A.I. helps scientists inch closer to the 'holy grail' of computer graphics

Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and UC Berkeley devised a way to make animals in movies and video games more realistic by improving the look of computer-generated fur. It might not sound like much but the researchers call photorealistic fur a "holy grail" of computer graphics. "Creating photorealistic … characters has long been one of the holy grails of computer graphics in film production, virtual reality, and for predictive design," Ravi Ramamoorthi, a professor of computer science at UC San Diego, who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. "Realistic rendering of animal fur is a key aspect to creating believable animal characters in special effects, movies, or augmented reality." To do so, they leveraged artificial intelligence to better reflect the way light bounces between the fur of an animal pelt, which has a surprisingly significant effect on realism.