Computer graphics have come a long way since the days of Dire Straits and their first computer animated music video in 1985. To move the state of the art forward has taken the labor of countless artists, developers and technicians. Working in just that field, a group from UCLA have developed an advanced system for simulating baking in computer graphics, and the results look absolutely delicious.
We propose a porous thermo-viscoelastoplastic mixture model.
The work is being presented at SIGGRPAH Asia, and being an academic paper, is dense in arcane terminology. To properly simulate baking, the team had to consider a multitude of interdependent processes. There’s heat transfer to consider, the release of carbon dioxide from leavening agents, the browning of dough due to evaporation of water, and all manner of other complicated chemical and physical interactions.
With a model that takes all of these factors into account, the results are amazingly realistic. The team have shown off renders of cookies in the oven, freshly baked loaves of bread being torn apart, and even muffins full of melted chocolate chips.
We imagine it would have been difficult not to work up an appetite during the research process. We’ve seen impressive work from SIGGRAPH before, like this method for printing photorealistic images on 3D surfaces. Video after the break.
🍪Alert! Peak computer graphics simulation is this new paper from SIGGRAPH Asia on baking bread, cookies, and pancakes. Delicious. https://t.co/E9ItgnemeF pic.twitter.com/pjddNQqolD
— Dimitri Diakopoulos (@ddiakopoulos) November 12, 2019
“Less filling, taste great.”
The result looks like a steamed bun than a baked muffin. i.e. FAIL the realistic part. You know the chemistry of browning (Maillard reaction) actual adds tasty favors to baked muffins.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Brown-Sugar-Steamed-Buns-for-Someone-Interested-in/
I’m surprised that Nathan Myhrvold didn’t fund or simply just DO this research himself given the investment in his high-end set of cook books. Lord knows he spent a fortune on inventions for the food photography in those books.
Interesting…
didn’t knew the uncanny vally would extend to pastries.
Almost but not entirely unlike tea
The amount of browning for the top vs the side contacting the bake ware should be different. No matter how careful you are, there is always some kind of mess when you bake IRL. Even factory made muffins in the stores don’t look like that.
There don’t seem to be enough of the leavening agent. Based on my own cooking experience, muffin top should have been overflowing given how much batter was in there. Who don’t like their muffin top?
The person might know CGI, but certainly haven’t baked.