Light estimation method for three-dimensional (3d) rendered objects

A computing apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the computing apparatus to:
• generate, using a camera of a mobile device, an image;
• access a virtual object corresponding to an object in the image;
• identify shading parameters of the virtual object based on the object captured in the image and a machine learning model that is pre-trained with a paired dataset, the paired dataset comprising synthetic source data and synthetic target data, the synthetic source data comprising environment maps and three-dimensional (3D) scans of objects depicted in the environment maps, the synthetic target data comprising a synthetic sphere image rendered in the same environment map;
• apply the shading parameters to the virtual object;
• and
• display, in a display of the mobile device, the shaded virtual object as a layer to the image.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

• generate, using a camera of a mobile device, an image;
• access a virtual object corresponding to an object in the image;
• identify shading parameters of the virtual object based on the object captured in the image and a machine learning model that is pre-trained with a paired dataset, the paired dataset comprising synthetic source data and synthetic target data, the synthetic source data comprising environment maps and three-dimensional (3D) scans of objects depicted in the environment maps, the synthetic target data comprising a synthetic sphere image rendered in the same environment map;
• apply the shading parameters to the virtual object;
• and
• display, in a display of the mobile device, the shaded virtual object as a layer to the image.