Rendering hair using pixel blending and shadow buffers

Abstract A technique is described for adding natural‐looking hair to standard rendering algorithms. Using an explicit hair model, in which each individual hair is represented by a three‐dimensional curve, the technique uses pixel blending combined with Z‐buffer and shadow buffer information from the scene to yield a final anti‐aliased image with soft shadows. Although developed for rendering human hair, this technique can also be used to render any model consisting of long filaments of sub‐pixel width. The technique can be adapted to any rendering method that outputs Z‐buffer and shadow buffer information and is amenable to hardware implementation.