Institute for Data Analysis and Visualization

The proper usage and creation of transfer functions for time-varying data sets is an often ignored problem in volume visualization. Although methods and guidelines exist for time-invariant data, little formal study for the time-varying case has been performed. This paper examines this problem, and reports the study that we have conducted to determine how the dynamic behavior of time-varying data may be captured by a single or small set of transfer functions. The criteria which dictate when more than one transfer function is needed were also investigated. Four data sets with different temporal characteristics were used for our study. Results obtained using two different classes of methods are discussed, along with lessons learned. These methods, including a new multi-resolution opacity map approach, can be used for semi-automatic generation of transfer functions to explore large-scale time-varying data sets.