A Simplified Plane-Parallel Scattering Model and Its Application to Hair Rendering

Fast computation of multiple light reflections and scattering among complex objects is very important in photo-realistic rendering. This paper applies the plane-parallel scattering theory to the rendering of densely distributed objects such as hairs. We propose a simplified plane-parallel model that has very simple analytic solutions. This allows us to deal with multiple scattering phenomena in hair under ambient and area light illumination. The model was successfully applied to hair rendering, and experiments demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed method.