Very Computer

For years I've worked in and around programming and have never
done much more in graphics than drawing a circle on the screen.
I know I have the math knowledge/understanding to do more, but have
never really gotten into it.

Now I'm starting to play with my computer again, and want to dive into
teaching myself about graphics. Can anyone suggest a text or book
that is tutorial in nature; clearly written; and can help me build a
solid foundation of knowledge.?  Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated.

mbk

The classic intro text is:
        Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics
        by Foley & Van Dam
        published by Addison-Wesley

I understand that the second edition is now (or will soon) be available,
with an expanded section on input and user interfaces.

Ken
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Funny, I thought Newman and Sproull was THE classic intro text,
and don't forget Rogers.....

Another gross generalization from

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Computer Graphics Vol 22 #2 has an excellent review of the texts used in
computer science courses.  Of some 97 colleges reported, 35 use foley and
van dam, 15 use Hern and Baker (prentice hall), 10 use rogers (mcGraw Hill)
and 5 or fewer use each of the next 16 texts listed.

Len Levine

< <<The classic intro text is:
< <<   Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics
< <<   by Foley & Van Dam
< <<   published by Addison-Wesley
< <
< < Funny, I thought Newman and Sproull was THE classic intro text,
< < and don't forget Rogers.....
< <
<
< Computer Graphics Vol 22 #2 has an excellent review of the texts used in
< computer science courses.  Of some 97 colleges reported, 35 use foley and
< van dam, 15 use Hern and Baker (prentice hall), 10 use rogers (mcGraw Hill)
< and 5 or fewer use each of the next 16 texts listed.

It is also worth noting that the various texts have many different orientations
and also that there is a difference between what one might want for self-study
and what one might use as a text as well as a difference between what is
appropriate at the undergraduate and at the graduate levels.

To point out a few major examples of these differences:
     Foley and Van Dam (at least the version available in 1985) is good
         on aspects of programming and implementing standard graphics
         packages, but paints with a wider brush on topics of
         geometric modelling and image synthesis.
     Mortenson gives a good CAD oriented presentation of computer
         graphics.  The book is basically two parts: (1) curved surfaces
         and (2) solid modelling.
     Bartels, Beatty, and Barsky's text gives a good introduction to
         graphics in terms of curved surface manipulation.
     Mantyla's text gives a good introduction to graphics as solid modelling.
     Roger's text gives a good introduction to the algorithmics of implementing
         rasterization, clipping, hidden surfaces, and ray tracing.
     Hall has a book on Illumination Models coming out soon which is doubtless
         headed toward classicdom [anyone seen prepublication version?].
     The Thalmanns' have books on Image Synthesis and on Animation which
         provide good introductions to those areas.
     There are four IEEE Tutorials relating to Computer Graphics.  Both the
         one by Booth and the one by Freeman reprint a number of classic
         articles (they don't overlap on individual articles, so together
         they make an even better collection).  I haven't looked at the
         other two yet: one on VLSI and Graphics and the new one on Computer
         Graphics Hardware (perhaps someone who has can comment on what
         appears in them).

And, of course, there is a lot to be said for just leaving thru the past
Siggraph Proceedings (particularly if you can find a library that has been
collecting them for a while as they drift out of print just like all
the other ACM conferences).  Someone with a general computer science
background, solid math background, and casual exposure to physics should
be able to follow much of what is going on (and of course the individual
articles have bibliographies pointing back to older papers).

Anyway, as you can tell, there are many different bases on which to build
an introduction to computer graphics.  Here (Rutgers' Computer Science
Dept, New Brunswick), I run a year-long graduate graphics sequence that
in the past used Mortenson in the Fall and Rogers plus Most Recent Siggraph
in the Spring.  This coming Fall, I will be using Bartels, Beatty, and
Barsky along with the Mantyla book for the Geometric material.  However,
I recommend all of the above listed books highly (although recommendations
for the ones that I specifically haven't seen, i.e., Hall and the two
hardware IEEE tutorials, should doubtless be taken with a grain of salt)
and the ones not mentioned should be attributed to my lack of familiarity
with them and not as a disrecommendation.

Just got a copy of the IEEE Tutorial on Computer Graphics Hardware,
H. K. Reghbati and A. Y. C. Lee, editors.  Here is a summary:

     Ch. 1  Introduction to Computer Graphics Systems
     Ch. 2  Graphics Processors and Special Function Units
     Ch. 3  Frame Buffer Design
     Ch. 4  Smart Image Memory
     Ch. 5  Real-Time Scan Conversion Hardware
     Ch. 6  Hardware for Constructive Solid Geometry and Ray Tracing
     Ch. 7  Image Processing Hardware

This is, of course, a collection of papers and is certainly worth adding
to your library.

Another highly recommended graphics book is:

Microcomputer Displays, Graphics, and Animation
by Bruce A. Artwick

It gets into very hands-on, non-theoretical discussions of implementing
graphics algorithms on small machines, with emphasis on optimizing 3-D
animation for speed. What a coincidence that Mr. Artwick wrote Flight
Simulator for the IBM, Amiga, Atari, C-64, etc, etc! I found it much easier
to go code from his book than from the Foley & Van Dam megabook.