Methods and systems for rendering subsurface scattering

A computing system for rendering subsurface scattering, the computing system comprising:

• one or processors;
• a memory storing machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
• receive an optical property and a thickness for each of a plurality of material layers;
• train a latent space for each of the plurality of material layers;
• generate a global transfer matrix for at least one multi-layer material, each of the at least one multi-layer material including an ordered set of material layers selected from the plurality of material layers, by:
• determining a transfer matrix for each adjacent pair of material layers in the ordered set of material layers using the latent space for each material layer in the adjacent pair of material layers, the transfer matrix describing angular and azimuthal reflectance and angular and azimuthal transmittance;
• and
• determining the global transfer matrix as a product of the transfer matrices of each adjacent pair of material layers;
• and
• store the transfer matrix for each of the at least one multi-layer material in memory of a computing system.