article subsurface scattering & reflections without rays

In 2001 I was hired as an animator for Harry Potter II, but the animation rig wasn't ready so I was assigned to James Bond to write RenderMan code. Never having used PRMan or SLIM before it was a good challenge.

My task was to write shaders for water and ice, without using raytracing. I developed a technique for subsurface scattering using depth maps for the icebergs. Little did I know of Henrik Wann Jensen and Steve Marschner's newly released Siggraph paper. And for the water I developed a technique for reflection/refraction using a pre-pass reflection camera render.

With the advent of point clouds, neither technique is of much use today.  I’d be happy to post tutorials on both technique if there is any interest in retro CG techniques.

2001