MTEC1311: Computer Graphics Lecture#1

Introduction to Computer
Graphics
Dr. M. Munlin
Assistance Professor
Faculty of information Science and Technology
Mahanakorn University of Technology

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Objectives

• Learn elements of graphics

• Learn
L graphics
hi applications
li ti
• Learn image formation
• Learn camera model
• Learn graphics pipeline architecture
• Learn
L application
li ti P Programming
i IInterface
t f (API)

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 Computer Graphics
• Computer graphics deals with all aspects
of creating images with a computer
- Hardware
- Software
- Applications

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Example

• Where did this image come from?

• What hardware/software did we need to

produce it?
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 Preliminary Answer

• Application: The object is an artist’s

rendition of the sun for an animation to be
shown in a domed environment
(planetarium)
• Software: Maya for modeling and
rendering but Maya is built on top of
OpenGL
• Hardware: PC with graphics card for
modeling and rendering
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Basic Graphics System

Output device

Input devices
Image formed in FB

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 Output Device: CRT

Can be used either as a line-drawing

device (calligraphic) or to display contents
of frame buffer (raster mode)
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Shadow Mask CRT

Ensure that an electron beam excites only

phosphors of the proper pixel.
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 Output Device: Projection TV

• Projection TVs can provide a much bigger

picture than CRT can
• It can be a plasma TV or color LCD
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Color LCD

An LCD that can show colors must have

three sub-pixels with red, green and blue
color filters to create each color pixel.
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 Computer Graphics: 1960-1970

• Wireframe graphics
- Draw only lines
• Sketchpad
• Display Processors
• Storage tube

wireframe representation
of sun object

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Sketchpad

• Ivan Sutherland’s
Sutherland s PhD
thesis at MIT
- Recognized the potential of man-machine
interaction
- Loop
• Display
p y something g
• User moves light pen
• Computer generates new display
- Sutherland also created many of the now
common algorithms for computer graphics
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 Display Processor

• Rather than have the host computer try to

refresh display use a special purpose computer
called a display processor (DPU)

• Graphics stored in display list (display file) on

display processor
• Host compiles display list and sends to DPU
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Computer Graphics: 1970-1980

• Raster Graphics
• Beginning
B i i off graphics
hi standards
t d d
- IFIPS
• GKS: European effort
– Becomes ISO 2D standard
• Core: North American effort
– 3D but fails to become ISO standard

• Workstations and PCs

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 Raster Graphics

• Image produced as an array (the raster)

of picture elements (pixels) in the frame
buffer

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Computer Graphics: 1980-1990

Realism comes to computer graphics

smooth shading environment bump mapping

mapping
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 Computer Graphics: 1980-1990

• Special purpose hardware

- Silicon Graphics geometry engine
• VLSI implementation of graphics pipeline

• Industry-based standards
- PHIGS
• Networked graphics: X Window System
• Human-Computer Interface (HCI)

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Computer Graphics: 1990-2000

• OpenGL API
• Completely
C l t l computer-generated
t t d feature-
f t
length movies (Toy Story) are successful
• New hardware capabilities
- Texture mapping
g
- Blending
- Accumulation, stencil buffers

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 Computer Graphics: 2000-

• Photorealism
• Graphics
G hi cards d ffor PC
PCs d
dominate
i t market
k t
- Nvidia, ATI
• Game boxes and game players determine
direction of market
• Computer graphics routine in movie
industry: Maya, Lightwave
• Programmable pipelines

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Graphics Applications

Film and animation

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 Graphics Applications

Games

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Graphics Applications

Medical Imaging

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 Graphics Applications

Computer Aided Design (CAD)

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Graphics Applications

Scientific Visualisation

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 Image Formation

• In computer graphics, we form images

which are generally two dimensional using
a process analogous to how images are
formed by physical imaging systems
- Cameras
- Microscopes
- Telescopes
- Human visual system

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Elements of Image Formation

• Objects
• Viewer
Vi
• Light source(s)

• Attributes that govern how light interacts

with the materials in the scene
• Note the independence of the objects, the
viewer, and the light source(s)
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 Light
• Light is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that
causes a reaction in our visual systems
y
• Generally these are wavelengths in the range of about
350-750 nm (nanometers)
• Long wavelengths appear as reds and short
wavelengths as blues

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Ray Tracing and

Geometric Optics
One way to form an image is to
f ll
follow rays off light
li ht ffrom a
point source finding which
rays enter the lens of the
camera. However, each
ray off light
li ht may h have
multiple interactions with objects
before being absorbed or going to infinity.
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 Additive and Subtractive Color

• Additive color
- Form a color by adding amounts of three
primaries
• CRTs, projection systems, positive film
- Primaries are Red (R), Green (G), Blue (B)
• Subtractive color
- Form a color by filtering white light with cyan
(C) M
(C), Magenta
t (M)
(M), and dY
Yellow
ll (Y) filt
filters
• Light-material interactions
• Printing
• Negative film

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Graphics Pipeline
Architecture
• Process objects one at a time in the order
they are generated by the application
- Can consider only local lighting
• Pipeline architecture

application
pp display
program
• All steps can be implemented in hardware
on the graphics card
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 Vertex Processing

• Much of the work in the pipeline is in converting

object representations from one coordinate
system to another
- Object coordinates
- Camera (eye) coordinates
- Screen coordinates
• Every change of coordinates is equivalent to a
matrix transformation
• Vertex processor also computes vertex colors

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Projection

• Projection is the process that combines

the 3D viewer with the 3D objects to
produce the 2D image
- Perspective projections: all projectors meet at
the center of projection
- Parallel projection: projectors are parallel,
center of projection is replaced by a direction of
projection

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 Parallel and Perspective
Projection

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Primitive Assembly

Vertices must be collected into geometric

objects before clipping and rasterization
can take place
- Line segments
- Polygons
- Curves and surfaces

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 Clipping
Just as a real camera cannot “see” the
whole world,, the virtual camera can onlyy
see part of the world or object space
- Objects that are not within this volume are said
to be clipped out of the scene

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Rasterization

• If an object is not clipped out, the appropriate

pixels in the frame buffer must be assigned colors
• Rasterizer produces a set of fragments for each
object
• Fragments are “potential pixels”
- Have a location in frame bufffer
- Color and depth
p attributes
• Vertex attributes are interpolated over objects by
the rasterizer

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 Fragment Processing

• Fragments are processed to determine

the color of the corresponding pixel in the
frame buffer
• Colors can be determined by texture
mapping or interpolation of vertex colors
g
• Fragments may y be blocked by
y other
fragments closer to the camera
- Hidden-surface removal

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The Programmer’s Interface

• Programmer sees the graphics system

through a software interface: the
Application Programming Interface (API),
e.g. OpenGL

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 Object Specification

• Most APIs support a limited set of

primitives including
- Points (0D object)
- Line segments (1D objects)
- Polygons (2D objects)
- Some curves and surfaces
• Quadrics
• Parametric polynomials
• All are defined through locations in space
or vertices
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OpenGL Object API

type of object
location
ocat o of
o vertex
ve te
glBegin(GL_POLYGON)
glVertex3f(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
glVertex3f(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
glVertex3f(0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
glEnd( );

end of object definition

glClearColor(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0); // background color white
glColor3f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0); // foreground color red

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 Camera Specification

• Six degrees of freedom

- Position of center of lens
- Orientation
• Lens
• Film size
• Orientation of film plane

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OpenGL Camera API

pprojector
j

p
image plane
projection of p
center off projection
j i

gluLookAt(0.0, 0.0, 5.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);

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 Example: Triangle

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GLUT API

glutWireCube(1.0); // wireframe cube

glutInit(&argc, argv); // init program
// init display
glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_SINGLE | GLUT_RGB);
glutInitWindowSize(500, 500); // init window size
glutInitWindowPosition(100, 100); // init window pos
glutCreateWindow(argv[0]); // create window
init(); // init program environments
glutDisplayFunc(display); // display function
glutReshapeFunc(reshape); // re-display function
glutMainLoop(); // program loop

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 Example: Cube

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Summary
• Elements of graphics consists of HW, SW and
applications.
pp
• Area of graphics applications are entertainment, industry,
medical, academic, etc.
• Image formation consists of object, light and viewer.
• Computer camera model is similar to real camera.
• Graphics pipeline architecture contains several stages to
produce a realistic graphics image
image.
• Application Programming Interface (API) helps
programmer to program graphics much easier.

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 Q&A
0. List 5 major elements of a graphics system
1. Give examples of Graphics HW, SW, and applications.
2. What does the display resolution 1280x800 mean ?
3. How does computer display and image ?
4. Why do we need clipping ?
5. Describe graphics pipelines.
6. How important is API?
7. Explain the camera model.

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