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Semi-Procedural Textures Using Point Process Texture Basis Functions

Computer Graphics Forum (CGF), Volume 39, Issue 4, July 2020
EGSR 2020, June-July 2020, London, UK

EGSR: Honorable Mention from the best papers committee
Replicable Paper: The Graphics Replicability Stamp Initiative (GRSI)
Project Teaser

Input data, a single texture or multiple texture maps (a), and a binary structure (b) are used to generate a semi-procedural output (d). It is a novel texture representation where structure is procedural (d, top) and details are data-driven (d, bottom). Generated textures have procedural properties: infinity, no repetition, self-consistency, and genericity. The structure can be edited by using parameters (only three of them are shown here). Morphing is implicitly obtained by interpolating these parameters. The data-driven details guarantee a good visual match with the exemplar. We call Semi-procedural synthesis the synthesis from a structure that matches the input exemplar, and Semi-procedural editing the synthesis from a user edited structure. A rendered view of the input material is shown for comparison (c).

Abstract

We introduce a novel semi-procedural approach that avoids drawbacks of procedural textures and leverages advantages of datadriven texture synthesis. We split synthesis in two parts: 1) structure synthesis, based on a procedural parametric model and 2) color details synthesis, being data-driven. The procedural model consists of a generic Point Process Texture Basis Function (PPTBF), which extends sparse convolution noises by defining rich convolution kernels. They consist of a window function multiplied with a correlated statistical mixture of Gabor functions, both designed to encapsulate a large span of common spatial stochastic structures, including cells, cracks, grains, scratches, spots, stains, and waves. Parameters can be prescribed automatically by supplying binary structure exemplars. As for noise-based Gaussian textures, the PPTBF is used as stand-alone function, avoiding classification tasks that occur when handling multiple procedural assets. Because the PPTBF is based on a single set of parameters it allows for continuous transitions between different visual structures and an easy control over its visual characteristics. Color is consistently synthesized from the exemplar using a multiscale parallel texture synthesis by numbers, constrained by the PPTBF. The generated textures are parametric, infinite and avoid repetition. The data-driven part is automatic and guarantees strong visual resemblance with inputs.

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