Painterly rendering techniques: A state-of-the-art review of current approaches

In this publication we will look at the different methods presented over the past few decades which attempt to recreate digital paintings. While previous surveys concentrate on the broader subject of non-photorealistic rendering, the focus of this paper is firmly placed on painterly rendering techniques. We compare different methods used to produce different output painting styles such as abstract, colour pencil, watercolour, oriental, oil and pastel. Whereas some methods demand a high level of interaction using a skilled artist, others require simple parameters provided by a user with little or no artistic experience. Many methods attempt to provide more automation with the use of varying forms of reference data. This reference data can range from still photographs, video, 3D polygonal meshes or even 3D point clouds. The techniques presented here endeavour to provide tools and styles that are not traditionally available to an artist. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Decolonising Cinematography Education: Experimenting with Lighting Ratios and Textures for Black and Asian Skin Tones

Cinematographers are trained to control and measure the relative difference in brightness between two parts of a scene, or a face, for expressive purposes. Painting is often referred to for inspiration as practitioners learn to compose and represent light and shadow in an aesthetically considered manner. In this respect, it is noteworthy that the painters generally studied by film-making students are mostly from Renaissance traditions and produced work featuring predominantly White models. This gap of racial representation in cinematographic pedagogy is stark and has long been overlooked. This article mounts an enquiry into the lack of diversity in cinematography education, examining how different aesthetic traditions, such as Asian ink paintings, could pave new ways for decolonising the conventional conceptions of lighting ratios. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative case studies undertaken in university workshops, I discuss how students respond to Black and Asian artwork as visual references when they are tasked with lighting models with non-White skin tones to accommodate the different reflectance of their skins. By comparing the learning outcomes and current industry techniques for optimising screen representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, the article evaluates how students respond to learning from modern artwork that promotes diverse identities, and argues for the benefits of integrating greater inclusiveness into cinematography

Monte Carlo convex hull model for classification of traditional Chinese paintings

While artists demonstrate their individual styles through paintings and drawings, how to describe such artistic styles well selected visual features towards computerized analysis of the arts remains to be a challenging research problem. In this paper, we propose an integrated feature-based artistic descriptor with Monte Carlo Convex Hull (MCCH) feature selection model and support vector machine (SVM) for characterizing the traditional Chinese paintings and validate its effectiveness via automated classification of Chinese paintings authored by well-known Chinese artists. The integrated artistic style descriptor essentially contains a number of visual features including a novel feature of painting composition and object feature, each of which describes one element of the artistic style. In order to ensure an integrated discriminating power and certain level of adaptability to the variety of artistic styles among different artists, we introduce a novel feature selection method to process the correlations and the synergy across all elements inside the integrated feature and hence complete the proposed style-based descriptor design. Experiments on classification of Chinese paintings via a parallel MCCH model illustrate that the proposed descriptor outperforms the existing representative technique in terms of precision and recall rates

An Analysis of Interactive Technology’s Effect on the Appreciation of Traditional Chinese Painting: A Review of Case Studies

From a perspective of safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, this paper discusses how to enhance the appreciation of traditional Chinese painting through the support of interactive technology. The author analyses extensive yet current case studies based on the findings from the interactive appreciation of and engagement with paintings. The author then summarises four aspects of how to design interactive technology in order to support the appreciation of and engagement with traditional Chinese paintings: (1) deepening the aesthetic understanding of traditional Chinese paintings should not be a neglected aspect during the design process; (2) current case studies have not considered distinguishing the user experience between professional artists and amateurs (who are unskilled at painting); (3) it is vital to exploit interactive technology to improve the originality and subtlety of traditional Chinese painting; and (4) employing interactive systems to engage users in participatory appreciation (through encouraging them to talk about art or discussing their understanding of it) could provide potential design insights for future studies

Chinese Ink-and-Brush Painting with Film Lighting Aesthetics in 3D Computer Graphics

This thesis explores the topic of recreating Chinese ink-and-brush painting in 3D computer graphics and introducing film lighting aesthetics into the result. The method is primarily based on non-photorealistic shader development and digital compositing. The goal of this research is to study how to bing the visual aesthetics of Chinese ink-and-brush painting into 3D computer graphics as well as explore the artistic possibility of using film lighting principles in Chinese painting for visual story telling by using 3D computer graphics. In this research, we use the Jiangnan water country paintings by renowned contemporary Chinese artist Yang Ming-Yi as our primary visual reference. An analysis of the paintings is performed to study the visual characteristics of Yang's paintings. These include how the artist expresses shading, forms, shadow, reflection and compositing principles, which will be used as the guidelines for recreating the painting in computer graphics. 3D meshes are used to represent the subjects in the painting like houses, boats and water. Then procedural non-photorealistic shaders are developed and applied on 3D meshes to give the models an ink-look. Additionally, different types of 3D data are organized and rendered into different layers, which include shading, depth, and geometric information. Those layers are then composed together by using 2D image processing algorithms with custom artistic controls to achieve a more natural-looking ink-painting result. As a result, a short animation of Chinese ink-and-brush painting in 3D computer graphics will be created in which the same environment is rendered with different lighting designs to demonstrate the artistic intention

Nuclear Physics for Cultural Heritage

Nuclear physics applications in medicine and energy are well known and widely reported. Less well known are the many important nuclear and related techniques used for the study, characterization, assessment and preservation of cultural heritage. There has been enormous progress in this field in recent years and the current review aims to provide the public with a popular and accessible account of this work. The Nuclear Physics Division of the EPS represents scientists from all branches of nuclear physics across Europe. One of its aims is the dissemination of knowledge about nuclear physics and its applications. This review is led by Division board member Anna Macková, Head of the Tandetron Laboratory at the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the review committee includes four other members of the nuclear physics board interested in this area: Faiçal Azaiez, Johan Nyberg, Eli Piasetzky and Douglas MacGregor. To create a truly authoritative account, the Scientific Editors have invited contributions from leading experts across Europe, and this publication is the combined result of their work. The review is extensively illustrated with important discoveries and examples from archaeology, pre-history, history, geography, culture, religion and curation, which underline the breadth and importance of this field. The large number of groups and laboratories working in the study and preservation of cultural heritage across Europe indicate the enormous effort and importance attached by society to this activity

Assessment of plastics in the National Trust: a case study at Mr Straw's House

The National Trust is a charity that cares for over 300 publically accessible historic buildings and their contents across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There have been few previous studies on preservation of plastics within National Trust collections, which form a significant part of the more modern collections of objects. This paper describes the design of an assessment system which was successfully trialled at Mr Straws House, a National Trust property in Worksop, UK. This system can now be used for future plastic surveys at other National Trust properties. In addition, the survey gave valuable information about the state of the collection, demonstrating that the plastics that are deteriorating are those that are known to be vulnerable, namely cellulose nitrate/acetate, PVC and rubber. Verifying this knowledge of the most vulnerable plastics enables us to recommend to properties across National Trust that these types should be seen as a priority for correct storage and in-depth recording

A study of how Chinese ink painting features can be applied to 3D scenes and models in real-time rendering

Past research findings addressed mature techniques for non-photorealistic rendering. However, research findings indicate that there is little information dealing with efficient methods to simulate Chinese ink painting features in rendering 3D scenes. Considering that Chinese ink painting has achieved many worldwide awards, the potential to effectively and automatically develop 3D animations and games in this style indicates a need for the development of appropriate technology for the future market. The goal of this research is about rendering 3D meshes in a Chinese ink painting style which is both appealing and realistic. Specifically, how can the output image appear similar to a hand-drawn Chinese ink painting. And how efficient does the rendering pipeline have to be to result in a real-time scene. For this study the researcher designed two rendering pipelines for static objects and moving objects in the final scene. The entire rendering process includes interior shading, silhouette extracting, textures integrating, and background rendering. Methodology involved the use of silhouette detection, multiple rendering passes, Gaussian blur for anti-aliasing, smooth step functions, and noise textures for simulating ink textures. Based on the output of each rendering pipeline, rendering process of the scene with best looking of Chinese ink painting style is illustrated in detail. The speed of the rendering pipeline proposed by this research was tested. The framerate of the final scenes created with this pipeline was higher than 30fps, a level considered to be real-time. One can conclude that the main objective of the research study was met even though other methods for generating Chinese ink painting rendering are available and should be explored