Data driven reflectance models using BRDF data measured from real materials, e.g. [Matusik et al. 2003], are becoming increasingly popular in product visualization, digital design and other applications driven by the need for predictable rendering and highly realistic results. Although recent analytic, parametric BRDFs provide good approximations for many materials, some effects are still not captured well [Löw et al. 2012]. Thus, it is hard to accurately model real materials using analytic models, even if the parameters are fitted to data. In practice, it is often desirable to apply small edits to the measured data for artistic purposes, or to model similar materials that are not available in measured form. A drawback of data driven models is that they are often difficult to edit and do not easily lend themselves well to artistic adjustments. Existing editing techniques for measured data [Schmidt et al. 2014], often use complex decompositions making them difficult to use in practice.

Photo-realistic rendering of virtual objects into real scenes is one of the most important research problems in computer graphics. Methods for capture and rendering of mixed reality scenes are driven by a large number of applications, ranging from augmented reality to visual effects and product visualization. Recent developments in computer graphics, computer vision, and imaging technology have enabled a wide range of new mixed reality techniques including methods of advanced image based lighting, capturing spatially varying lighting conditions, and algorithms for seamlessly rendering virtual objects directly into photographs without explicit measurements of the scene lighting. This report gives an overview of the state-of-the-art in this field, and presents a categorization and comparison of current methods. Our in-depth survey provides a tool for understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and gives an overview of which technique is best suited to a specific problem.

In this paper, we present an open source, multi-platform, workflow management application named Depends, designed to clarify and enhance the workflow of artists in a visual effects environment. Depends organizes processes into a directed acyclic graph, enabling artists to quickly identify appropriate changes, make modifications, and improve the look of their work. Recovering information about past revisions of an element is made simple, as the provenance of data is a core focus of a Depends workflow. Sharing work is also facilitated by the clear and consistent structure of Depends. We demonstrate the flexibility of Depends by presenting a number of scenarios where its style of workflow management has been essential to the creation of high-quality results.