Non-Photorealistic Illustration and Visualization

Non-photorealistic rendering is inspired by a long tradition of illustration. I applied NPR techniques to illustration and visualization problems in medical, technical, and other domains. I also worked on combining NPR methods with other rendering techniques to create hybrid rendering styles for illustration and visualization.

For example, I have used non-photorealistic techniques to visualize uncertainty and style elements in archaeological reconstructions as well as for technical and medical illustration and visualization. I also worked on combining pure non-photorealistic techniques with other rendering methods such as shading and volume rendering to produce hybrid visualizations which are very useful, in particular, in medical imaging.

A technical and a medical illustration.

More recently, I have worked on comparing computer-generated non-photorealistic renditions with professionally created hand-drawn illustrations. The surprising result was that people could, in general, distinguish the two types of images but still liked both categories. They enjoyed the hand-drawn for their character and the computer-generated for their precision and three-dimensional appearance.

Publications

• Ross Maciejewski, Tobias Isenberg, William M. Andrews, David S. Ebert, Mario Costa Sousa, and Wei Chen. Measuring Stipple Aesthetics in Hand-Drawn and Computer-Generated Images. Computer Graphics & Applications, 28(2):62–74, March/April 2008. (PDF, 4205075 bytes) (doi:10.1109/MCG.2008.35)
• Petra Neumann, Tobias Isenberg, and Sheelagh Carpendale. NPR Lenses: Interactive Tools for Non-Photorealistic Line Drawings. In Andreas Butz, Brian Fisher, Antonio Krüger, Patrick Olivier, and Shigeru Owada, editors, Proceedings of the 7^th International Symposium on Smart Graphics (SG 2007, June 25–27, 2007, Kyoto, Japan), volume 4569 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 10–22, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007. Springer-Verlag. (PDF, 2414698 bytes) (doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73214-3_2)
• Ryan Schmidt, Tobias Isenberg, Pauline Jepp, Karan Singh, and Brian Wyvill. Sketching, Scaffolding, and Inking: A Visual History for Interactive 3D Modeling. In Maneesh Agrawala and Oliver Deussen, editors, Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering (NPAR 2007, August 4–5, 2007, San Diego, California, USA), pages 23–32, New York, 2007. ACM Press. (PDF, 9725249 bytes) (doi:10.1145/1274871.1274875)
• Tobias Isenberg, Petra Neumann, Sheelagh Carpendale, Mario Costa Sousa, and Joaquim A. Jorge. Aesthetics of Hand-Drawn and Computer-Generated Illustrations. In Bruce Gooch, László Neumann, Werner Purgathofer, and Mateu Sbert Casasayas, editors, Dagstuhl Seminar 06221 on Computational Aesthetics in Graphics, Visualization and Imaging. 2006. Also see the paper at NPAR 2006.
• Tobias Isenberg, Petra Neumann, Sheelagh Carpendale, Mario Costa Sousa, and Joaquim A. Jorge. Non-Photorealistic Rendering in Context: An Observational Study. In Doug DeCarlo and Lee Markosian, editors, Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering (NPAR 2006, June 5–7, 2006, Annecy, France), pages 115–126, New York, 2006. ACM Press. Also see the presentation at Dagstuhl Seminar 06221. (PDF, 37376205 bytes) (doi:10.1145/1124728.1124747)
• Marcel Götze, Petra Neumann, and Tobias Isenberg. User-Supported Interactive Illustration of Text. In Thomas Schulze, Graham Horton, Bernhard Preim, and Stefan Schlechtweg, editors, Simulation and Visualisation 2005 (SimVis 2005, March 3–4, 2005, Magdeburg, Germany), pages 195–206, Erlangen, San Diego, 2005. SCS European Publishing House. (PDF, 2340784 bytes)
• Tobias Isenberg. Hybrid Medical Visualizations: Creation and Evaluation. In Mario Costa Sousa, editor, Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR)—Applied Research for the Medical Illustrator, Course Notes of the 60^th Annual AMI Conference 2005 (July 28–August 1, 2005, Thousand Oaks, California, USA). The Association of Medical Illustrators, 2005.
• Tobias Isenberg, Angela Brennecke, Mario Costa Sousa, and Sheelagh Carpendale. Beyond Pixels: Illustration with Vector Graphics. Technical Report 2005-804-35, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Canada, December 2005. (PDF, 6424414 bytes) (doi:1880/45776)
• Tobias Isenberg, Petra Neumann, Sheelagh Carpendale, Mario Costa Sousa, and Joaquim A. Jorge. Non-Photorealistic Rendering in Context: An Observational Study. Technical Report 2005-805-36, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Canada, December 2005. Also see the paper at NPAR 2006 and the presentation at Dagstuhl Seminar 06221. (PDF, 39012237 bytes) (doi:1880/45777)
• Petra Neumann, Tobias Isenberg, M. Sheelagh T. Carpendale, and Thomas Strothotte. Expressive Distortion of Strokes and 3D Meshes. Technical Report 2005-776-07, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Canada, March 2005. Also see the paper at Smart Graphics 2007 and the poster at NPAR 2006. (PDF, 2477272 bytes) (doi:1880/45771)
• Christian Tietjen, Tobias Isenberg, and Bernhard Preim. Combining Silhouettes, Shading, and Volume Rendering for Surgery Education and Planning. In Ken W. Brodlie, David J. Duke, and Kenneth I. Joy, editors, Data Visualization 2005: Proceedings of the Eurographics / IEEE VGTC Symposium on Visualization (EuroVis 2005, June 1–3, 2005, Leeds, England, UK), Eurographics Workshop Series, pages 303–310, 335, Aire-la-Ville, Switzerland, 2005. Eurographics Association. (PDF, 4500939 bytes) (doi:10.2312/VisSym/EuroVis05/303-310)
• Christian Tietjen, Tobias Isenberg, and Bernhard Preim. Illustrative Rendering-Techniken für die medizinische Ausbildung und Therapieplanung [Illustrative Rendering Techniques for Medical Education and Therapy Planning]. In Hans-Peter Meinzer, Heinz Handels, Alexander Horsch, and Thomas Tolxdorff, editors, Proceedings of the Workshop »Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2005 – Algorithmen, Systeme, Anwendungen« (BVM 2005, March 13–15, 2005, Heidelberg, Germany), Informatik Aktuell, pages 282–286, Berlin, 2005. Springer-Verlag. Sun SITE Central Europe Workshop Proceedings vol. 246. In German. (PDF, 2377651 bytes) (doi:10.1007/3-540-26431-0_58)
• Tobias Isenberg, Roland Jesse, Oscar Meruvia, and Thomas Strothotte. Seeing Between the Strokes. Technical Report, FIN Preprint Series 11/2004, Department of Computer Science, Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany, 2004. (PDF, 7255412 bytes)
• Roland Jesse, Tobias Isenberg, Bernd Nettelbeck, and Thomas Strothotte. Dynamics by Hybrid Combination of Photorealistic and Non-Photorealistic Rendering Styles. Technical Report, FIN Preprint Series 5/2004, Department of Computer Science, University of Magdeburg, Germany, 2004. (PDF, 5659642 bytes)
• Roland Jesse and Tobias Isenberg. Use of Hybrid Rendering Styles for Presentation. In Proceedings of the 11^th International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (WSCG 2003, February 3–7, 2003, Plzen-Bory, Czech Republic), pages 57–60, 2003. Short paper. (PDF, 548785 bytes)
• Henry Sonnet, Tobias Isenberg, Jana Dittmann, and Thomas Strothotte. Illustration Watermarks for Vector Graphics. In Jon Rokne, Reinhard Klein, and Wenping Wang, editors, Proceedings of the 11^th Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications, Pacific Graphics 2003 (PG 2003, October 8–10, Canmore, Alberta, Canada), pages 73–82, Los Alamitos, CA, 2003. IEEE Computer Society, IEEE. (PDF, 1545648 bytes) (doi:10.1109/PCCGA.2003.1238249)
• Tobias Isenberg, Maic Masuch, and Thomas Strothotte. 3D Illustrative Effects for Animating Line Drawings. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV 2000, July 19–21, 2000, London, England, UK), pages 413–418, Los Alamitos, California, 2000. IEEE Computer Society, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (PDF, 1214046 bytes) (doi:10.1109/IV.2000.859790)
• Tobias Isenberg. Visualisierung von Modellierungsentscheidungen und Unsicherheiten in virtuellen Rekonstruktionen [Visualization of Modeling Decisions and Uncertainties in Virtual Reconstructions]. Unpublished report at the Department of Simulation and Graphics, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany, 1999. In German, also see paper at CGI 1999. (PDF, 2587313 bytes)
• Tobias Isenberg. Visualisierungseffekte in liniengraphischen Animationen und Stillbildern [Visualization Effects in Animated and Single-Frame Line Drawings]. Diplom thesis at the department of simulation and graphics, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany, 1999. In German, also see paper at IV 2000. (PDF, 6914065 bytes)
• Thomas Strothotte, Maic Masuch, and Tobias Isenberg. Visualizing Knowledge about Virtual Reconstructions of Ancient Architecture. In Proceedings Computer Graphics International 1999 (CGI 99, June 7–11, 1999, Canmore, Alberta, Canada), pages 36–43, Los Alamitos, CA, 1999. The Computer Graphics Society, IEEE Computer Society. (PDF, 1904742 bytes) (doi:10.1109/CGI.1999.777901)