Inverse rendering of faces on a cloudy day

Abstract

In this paper we consider the problem of inverse rendering faces under unknown environment illumination using a morphable model. In contrast to previous approaches, we account for global illumination effects by incorporating statistical models for ambient occlusion and bent normals into our image formation model. We show that solving for ambient occlusion and bent normal parameters as part of the fitting process improves the accuracy of the estimated texture map and illumination environment. We present results on challenging data, rendered under complex natural illumination with both specular reflectance and occlusion of the illumination environment. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.