing renderings in addition to the classical CAD output. Since these customers are operating in the high-quality segment of furniture and interior design, the visual style of the sales brochure is highly important. We concentrate on watercolor drawings, since they are a traditional medium to present artistic interpretations of architectural and CAD data. To create a convincing and aesthetic reproduction of this style, we propose two techniques: First, we introduce a tone-based lighting to separate the traditional shading of a rendering into tone and intensity, which supports traditional color palettes for watercolor paintings, and second, we exploit ambient occlusion information to render traditional stylistic means such as abstraction and indication.