3D-Printing Spatially Varying BRDFs

A new method fabricates custom surface reflectance and spatially varying bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (svBRDFs). Researchers optimize a microgeometry for a range of normal distribution functions and simulate the resulting surface´s effective reflectance. Using the simulation´s results, they reproduce an input svBRDF´s appearance by distributing the microgeometry on the printed material´s surface. This method lets people print svBRDFs on planar samples with current 3D printing technology, even with a limited set of printing materials. It extends naturally to printing svBRDFs on arbitrary shapes.