Patent ID: 7176918

Claim:
A method for rendering an object comprises: determining diffuse illumination values for surface points on the object; associating a three-dimensional grid with the object, wherein the three-dimensional grid includes a plurality of vertices, wherein the plurality of vertices define a plurality of voxels, and wherein each voxel includes at least a portion of the object; mapping surface points on the object to a plurality of voxels; determining diffuse illumination values for the plurality of vertices from the plurality of voxels in response to the diffuse illumination values for the surface points on the object, performing one or more low pass filter operations on the diffuse illumination values for the plurality of vertices to determine diffuse illumination compensation values for the plurality of vertices; determining diffuse illumination compensation values for the surface points in response to the diffuse illumination compensation values for the plurality of vertices; determining compensated diffuse illumination values for the surface points on the object in response to a weighted combination of the diffuse illumination values for the surface points and the diffuse illumination compensation values for the surface points and displaying an image on a display, wherein the image includes an appearance of at least a portion of the object determined in response to at least some of the compensated diffuse illumination values for the surface points.