Isoluminant Color Picking for Non-Photorealistic Rendering

Trân-Quân Luong
McGill University

Ankush Seth
McGill University

Allison Klein
McGill University

Jason Lawrence
Princeton University

To appear at Graphics Interface 2005.


Abstract

The physiology of human visual perception helps explain different uses for color and luminance in visual arts. When visual fields are isoluminant, they look the same to our luminance processing pathway, while potentially looking quite different to the color processing path. This creates a perceptual tension exploited by skilled artists. In this paper, we show how reproducing a target color using a set of isoluminant yet distinct colors can both improve existing NPR image filters and help create new ones. A straight-forward, geometric technique for isoluminant color picking is presented, and then applied in an improved pointillist filter, a new Chuck Close inspired filter, and a novel type of image mosaic filter.

Click here for paper.

Supplementary Images - Click on Thumbnails for Larger Images

Below, we present some addition results based on our isoluminant NPR filters. Note how the images resolve to the original source image when viewed from far away (the thumbnails) but display substantially different colors and textures when viewed from up close (the full size images). The "Leaves" and "Columns" series show results using our pointillist filter that preserves isoluminance within spatial regions. The remaining image sequences show results of our "Chuck Close"-inspired and image mosaic filters, both of which take into account isoluminance when choosing layer colors. (Please read the associated paper for details.)

"Leaves" Image Sequence: Pointillist Filters


Source
Image
Pointillist Filter
Consistent Starting Point
for Color Picking
Pointillist Filter
Random Starting Point
for Color Picking

"Columns" Image Sequence: Pointillist Filters


Source
Image
Pointillist Filter
Consistent Starting Point
for Color Picking
Pointillist Filter
Random Starting Point
for Color Picking

"Bill" Image Sequence: Layered Imagery Filters

Bill
Source
Image 		bill_close
Chuck Close Style
Filter 		bill_bugs_mosaic
Bug-themed
Image Mosaic 		bill_flowers_mosaic
Flower-themed
Image Mosaic 		bill_sea_mosaic
Sea-themed
Image Mosaic 		bill_warhol_mosaic
Warhol-themed
Image Mosaic

"Steph" Image Sequence: Layered Imagery Filters

steph
Source
Image 		steph_close
Chuck Close Style
Filter 		steph_bugs_mosaic
Bug-themed
Image Mosaic 		steph_flowers_mosaic
Flower-themed
Image Mosaic 		steph_sea_mosaic
Sea-themed
Image Mosaic 		steph_warhol_mosaic
Warhol-themed
Image Mosaic

Photo Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Soukia Savage for the source portraits for Quân and Steph. The "Leaves" and "Columns" source images were photographed by Randy Wang.