253 pages Abstract One of nature's greatest beauties is the way fresh snow covers the world in a perfect blanket of crystalline white.
Snow replaces sharp angles with gentle curves, and clings to surfaces to form ghostly silhouettes.
It is said the Inuit have 50 different words for snow, yet even they can be left speechless, as snow is one of the most complex natural materials in existence. This research presents a new model of visual snow accumulation for computer graphics. Each are essential for modelling the appearance of a thick layer of snowfall on the ground. Snow placement requires us to determine how much snow falls upon the scene, and where it accumulates. We compute snow accumulation by shooting particles upwards towards the sky, giving each source surface independent control over its own sampling density, accuracy and computation time.