US 9,266,287 B2Granted

3D printing with custom surface reflectance

AssigneeDisney Enterprises, Inc.

InventorsJan Kautz, Olivier Roullier, Bernd Bickel, Marc Alexa, Wojciech Matusik

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Abstract

A method for fabricating custom surface reflectance and spatially-varying bi-directional reflectance distribution functions (BDRFs or svBRDFs). The 3D printing method optimizes micro-geometry to produce a normal distribution function (NDF) that can be printed on surfaces with a 3D printer. Particularly, the method involves optimizing the micro-geometry for a wide range of analytic NDFs and simulating the effective reflectance of the resulting surface. Using the results of the simulation, the appearance of an input svBRDF can be reproduced. To this end, the micro-geometry is optimized in a data-driven fashion and distributed on the surface of the printed object. The methods were demonstrated to allow 3D printing svBRDF on planar samples with current 3D printing technology even with a limited set of printing materials, and the described methods have been shown to be naturally extendable to printing svBRDF on arbitrary shapes or 3D objects.

Claims3

Dependent claims

A method for use in 3D printing an object with customizable reflectances, comprising:

for a set of printing materials for a 3D printer, determining a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) for a base diffuse layer and for a specular outer layer;
with a set of normal distribution functions (NDFs), computing a corresponding geometry for a multi-faceted micro-structure;
measuring reflectances of the specular outer layer with a surface of the specular outer layer comprising a plurality of the multi-faceted micro-structures corresponding to each of the NDFs with the set of printing materials;
simulating a resulting BRDF of the base diffuse layer covered with the specular outer layer with the multi-faceted micro-structures;
with an input target reflectance, determining a geometry of the multi-faceted micro-structures and a density on the surface of the specular outer layer to synthesize one of the NDFs;
and
operating a 3D printer to print a 3D object using the determined geometry and the set of printer materials.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/030,176Filed 18 Sep 2013
Published: US 2015/0079327 A119 Mar 2015
Granted: 23 Feb 2016
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification14 codes

B29C 64/393
Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing: for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes
B33Y 50/02
Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing: for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes
B29K 2995/0026
Having particular optical properties, e.g. fluorescent or phosphorescent: transparent
B29K 2995/003
Having particular optical properties, e.g. fluorescent or phosphorescent: reflective