Ageing and Reverse-Ageing for Cultural Artifacts
The realism of photorealistic pictures depends a lot on the materials used to depict the scene. When we depict actual objects, it is good to have a connection with the physical properties: chemical composition, surface roughness, etc.It is especially interesting when we deal with cultural artifacts, such as paintings, sculptures, metallic artifacts. What we have is how they look now, and their current chemical composition. What we would like to have is how they looked when they were new (reverse-ageing).
Some ageing effects are related to oxidation; the effects can be just a change in the chemical properties of the material, like tin transforming into tin oxide. In more extreme cases, there is also a change in the surface geometry, like iron transforming into rust.
Our goal in this project is to take models of ancient cultural artefacts, such as tin vases or bronze swords, and reverse the effects of time to produce photorealistic pictures of the artefacts as they were when they were new.
The project will require a good understanding of the connection between physical and chemical properties of materials and their visual aspect.