Physically Based Rendering of Simple Thin Volume Natural Nanostructures

Abstract

Thin volumes of semi-transparent nanostructures present on outer layers of organic embodiments often interact coherently with incident light waves to produce nuanced structural coloration. Such mechanisms are further complicated through incoherent scattering by accompanying micro-geometries. We present a simple physically based approach to directly use the sub-microscopic scans of quasi-periodic, one-dimensional modulations in such volumes to render them realistically. Our method relies on prior knowledge of quasi-periodicity to process the scan data in the Fourier space for recreating nuanced coloration effects. We demonstrate the working of our method with the actual scanned data of an egg-sac that shows coloration only when immersed in water. Proposed method can be used by bio-physicists for visual conformity of such mechanisms at a macro-scale as well as graphical rendering pipelines can employ it for scientific recreations or artistic renditions.