Computer graphics is a sub-field of computer science which studies methods for digitally synthesizing and manipulating visual content. Although the term often refers to the study of three-dimensional computer graphics, it also encompasses two-dimensional graphics and image processing. The individuals who serve as professional designers for computers graphics are known as "Graphics Programmers", who often are computer programmers with skills in computer graphics design.

Overview

Computer graphics studies the aesthetic manipulation of visual and geometric information using computational techniques. It focuses on the ''mathematical'' and ''computational'' foundations of image generation and processing rather than purely aesthetic issues. Computer graphics is often differentiated from the field of visualization, although the two fields have many similarities. Connected studies include: *

Applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemat ...

* Computational geometry * Computational topology *

Computer vision Computer vision is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate t ...

* Image processing * Information visualization * Scientific visualization Applications of computer graphics include: * Print design * Digital art * Special effects *

Video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

s * Visual effects

History

There are several international conferences and journals where the most significant results in computer graphics are published. Among them are the SIGGRAPH and Eurographics conferences and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Transactions on Graphics journal. The joint Eurographics and ACM SIGGRAPH symposium series features the major venues for the more specialized sub-fields: Symposium on Geometry Processing, Symposium on Rendering, Symposium on Computer Animation, and High Performance Graphics. As in the rest of computer science, conference publications in computer graphics are generally more significant than journal publications (and subsequently have lower acceptance rates).

Subfields

A broad classification of major subfields in computer graphics might be: #

Geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

: ways to represent and process surfaces # Animation: ways to represent and manipulate motion # Rendering:

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

s to reproduce light transport #

Imaging Imaging is the representation or reproduction of an object's form; especially a visual representation (i.e., the formation of an image). Imaging technology is the application of materials and methods to create, preserve, or duplicate images. ...

: image acquisition or image editing

Geometry

The subfield of geometry studies the representation of three-dimensional objects in a discrete digital setting. Because the appearance of an object depends largely on its exterior, boundary representations are most commonly used. Two dimensional surfaces are a good representation for most objects, though they may be non- manifold. Since surfaces are not finite, discrete digital approximations are used. Polygonal meshes (and to a lesser extent subdivision surfaces) are by far the most common representation, although point-based representations have become more popular recently (see for instance the Symposium on Point-Based Graphics). These representations are ''Lagrangian,'' meaning the spatial locations of the samples are independent. Recently, ''Eulerian'' surface descriptions (i.e., where spatial samples are fixed) such as level sets have been developed into a useful representation for deforming surfaces which undergo many topological changes (with fluids being the most notable example). Geometry subfields include: * Implicit surface modeling – an older subfield which examines the use of algebraic surfaces, constructive solid geometry, etc., for surface representation. * Digital geometry processing – surface reconstruction, simplification, fairing, mesh repair, parameterization, remeshing, mesh generation, surface compression, and surface editing all fall under this heading.
CS 598: Digital Geometry Processing (Fall 2004)
* Discrete differential geometry – a nascent field which defines geometric quantities for the discrete surfaces used in computer graphics. * Point-based graphics – a recent field which focuses on points as the fundamental representation of surfaces. * Subdivision surfaces * Out-of-core mesh processing – another recent field which focuses on mesh datasets that do not fit in main memory.

Animation

The subfield of animation studies descriptions for surfaces (and other phenomena) that move or deform over time. Historically, most work in this field has focused on parametric and data-driven models, but recently physical simulation has become more popular as computers have become more powerful computationally. Animation subfields include: * Performance capture * Character animation * Physical simulation (e.g. cloth modeling, animation of

fluid dynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including '' aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) ...

, etc.)

Rendering

Rendering generates images from a model. Rendering may simulate light transport to create realistic images or it may create images that have a particular artistic style in non-photorealistic rendering. The two basic operations in realistic rendering are transport (how much light passes from one place to another) and scattering (how surfaces interact with light). See Rendering (computer graphics) for more information. Rendering subfields include: *

Transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipel ...

describes how illumination in a scene gets from one place to another. Visibility is a major component of light transport. * Scattering: Models of '' scattering'' (how light interacts with the surface ''at a given point'') and '' shading'' (how material properties vary across the surface) are used to describe the appearance of a surface. In graphics these problems are often studied within the context of rendering since they can substantially affect the design of rendering algorithms. Descriptions of scattering are usually given in terms of a

bidirectional scattering distribution function The definition of the BSDF (bidirectional scattering distribution function) is not well standardized. The term was probably introduced in 1980 by Bartell, Dereniak, and Wolfe. Most often it is used to name the general mathematical function which de ...

(BSDF). The latter issue addresses how different types of scattering are distributed across the surface (i.e., which scattering function applies where). Descriptions of this kind are typically expressed with a program called a

shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene - a process known as '' shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of spec ...

. (Note that there is some confusion since the word "shader" is sometimes used for programs that describe local ''geometric'' variation.) * Non-photorealistic rendering * Physically based rendering – concerned with generating images according to the laws of geometric optics * Real-time rendering – focuses on rendering for interactive applications, typically using specialized hardware like GPUs *

Relighting Polynomial texture mapping (PTM), also known as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), is a technique of imaging and interactively displaying objects under varying lighting conditions to reveal surface phenomena. The data acquisition method is S ...

– recent area concerned with quickly re-rendering scenes

Notable researchers

* Arthur Appel * James Arvo *

Brian A. Barsky Brian A. Barsky is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, working in computer graphics and geometric modeling as well as in optometry and vision science. He is a Professor of Computer Science and Vision Science and an Affiliate ...

* Jim Blinn * Jack E. Bresenham *

Loren Carpenter Loren C. Carpenter (born February 7, 1947) is a computer graphics researcher and developer. Biography He was a co-founder and chief scientist of Pixar Animation Studios. He is the co-inventor of the Reyes rendering algorithm and is one of the ...

* Edwin Catmull * James H. Clark * Robert L. Cook * Franklin C. Crow * Paul Debevec *

David C. Evans David Cannon Evans (February 24, 1924 – October 3, 1998) was the founder of the computer science department at the University of Utah and co-founder (with Ivan Sutherland) of Evans & Sutherland, a pioneering firm in computer graphics hardwar ...

Ron Fedkiw Ronald Paul "Ron" Fedkiw (born February 27, 1968) is a full professor in the Stanford University department of computer science and a leading researcher in the field of computer graphics, focusing on topics relating to physically based simula ...

* Steven K. Feiner * James D. Foley * David Forsyth * Henry Fuchs * Andrew Glassner * Henri Gouraud (computer scientist) *

Donald P. Greenberg Donald Peter Greenberg (born 1934) is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics at Cornell University. Early life Greenberg earned his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University, where he played on the tennis and soccer ...

* Eric Haines * R. A. Hall * Pat Hanrahan * John Hughes * Jim Kajiya * Takeo Kanade * Kenneth Knowlton * Marc Levoy * Martin Newell (computer scientist) * James O'Brien * Ken Perlin * Matt Pharr * Bui Tuong Phong * Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz * William Reeves * David F. Rogers * Holly Rushmeier * Peter Shirley * James Sethian * Ivan Sutherland * Demetri Terzopoulos * Kenneth Torrance * Greg Turk * Andries van Dam * Henrik Wann Jensen *

Gregory Ward Gregory Ward is an American linguist, academic and researcher. He is Professor of Linguistics, Gender & Sexuality Studies and, by courtesy, Philosophy at Northwestern University. Ward's primary research revolves around pragmatics, with emphasis o ...

* John Warnock * J. Turner Whitted * Lance Williams

Applications for their use

Bitmap Design / Image Editing * Adobe Photoshop * Corel Photo-Paint * GIMP * Krita Vector drawing * Adobe Illustrator * CorelDRAW * Inkscape * Affinity Designer * Sketch Architecture *

VariCAD VariCAD is a computer program for 3D/2D CAD and mechanical engineering which has been developed since 1988 in the Czech Republic. VariCAD runs on Windows and Linux. It features many tools for 3D modeling and 2D drafting. VariCAD provides support ...

* FreeCAD * AutoCAD * QCAD * LibreCAD * DataCAD * Corel Designer Video editing * Adobe Premiere Pro * Sony Vegas * Final Cut * DaVinci Resolve * Cinelerra * VirtualDub Sculpting, Animation, and 3D Modeling * Blender 3D * Wings 3D * ZBrush *

Sculptris Sculptris is a virtual sculpting software program, with a primary focus on the concept of modeling clay. It entered active development in early December 2009, and the most recent release was in 2011. Users can pull, push, pinch, and twist virtua ...

* SolidWorks * Rhino3D * SketchUp * Houdini * 3ds Max * Cinema 4D * Maya * Houdini Digital composition *

Nuke Nuke is most commonly used as a slang term for a nuclear weapon, or the act of detonating/setting one off. Nuke may also refer to: Computing * Nuke (software), a node-based compositor * Nuke (video games), a type of damaging attack that is mos ...

Blackmagic Fusion Blackmagic Fusion (formerly eyeon Fusion and briefly Maya Fusion, a version produced for Alias-Wavefront) is post-production image compositing developed by Blackmagic Design and originally authored by eyeon Software. It is typically used to crea ...

Adobe After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc., and used in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Among other things, After ...

* Natron Rendering * V-Ray * RedShift * RenderMan * Octane Render * Mantra * Lumion (Architectural visualization) Other applications examples * ACIS - geometric core *

Autodesk Softimage Autodesk Softimage, or simply Softimage () was a 3D computer graphics application, for producing 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling, and computer animation. Now owned by Autodesk and formerly titled Softimage, XSI, the software has been predomin ...

* POV-Ray * Scribus * Silo *

Hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A ''regular hexagon'' h ...

* Lightwave

References

External links

A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation

Industry

Industrial labs doing "blue sky" graphics research include:
Adobe Advanced Technology LabsMERLMicrosoft Research – GraphicsNvidia Research
Major film studios notable for graphics research include:
ILMPDI/Dreamworks AnimationPixar
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