Contour rendering

ABSTRACT

A contour image represents the essence of a scene, a "simplified reality." Contours are used in non-photorealistic images for comics and cartoons to illustrate geometric shape, spatial relationships, color, texture and illumination. This article describes traditional and computer-generated contour rendering, gives examples of contour placement and styles, discusses some practical issues, and describes the contour shader interface of the rendering program mental ray.

REFERENCES

• 1: Adamson, Joe. Tex Avery: king of cartoons, Da Capo Press, 1985.
• 2: Arias, Michael. "Toon shaders," in release notes for SOFTIMAGE|3D versions 3.7 and 3.8, SOFTIMAGE, 1996.
• 3: Barrier, Michael. Carl Barks and the art of the comic, Mark Lillien, 1982.
• 4: Busch, Wilhelm. Max und Moritz, 1865.
• 5: Thomas Driemeyer, Rendering with mental ray (Vol.1), Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., Secaucus, NJ, 2000
• 6: Eisner, Will. Comics and sequential art, Poorhouse Press, 1985.
• 7: Guaglione, Eric. "The art of Disney's Mulan," SIGGRAPH 98 course notes #39,ACM, 1998.
• 8: Levi, Antonia. Samurai from outer space: understanding Japanese animation, Open Court Publishing Company, 1996.
• 9: mental images. The mental ray series of handbooks, volumes 1-3, Springer-Verlag, 1999. (To appear.)
• 10: Outcault, Robert F. The Yellow Kid, 1896.
• 11: Peeters, Benoît. Tintin and the world of Hergé: an illustrated history, Joy St. Books, 1992.
• 12: Schodt, Frederik L. and Osama Tezuka. Manga! Manga! The world of Japanese comics, Kodansha, 1986.
• 13: Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston. The illusion of life: Disney animation, Hyperion, 1981.