Perceived Effects of Static and Dynamic Sparkle in Captured Effect Coatings

Abstract

Quality control applications in the coating industry characterize visual properties of coatings containing effect pigments using glint impression, often denoted as sparkle. They rely on a collection of static images capturing sparkle properties of pigment flakes. However, visual characteristics of pigment flakes are highly correlated to their material properties and their orientations in coating layers. Thus, while two effect coatings can exhibit similar static sparkle behavior, their dynamic sparkle behavior may be very distinct. In this paper, we analyzed the perception of static and dynamic sparkle using two psychophysical studies on 38 effect coatings and 31 human subjects. First, we have shown a good agreement between the perception of sparkle in real specimens and in photographs. Second, we observed significant differences in perceived static and dynamic sparkle. Our results demonstrate a need for a multiangle recording of sparkle when assessing effect pigment visual characteristics.