3D Seismic Volume Rendering

Volume Visualization has become a very useful tool for modern seismic interpretation. The main purpose of this technique is to obtain an overview of structural and stratigraphic features. Most of the currently available software for 3D seismic visualization employs the same rendering equations used in traditional medical imaging. However, the nature of seismic data demands a specialized implementation of the rendering pipeline. Traditional medical methods are designed to visualize isovalue contours that represent boundary surfaces within three-dimensional sampled scalar fields. In this context, the use of local gradient information to estimate surface normal at each voxel, during shading calculations, is a reasonable approach. This technique yields excellent results for mathematical functions and medical data. In 3D seismic data, however, the illumination of structural and stratigraphic features cannot be obtained with simple isovalue contour and gradient estimations. In this paper, we discuss the necessary modifications to the shading and classification steps of traditional algorithms. Our method combines 3D seismic data with a derived seismic attribute to better adapt the display of seismic events. The paper also presents results for both synthetic and real seismic data to validate our proposal.