Video-Based Rendering

Image-based rendering is one of the hottest new areas in computer graphics. Instead of using 3D modeling and painting tools to construct graphics models by hand, IBR uses real-world imagery to rapidly create photorealistic shape and appearance models. However, IBR results to date have mostly been restricted to static objects and scenes. Videobased rendering brings the same kind of realism to computer animation, using video instead of still images as the source material. Examples of VBR include facial animation from sample videos, repetitive video textures that can be used to animate still scenes and photos, 3D environment walkthroughs built from panoramic video, and 3D video constructed from multiple synchronized cameras. In this paper, I survey a number of such systems developed by our group and by others, and suggest how this kind of approach has the potential to fundamentally transform the production (and consumption) of interactive visual media.