Paul Debevec

Paul Debevec earned degrees in Math and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science at UC Berkeley in 1996. Debevec’s Ph.D. thesis presented an interactive method for modeling architectural scenes from photographs and rendering these scenes using projective texture-mapping. These techniques were later used to create the Academy Award-winning virtual backgrounds for the “bullet time” shots in the 1999 film The Matrix.

Debevec is the leading researcher on techniques for capturing real-world illumination and illuminating synthetic objects with real light, facilitating the realistic integration of real and computer generated imagery. His 1999 film Fiat Lux placed towering monoliths and gleaming spheres into a photorealistic reconstruction of St. Peter’s Basilica, all illuminated by the light that was actually there.

For real objects, Debevec has worked on developing the Light Stage, a device that allows objects and actors to be synthetically illuminated with any form of lighting. Debevec works at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies, where he directs research in virtual actors, virtual environments, and applying computer graphics to creative projects.

In August 2001 Paul Debevec received the Significant New Researcher Award from ACM SIGGRAPH for his Creative and Innovative Work in the Field of Image-Based Modeling and Rendering, and in May 2002 was named one of the TR100 top 100 innovators by MIT’s Technology Review Magazine.

Back