Computer graphics
Computer graphics deals with by generating
Some topics in computer graphics include
Computer graphics is responsible for displaying art and image data effectively and meaningfully to the consumer. It is also used for processing image data received from the physical world, such as photo and video content. Computer graphics development has had a significant impact on many types of media and has revolutionized
Overview
The term computer graphics has been used in a broad sense to describe "almost everything on computers that is not text or sound".[2] Typically, the term computer graphics refers to several different things:
- the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer
- the various technologiesused to create and manipulate images
- methods for digitally synthesizing and manipulating visual content, see study of computer graphics
Today, computer graphics is widespread. Such imagery is found in and on television, newspapers, weather reports, and in a variety of medical investigations and surgical procedures. A well-constructed graph can present complex statistics in a form that is easier to understand and interpret. In the media "such graphs are used to illustrate papers, reports, theses", and other presentation material.[3]
Many tools have been developed to visualize data. Computer-generated imagery can be categorized into several different types: two dimensional (2D), three dimensional (3D), and animated graphics. As technology has improved,
History
The precursor sciences to the development of modern computer graphics were the advances in
1950s
Early projects like the
Electronics pioneer
Further advances in computing led to greater advancements in
1960s
The phrase "computer graphics" has been credited to William Fetter, a graphic designer for Boeing in 1960. Fetter in turn attributed it to Verne Hudson, also at Boeing.[7][8]
In 1961 another student at MIT,
At around the same time (1961–1962) in the University of Cambridge, Elizabeth Waldram wrote code to display radio-astronomy maps on a cathode ray tube.[9]
E. E. Zajac, a scientist at
Also sometime in the early 1960s,
It was not long before major corporations started taking an interest in computer graphics.
Also, in 1966,
In 1968, Dave Evans and Ivan Sutherland founded the first computer graphics hardware company, Evans & Sutherland. While Sutherland originally wanted the company to be located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Salt Lake City was instead chosen due to its proximity to the professors' research group at the University of Utah.
Also in 1968 Arthur Appel described the first ray casting algorithm, the first of a class of ray tracing-based rendering algorithms that have since become fundamental in achieving photorealism in graphics by modeling the paths that rays of light take from a light source, to surfaces in a scene, and into the camera.
In 1969, the
1970s
Subsequently, a number of breakthroughs in the field – particularly important early breakthroughs in the transformation of graphics from utilitarian to realistic – occurred at the
One of these students was
As the UU computer graphics laboratory was attracting people from all over,
James Clark was also there; he later founded Silicon Graphics, a maker of advanced rendering systems that would dominate the field of high-end graphics until the early 1990s.
A major advance in 3D computer graphics was created at UU by these early pioneers –
Also in the 1970s, Henri Gouraud, Jim Blinn and Bui Tuong Phong contributed to the foundations of shading in CGI via the development of the Gouraud shading and Blinn–Phong shading models, allowing graphics to move beyond a "flat" look to a look more accurately portraying depth. Jim Blinn also innovated further in 1978 by introducing bump mapping, a technique for simulating uneven surfaces, and the predecessor to many more advanced kinds of mapping used today.
The modern
1980s
The 1980s began to see the modernization and commercialization of computer graphics. As the home computer proliferated, a subject which had previously been an academics-only discipline was adopted by a much larger audience, and the number of computer graphics developers increased significantly.
In the early 1980s,
Computer graphics terminals during this decade became increasingly intelligent, semi-standalone and standalone workstations. Graphics and application processing were increasingly migrated to the intelligence in the workstation, rather than continuing to rely on central mainframe and
In the field of realistic rendering, Japan's Osaka University developed the LINKS-1 Computer Graphics System, a supercomputer that used up to 257 Zilog Z8001 microprocessors, in 1982, for the purpose of rendering realistic 3D computer graphics. According to the Information Processing Society of Japan: "The core of 3D image rendering is calculating the luminance of each pixel making up a rendered surface from the given viewpoint, light source, and object position. The LINKS-1 system was developed to realize an image rendering methodology in which each pixel could be parallel processed independently using ray tracing. By developing a new software methodology specifically for high-speed image rendering, LINKS-1 was able to rapidly render highly realistic images."[15] The LINKS-1 was the world's most powerful computer, as of 1984.[16]
Also in the field of realistic rendering, the general
The continuing popularity of Star Wars and other science fiction franchises were relevant in cinematic CGI at this time, as Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic became known as the "go-to" house by many other studios for topnotch computer graphics in film. Important advances in chroma keying ("bluescreening", etc.) were made for the later films of the original trilogy. Two other pieces of video would also outlast the era as historically relevant: Dire Straits' iconic, near-fully-CGI video for their song "Money for Nothing" in 1985, which popularized CGI among music fans of that era, and a scene from Young Sherlock Holmes the same year featuring the first fully CGI character in a feature movie (an animated stained-glass knight). In 1988, the first shaders – small programs designed specifically to do shading as a separate algorithm – were developed by Pixar, which had already spun off from Industrial Light & Magic as a separate entity – though the public would not see the results of such technological progress until the next decade. In the late 1980s, Silicon Graphics (SGI) computers were used to create some of the first fully computer-generated short films at Pixar, and Silicon Graphics machines were considered a high-water mark for the field during the decade.
The 1980s is also called the
The decade also saw computer graphics applied to many additional professional markets, including location-based entertainment and education with the E&S Digistar, vehicle design, vehicle simulation, and chemistry.
1990s
This section possibly contains original research. (July 2017) |
The 1990s' overwhelming note was the emergence of
The field began to see the first rendered graphics that could truly pass as
In film, Pixar began its serious commercial rise in this era under Edwin Catmull, with its first major film release, in 1995 – Toy Story – a critical and commercial success of nine-figure magnitude. The studio to invent the programmable shader would go on to have many animated hits, and its work on prerendered video animation is still considered an industry leader and research trail breaker.
In video games, in 1992,
Technology and algorithms for rendering continued to improve greatly. In 1996, Krishnamurty and Levoy invented
2000s
CGI became ubiquitous in earnest during this era.
The continued rise and increasing sophistication of the
Computer graphics used in films and
In
In
2010s
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2014) |
In the 2010s, CGI has been nearly ubiquitous in video, pre-rendered graphics are nearly scientifically
In cinema, most
In videogames, the Microsoft
Image types
Two-dimensional
2D computer graphics are the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from models, such as digital image, and by techniques specific to them.
2D computer graphics are mainly used in applications that were originally developed upon traditional printing and drawing technologies such as typography. In those applications, the two-dimensional image is not just a representation of a real-world object, but an independent artifact with added semantic value; two-dimensional models are therefore preferred because they give more direct control of the image than 3D computer graphics, whose approach is more akin to photography than to typography.
Pixel art
A large form of digital art, pixel art is created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level. Graphics in most old (or relatively limited) computer and video games, graphing calculator games, and many mobile phone games are mostly pixel art.
Sprite graphics
A sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene. Initially including just graphical objects handled separately from the memory bitmap of a video display, this now includes various manners of graphical overlays.
Originally, sprites were a method of integrating unrelated bitmaps so that they appeared to be part of the normal bitmap on a
Vector graphics
Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics. Raster graphics is the representation of images as an array of pixels and is typically used for the representation of photographic images.[23] Vector graphics consists in encoding information about shapes and colors that comprise the image, which can allow for more flexibility in rendering. There are instances when working with vector tools and formats is best practice, and instances when working with raster tools and formats is best practice. There are times when both formats come together. An understanding of the advantages and limitations of each technology and the relationship between them is most likely to result in efficient and effective use of tools.
Generative machine-learning models
Since the mid-2010s, as a result of advances in
Three-dimensional
3D graphics, compared to 2D graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data. For the purpose of performance, this is stored in the computer. This includes images that may be for later display or for real-time viewing.
Despite these differences, 3D computer graphics rely on similar algorithms as 2D computer graphics do in the frame and raster graphics (like in 2D) in the final rendered display. In computer graphics software, the distinction between 2D and 3D is occasionally blurred; 2D applications may use 3D techniques to achieve effects such as lighting, and primarily 3D may use 2D rendering techniques.
3D computer graphics are the same as 3D models. The model is contained within the graphical data file, apart from the rendering. However, there are differences that include the 3D model is the representation of any 3D object. Until visually displayed a model is not graphic. Due to printing, 3D models are not only confined to virtual space. 3D rendering is how a model can be displayed. Also can be used in non-graphical computer simulations and calculations.
Computer animation
Virtual entities may contain and be controlled by assorted attributes, such as transform values (location, orientation, and scale) stored in an object's
To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer
Concepts and principles
Images are typically created by devices such as
Digital images include both vector images and raster images, but raster images are more commonly used.
Pixel
In digital imaging, a
Primitives
Primitives are basic units which a graphics system may combine to create more complex images or models. Examples would be
Rendering
Rendering is the generation of a 2D image from a 3D model by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene.[26] The data contained in the scene file is then passed to a rendering program to be processed and output to a digital image or raster graphics image file. The rendering program is usually built into the computer graphics software, though others are available as plug-ins or entirely separate programs. The term "rendering" may be by analogy with an "artist's rendering" of a scene. Although the technical details of rendering methods vary, the general challenges to overcome in producing a 2D image from a 3D representation stored in a scene file are outlined as the graphics pipeline along a rendering device, such as a GPU. A GPU is a device able to assist the CPU in calculations. If a scene is to look relatively realistic and predictable under virtual lighting, the rendering software should solve the rendering equation. The rendering equation does not account for all lighting phenomena, but is a general lighting model for computer-generated imagery. 'Rendering' is also used to describe the process of calculating effects in a video editing file to produce final video output.
- 3D projection
- rasterizationto produce the final image.
- Ray tracing
- computational cost.
- Shading
- 3D models or illustrations by varying levels of darkness. It is a process used in drawing for depicting levels of darkness on paper by applying media more densely or with a darker shade for darker areas, and less densely or with a lighter shade for lighter areas. There are various techniques of shading including cross hatching where perpendicular lines of varying closeness are drawn in a grid pattern to shade an area. The closer the lines are together, the darker the area appears. Likewise, the farther apart the lines are, the lighter the area appears. The term has been recently generalized to mean that shadersare applied.
- Texture mapping
- environment mappingto simulate mirror-like reflectivity, also called gloss.
- Anti-aliasing
- Rendering resolution-independent entities (such as 3D models) for viewing on a raster (pixel-based) device such as a mipmapping and texture filteringhelp to solve texture-related aliasing problems.
Volume rendering
Usually these are acquired in a regular pattern (e.g., one slice every millimeter) and usually have a regular number of image pixels in a regular pattern. This is an example of a regular volumetric grid, with each volume element, or voxel represented by a single value that is obtained by sampling the immediate area surrounding the voxel.
3D modeling
3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical,
Pioneers in computer graphics
- Charles Csuri
- Charles Csuri was a pioneer in computer animation and digital fine art and created the first computer art in 1964. Csuri was recognized by Smithsonian as the father of digital art and computer animation, and as a pioneer of computer animation by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Association for Computing Machinery-SIGGRAPH.
- Donald P. Greenberg
- Donald P. Greenberg is a leading innovator in computer graphics. Greenberg has authored hundreds of articles and served as a teacher and mentor to many prominent computer graphic artists, animators, and researchers such as Robert L. Cook, Marc Levoy, Brian A. Barsky, and Wayne Lytle. Many of his former students have won Academy Awards for technical achievements and several have won the SIGGRAPH Achievement Award. Greenberg was the founding director of the NSF Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization.
- A. Michael Noll
- Bela Julesz.
Other pioneers
- Pierre Bézier
- Jim Blinn
- Jack Bresenham
- John Carmack
- Paul de Casteljau
- Ed Catmull
- Frank Crow
- James D. Foley
- William Fetter
- Henry Fuchs
- Henri Gouraud
- Charles Loop
- Nadia Magnenat Thalmann
- Benoit Mandelbrot
- Martin Newell
- Fred Parke
- Bui Tuong Phong
- Steve Russell
- Daniel J. Sandin
- Alvy Ray Smith
- Bob Sproull
- Ivan Sutherland
- Daniel Thalmann
- Johnson K. Yan
- Andries van Dam
- John Warnock
- J. Turner Whitted
- Lance Williams
- Jim Kajiya
- James H. Clark
Organizations
- SIGGRAPH
- GDC
- Bell Telephone Laboratories
- Link Flight Simulation, division of Singer Company
- SAGE Project
- Boeing
- Eurographics
- Evans and Sutherland
- IBM
- Renault
- NYIT
- The computer science department of the University of Utah
- Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic
- Autodesk
- Adobe Systems
- Pixar
- Silicon Graphics, Khronos Group & OpenGL
- The DirectX division at Microsoft
- Nvidia
- AMD (ATI Technologies)
Study of computer graphics
The
As an
Applications
Computer graphics may be used in the following areas:
- Augmented reality
- Computational biology
- Computational photography
- Computational physics
- Computer-aided design
- Computing
- Design
- Digital art
- Education
- Extended reality
- Graphic design
- Infographics
- Information visualization
- Mixed reality
- Rational drug design
- Simulation
- Scientific visualization
- Special effects for cinema
- Video games
- Virtual reality
- Web3D
See also
Notes
- ^ The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The concept "valley" refers to the dip in a graph of the comfort level of humans as a function of a robot's human likeness.
References
- ^ "ACM Computing Classification System ToC". Association for Computing Machinery. September 21, 2016. Archived from the original on Jul 28, 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
- ^ "What is Computer Graphics?". Cornell University Program of Computer Graphics. 15 April 1998.
- ^ "What are computer graphics?". University of Leeds. Archived from the original on 2015-01-06.
- ^ Michael Friendly (2008). "Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization".
- ^ Yan, Johnson (August 1985). "Advances in Computer-Generated Imagery for Flight Simulation". IEEE (8): 37-51.
- ^ From the Vault of MIT (Jan 20, 2016). "MIT Science Reporter—"Automatically Programmed Tools" (1959)". YouTube.
- ^ a b Carlson, Wayne (2003). "A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation". Archived from the original on April 5, 2007.
- ISBN 978-1447149316.
- ^ EDSAC 1 and after – a compilation of personal reminiscences, Retrieved 11 July 2019.
- ^ David Salomon (1999). Computer graphics and geometric modeling. p. ix
- IEEE Computer Society. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ISBN 9783642821509.
- ^ IEEE Computer Society. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- IEEE Computer Society. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ^ Information Processing Society of Japan. "LINKS-1 Computer Graphics System-Computer Museum". Retrieved 15 June 2015.
- ISSN 0065-2458. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
- ^ "System 16 – Namco System 21 Hardware (Namco)". Retrieved 15 June 2015.
- ^ "System 16 – Taito Air System Hardware (Taito)". Retrieved 15 June 2015.
- ^ "Virtua Racing – Arcade (1992)". 15 Most Influential Games of All Time. GameSpot. 14 March 2001. Archived from the original on 2010-04-12. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
- ^ The Future Of Computer Graphics Daniel Sevo, 2005 (retrieved 26 February 2015)
- ^ Cinema: A Painstaking Fantasy Chris Taylor, Time, 31 July 2000 (retrieved 8 August 2012).
- ^ Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within at Box Office Mojo (retrieved 12 August 2012).
- ISBN 978-1-59059-617-3.
- ^ Vincent, James (May 24, 2022). "All these images were generated by Google's latest text-to-image AI". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
- ISBN 0-7506-4331-5.
- ^ "Lighting principles for 3D artists from film and art". GarageFarm. 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2021-07-21.
- ^ Blythe, David. Advanced Graphics Programming Techniques Using OpenGL. Siggraph 1999. (see: Multitexture)
Further reading
- L. Ammeraal and K. Zhang (2007). Computer Graphics for Java Programmers, Second Edition, John-Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-03160-5.
- David Rogers (1998). Procedural Elements for Computer Graphics. McGraw-Hill.
- James D. Foley, Andries Van Dam, Steven K. Feiner and John F. Hughes (1995). Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice. Addison-Wesley.
- Donald Hearn and M. Pauline Baker (1994). Computer Graphics. Prentice-Hall.
- Francis S. Hill (2001). Computer Graphics. Prentice Hall.
- John Lewell (1985). Computer Graphics: A Survey of Current Techniques and Applications. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
- Jeffrey J. McConnell (2006). Computer Graphics: Theory Into Practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
- R. D. Parslow, R. W. Prowse, Richard Elliot Green (1969). Computer Graphics: Techniques and Applications.
- Peter Shirley and others. (2005). Fundamentals of computer graphics. A.K. Peters, Ltd.
- M. Slater, A. Steed, Y. Chrysantho (2002). Computer graphics and virtual environments: from realism to real-time. Addison-Wesley.
- Wolfgang Höhl (2008): Interactive environments with open-source software, Springer Wien New York, ISBN 3-211-79169-8