Generation of 3D texture using multiple 2D models analysis

Solid (3D) texturing is commonly used in computer graphics for producing more realistic images. It is often more attractive than the conventional 2D texture mapping but remains more complex on some points. Its major difficulty concerns the generation of 3D texture in a general and efficient way. The well-known traditional procedural methods use generally a simplified mathematical model of a natural texture. No reliable way for the choice of the mathematical model parameters, which characterise directly the produced 3D texture, is given. Therefore, 3D texture generation becomes a more or less experimental process with these methods. Our recently published method for an automatic 3D texture generation avoids this problem by the use of the spectral analysis of one 2D model texture. The resulting 3D texture is of good quality but one open problem remains: the aspect of the produced texture cannot be fully controlled over the entire 3D space by only one 2D spectral analysis. This may be considered as a serious limitation for some kinds of textures representing important variations in any direction. In this paper we present a new and more powerful analytical approach for an automatic 3D texture generation. Contrarily to our previous method, this new approach is not exclusively based on the spectral analysis of only one 2D model. It uses two or three 2D models corresponding to different slices of a 3D texture block, so, the aspect of the produced 3D texture can be controlled more efficiently over the entire 3D space. In addition, more efficient 3D texture antialiasing, well adapted to this new method is presented.