Return to search

Guiding the Eye: A Non-photorealistic Solution for Controlling Viewer Interest

In film and still photography, depth of field control is often employed to control
viewer interest in an image. This technique is also used in computer animation, but, in a
medium where artists have near infinite control, must we rely on replicating photorealism?
This research is a viable, non-photorealistic solution to the problem of directing
viewer interest. Vision is directed by reducing superfluous visual information from parts
of the image, which do not directly affect the depictive meaning of that image. This
concept is applied to images and animations rendered from three-dimensional, computergenerated
scenes, where detail is defined as visual information pertaining to the surface
properties of a given object. A system is developed to demonstrate this concept. The
system uses distance from a user-defined origin as the main mechanism to modulate
detail. This solution is implemented within a modeling and shading environment to
serve as a non-photorealistic, functional alternative for depth of field. This approach is
conceptually based on a model of human vision, specifically, the relationship between
foveal and peripheral vision, and is artistically driven by various works in the disciplines of painting and illustration, that through the careful manipulation of detail, control
interest and understanding within the image.
The resulting images and animations produced by this system provide viable
evidence that detail modulation can be used to control effectively viewer interest in an
image eliminating the need to use photographic techniques like depth of field.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2010-12-8697
Date2010 December 1900
CreatorsPiedra, Pedro A.
ContributorsParke, Frederic I.
Source SetsTexas A and M University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf

Page generated in 0.002 seconds