Patent ID: 8271242

Claim:
A method of modeling and simulating optical properties in special effect paints which comprises: isotropic light-scattering pigments having isotropic light-scattering properties and optical properties, and anisotropic light-scattering pigments having anisotropic light-scattering properties and optical properties, wherein the special effect paints form at least one layer of material or coat of paint on a suitable substrate, and for reproducing a shade of color of a color template of a special effect paint, wherein the color template has optical properties and the optical properties of the color template and optical properties of a color test pattern of a formulation of a paint mock-up are determined and compared by a comparison process, so that using the comparison a correction can be made to the formulation for the paint mock-up and the shades of color of the color template and paint mock-up can be matched, and wherein the isotropic light-scattering pigments and the anisotropic light-scattering pigments are virtually spatially separated such that the isotropic light-scattering pigments virtually form the layer of material, wherein the layer of material has optical properties, and the anisotropic light-scattering pigments are virtually arranged on the edge surfaces of the layer of material, so that the optical properties of the virtual layer of material formed by the isotropic light-scattering pigments are determined by linear differential equations and the optical properties of the anisotropic light-scattering pigments are taken into consideration as boundary conditions, by means of specific effect operators.