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FAÇADE:

Modeling and Rendering Architecture from Photographs

Paul Debevec

Camillo Taylor

Jitendra Malik

Computer Science Division
University of California at Berkeley

Introduction

In this work we present a new method of modeling and rendering architecture photorealistically from a small number of photographs. The work consists of:

• Photogrammetric Modeling: A method for interactively recovering 3D models and camera positions from photographs
• View-Dependent Texture Mapping: A method for turning a 3D model and a set of photographs from known positions into renderings
• Model-Based Stereo: A method of refining an approximate geometric model of a scene to conform to its actual appearance in a set of photographs

Here are links to the SIGGRAPH 96 paper and the SIGGRAPH 96 Papers Video.

Is Façade available?

Façade itself remains an unreleased research prototype, but much of its functionality is now available in commercial products. Façade was a source of inspiration for MetaCreations' product Canoma written by Robert Seidl and Tilman Reinhardt. In August 2000 Adobe Systems acquired Canoma and may integrate the technology into a new project to be released at a future date. Along with computer vision research led by Olivier Faugeras at INRIA, Façade was also a source of inspiration for RealViz's ImageModeler image-based modeling and rendering package, recently acquired by Autodesk. Other related software was surveyed in November 20, 2000 article (click here) by Terrence Masson on VFXPro.com. Façade was also the basis for the virtual cinematography technology used at MANEX Visual Effects and ESC Entertainment for films such as The Matrix, Mission Impossible II, and The Matrix sequels.

Results

• Click the image below to access the original Gallery of Reconstructed Models.

  

• Façade was used to model the interior of St. Peter's Basilica for Paul Debevec's film Fiat Lux in the SIGGRAPH 99 Electronic Theater.

• The Campanile Movie, a short film shown at the SIGGRAPH'97 Electronic Theatre, used Façade to construct a photorealistic model of Berkeley's clock tower and the surrounding campus.

• A building interior: Chris Healey led the modeling of the 5th floor of Soda Hall. Façade was also used to model the interior of a conference room in the SIGGRAPH 99 paper Inverse Global Illumination.

• The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as reconstructed by Yizhou Yu.

• Reconstructions of the Arc de Triomphe and the Taj Mahal by George Borshukov

• Rouen Revisited, an interactive art installation by Golan Levin and Paul Debevec presented at the SIGGRAPH 96 art show. Rouen Revisited was also shown at Ars Electronica 1997 in Linz, Austria, and ISEA'97, the 8th International Symposium on Electronic Art, at the Art Institute of Chicago. It is currently on display at the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation until March 1999.

• The Gallery of reconstructed models (including University High School)

Some magazine and newspaper items featuring this work

Publications

• Paul E. Debevec, Camillo J. Taylor, and Jitendra Malik. Modeling and Rendering Architecture from Photographs. In SIGGRAPH '96, August 1996.
  
  • High-resolution color PDF version (Adobe PDF, 10 pages, 2,162,863 bytes)
    
  • PostScript version with lossless image compression (gzipped Postscript, 10 pages, 4,890,268 bytes)
    

• Paul E. Debevec, George Borshukov, and Yizhou Yu. Efficient View-Dependent Image-Based Rendering with Projective Texture-Mapping. In 9th Eurographics Rendering Workshop, Vienna, Austria, June 1998.

• Paul Debevec's Ph.D. Thesis, UC Berkeley, December 1996
  
  • Abstract
  • Full thesis (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 154 pages, 5.6 MB)
  • Web page with index to individual chapters and related research

• UCB Technical Report CSD/96-893, January 1996
  
  • Abstract
  • Full report (gzipped Postscript with color images, 33 pages, 5,997,060 bytes)
  • Full report (Adobe PDF, 33 pages, 3,749,098 bytes)
  • The Images and Movies from the technical report

Related work at Berkeley

• Recovering High Dynamic Range Radiance Maps from Photographs, SIGGRAPH 97

• Rendering Synthetic Objects into Real Scenes: Bridging Traditional and Image-Based Graphics with Global Illumination and High Dynamic Range Photography, SIGGRAPH 98

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Paul E. Debevec

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