Patent ID: 8704831

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for computing lighting irradiance for an object in a three-dimensional (3D) graphics scene having one or more light sources, the method comprising: for a plurality of frames depicting the object in the 3D graphics scene being lit by the light sources: determining, by operation of one or more computer processors, based on an error metric, whether to evaluate one or more of the light sources analytically or to approximate the light source using an irradiance rig associated with the object, wherein the irradiance rig provides a lighting model used to approximate object lighting, based on the light sources, wherein the error metric characterizes an error resulting from evaluating a respective one of the light sources using the irradiance rig associated with the object, wherein the determination is based on a distance between the object and the respective light source, a size of the object, and an intensity of the respective light source, and wherein respective light sources are determined to be evaluated using the irradiance rig when the error is below a specified threshold.