Patent ID: 7098910

Claim:
A method for rendering a plurality of hair objects comprises: determining a bounding object including a plurality of voxels and a plurality of vertices, wherein the plurality of voxels bound the plurality of hair objects; determining hair density values associated with each of the plurality of vertices; spatially smoothing the hair density values associated with each of the plurality of vertices to form smoothed density values associated with each of the plurality of vertices; identifying a group of vertices from the plurality of vertices having associated smoothed density values approximately equal to a desired surface density value, the group of vertices defining a hair shell surface; determining a distance field value for each of the plurality of vertices with respect to the hair shell surface; determining a set of surface normal directions associated with a set of vertices associated with a voxel, in response to at least a portion of the distance field values for the plurality of vertices; determining a surface normal direction for a hair particle within the voxel in response to the set of surface normal directions associate with the set of vertices; determining a first hair particle illumination value in response to a first illumination source; and shading the hair particle using the hair particle illumination value and the surface normal direction for the hair particle.