Homework 4 - Solid and Surface Textures
Using Perlin's method I created 2-D random noise functions
with different attributes(frequency and amplitude) and added them together.
This first image is a sample of a 2-D random noise plane.
Figure 1 - 2-D random noise plane
Next I added perlin noise function calls to the sphere hit function. It
uses 3-D perlin noise to determine what color to return in the hit record.
For these spheres I just use greyscale values with different scaling
factors to produce different looking spheres.
Figure 2 - 3-D perlin noise applied to spheres. Different scaling
factors produce different looking "cloudy planets".
Next I manipulated the return from the perlin 3-D noise function, and
added color to produce a nice wood ball.
Figure 3 - A wood perlin texture on a sphere.
Using a whole different method I mapped an image of the earth (obtained
from NASA) onto a sphere to create a globe.
Figure 3a - Original Texture map courtesy of NASA
Here we are looking at the North pole. On the left
of the image you can see the seam where the edges of the picture join. The
image also shows the texture of the bottom of the ocean floor.
Figure 4 - The North Pole from space. Europe to the right. Russia
on the bottom, and Canada & Alaska on the top left.
I also created an animated gif from the texture mapped sphere.
Figure 5 - Animated texture mapped globe