Introduction to Graphics

Principal lecturer: Fangcheng Zhong
Taken by: Part IA CST
Term: Michaelmas
Hours: 8
Format: In-person lectures
Suggested hours of supervisions: 2
This course is a prerequisite for: Extended Reality, Further Graphics
Past exam questions, Moodle, timetable

Aims

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

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. [2 lectures]
Human vision, colour and tone mapping. Perception of colour. Tone mapping. Colour spaces. [2 lectures]

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: z-buffer, texture mapping, double buffering, mip-map, 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.
explain the need for tone mapping and colour processing in rendering pipeline.