Department of Computer Science and Technology

Course pages 2017–18

Subsections


Paper 3: Introduction to Graphics

This course is only taken by Part IA and Part IB Paper 3 students.

Lecturer: Dr R.K. Mantiuk and Professor P. Robinson

No. of lectures and practical classes: 8 + 4

Suggested hours of supervisions: 2

Prerequisite courses: None

This course is a prerequisite for Further Graphics

Aims

To introduce the necessary background, the basic algorithms, and the applications of computer graphics and graphics hardware.

Lectures

  • Background. What is an image? Resolution and quantisation. Storage of images in memory. [1 lecture]

  • Rendering. Perspective. Reflection of light from surfaces and shading. Geometric models. Ray tracing. [2 lectures]

  • Graphics pipeline. Polygonal mesh models. Transformations using matrices in 2D and 3D. Homogeneous coordinates. Projection: orthographic and perspective. [1 lecture]

  • Graphics hardware and modern OpenGL. GPU rendering. GPU frameworks and APIs. Vertex processing. Rasterisation. Fragment processing. Working with meshes and textures. Z-buffer. Double-buffering and frame synchronization. [3 lectures]

  • Colour. Perception of colour. Colour spaces. [1 lecture]

Objectives

By the end of the course students should be able to:

  • understand and apply in practice basic concepts of ray-tracing: ray-object intersection, reflections, refraction, shadow rays, distributed ray-tracing, direct and indirect illumination;

  • describe and explain the following algorithms: Gouraud and Phong shading, z-buffer, texture mapping, double buffering, mip-map, bump- and normal-mapping;

  • use matrices and homogeneous coordinates to represent and perform 2D and 3D transformations; understand and use 3D to 2D projection, the viewing volume, and 3D clipping;

  • implement OpenGL code for rendering of polygonal objects, control camera and lighting, work with vertex and fragment shaders;

  • describe a number of colour spaces and their relative merits.

Recommended reading

* Shirley, P. & Marschner, S. (2009). Fundamentals of Computer Graphics. CRC Press (3rd ed.).

Foley, J.D., van Dam, A., Feiner, S.K. & Hughes, J.F. (1990). Computer graphics: principles and practice. Addison-Wesley (2nd ed.).

Kessenich, J.M., Sellers, G. and Shreiner, D (2016). OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 4.5 with SPIR-V, [seventh edition and later]