Computer graphics (computer science)

Short description: Sub-field of computer science

A modern rendering of the Utah teapot, an iconic model in 3D computer graphics created by Martin Newell in 1975.

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.

## Contents

* 1 Overview
* 2 History
* 3 Subfields
* 3.1 Geometry
* 3.2 Animation
* 3.3 Rendering
* 4 Notable researchers
* 5 Applications for their use
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 Further reading
* 9 External links
* 9.1 Industry

## Overview

Computer graphics studies 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
* Computational geometry
* Computational topology
* Computer vision
* Image processing
* Information visualization
* Scientific visualization

Applications of computer graphics include:

* Print design
* Digital art
* Special effects
* Video games
* 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,[1] Symposium on Rendering, Symposium on Computer Animation,[2] and High Performance Graphics.[3]

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).[4][5][6][7]

## Subfields

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

1. Geometry: ways to represent and process surfaces
2. Animation: ways to represent and manipulate motion
3. Rendering: algorithms to reproduce light transport
4. Imaging: image acquisition or image editing

### Geometry

Successive approximations of a surface computed using quadric error metrics

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).[8] 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).[9]

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.[10][11][12]
* Discrete differential geometry – a nascent field which defines geometric quantities for the discrete surfaces used in computer graphics.[13]
* 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, etc.)

### Rendering

Indirect diffuse scattering simulated using path tracing and irradiance caching.

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 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 (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. (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 – recent area concerned with quickly re-rendering scenes

## Notable researchers

* Arthur Appel
* James Arvo
* Brian A. Barsky
* Jim Blinn
* Jack E. Bresenham
* Loren Carpenter
* Edwin Catmull
* James H. Clark
* Robert L. Cook
* Franklin C. Crow
* Paul Debevec
* David C. Evans
* Ron Fedkiw
* Steven K. Feiner
* James D. Foley
* David Forsyth
* Henry Fuchs
* Andrew Glassner
* Henri Gouraud (computer scientist)
* Donald P. Greenberg
* 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
* 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
* 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
* SolidWorks
* Rhino3D
* SketchUp
* 3ds Max
* Cinema 4D
* Maya
* Houdini

Digital composition

* Nuke
* Blackmagic Fusion
* Adobe After Effects
* Natron

Rendering

* V-Ray
* RedShift
* RenderMan
* Octane Render
* Mantra
* Lumion (Architectural visualization)

Other applications examples

* ACIS \- geometric core
* Autodesk Softimage
* POV-Ray
* Scribus
* Silo
* Hexagon
* Lightwave

## See also

* Computer facial animation
* Computer science
* Computer science and engineering
* Computer graphics
* Digital geometry
* Digital image editing
* Geometry processing
* IBM PCPG, (1980s)
* Painter's algorithm
* Stanford Bunny
* Utah Teapot

## References

1. ↑ "geometryprocessing.org". http://www.geometryprocessing.org.
2. ↑ [1]
3. ↑ "High Performance Graphics". http://www.highperformancegraphics.org.
4. ↑ "Best Practices Memo". http://www.cra.org/reports/tenure_review.html.
5. ↑ "Choosing a venue: conference or journal?". http://people.csail.mit.edu/mernst/advice/conferences-vs-journals.html.
6. ↑ "Graphics/vision publications acceptance rates statistics". http://vrlab.epfl.ch/~ulicny/statistics/.
7. ↑ An extensive history of computer graphics can be found at this page .
8. ↑ "Point Based Graphics 2007 - PBG07". http://graphics.ethz.ch/events/pbg/07/.
9. ↑ "Ron Fedkiw". http://graphics.stanford.edu/~fedkiw/.
10. ↑ [2]
11. ↑ CS 598: Digital Geometry Processing (Fall 2004)
12. ↑ "Digital Geometry Processing". http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~sheffa/dgp/.
13. ↑ "Discrete Differential Geometry". http://ddg.cs.columbia.edu/.

## Further reading

* Foley et al.  Principles and Practice.
* Shirley. Fundamentals of Computer Graphics.
* Watt. 3D Computer Graphics.

## External links

* A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation
* History of Computer Graphics series of articles

### Industry

Industrial labs doing "blue sky" graphics research include:

* Adobe Advanced Technology Labs
* MERL
* Microsoft Research – Graphics
* Nvidia Research

Major film studios notable for graphics research include:

* ILM
* PDI/Dreamworks Animation
* Pixar

* v
* t
* e

Visualization of technical information

Fields|

* Biological data visualization
* Chemical imaging
* Crime mapping
* Data visualization
* Educational visualization
* Flow visualization
* Geovisualization
* Information visualization
* Mathematical visualization
* Medical imaging
* Molecular graphics
* Product visualization
* Scientific visualization
* Software visualization
* Technical drawing
* User interface design
* Visual culture
* Volume visualization

Image types|

* Chart
* Diagram
* Engineering drawing
* Graph of a function
* Ideogram
* Map
* Photograph
* Pictogram
* Plot
* Schematic
* Skeletal formula
* Statistical graphics
* Table
* Technical drawings
* Technical illustration
* User interface

People|

* Jacques Bertin
* Stuart Card
* Thomas A. DeFanti
* Michael Friendly
* George Furnas
* Pat Hanrahan
* Nigel Holmes
* Christopher R. Johnson
* Gordon Kindlmann
* August Kekulé
* Manuel Lima
* Alan MacEachren
* Jock D. Mackinlay
* Michael Maltz
* Bruce H. McCormick
* Miriah Meyer
* Charles Joseph Minard
* Rudolf Modley
* Gaspard Monge
* Tamara Munzner
* Otto Neurath
* Florence Nightingale
* Hanspeter Pfister
* Clifford A. Pickover
* William Playfair
* Karl Wilhelm Pohlke
* Adolphe Quetelet
* George G. Robertson
* Arthur H. Robinson
* Lawrence J. Rosenblum
* Ben Shneiderman
* Fraser Stoddart
* Edward Tufte
* Fernanda Viégas
* Ade Olufeko
* Howard Wainer
* Martin Wattenberg
* Bang Wong

Related topics|

* Cartography
* Chartjunk
* Computer graphics
* in computer science
* Graph drawing
* Graphic design
* Graphic organizer
* Imaging science
* Information graphics
* Information science
* Mathematics and art
* Mental visualisation
* Misleading graph
* Neuroimaging
* Patent drawing
* Scientific modelling
* Spatial analysis
* Visual analytics
* Visual perception
* Volume cartography
* Volume rendering

* v
* t
* e

Computer graphics

Vector graphics|

* Diffusion curve
* Pixel

2D graphics|

* 2.5D

3D graphics|

* Aliasing
* Graphical projection

Concepts|

* Affine transformation
* Planar projection
* Rotation
* Scaling
* Shear matrix
* Translation

* v
* t
* e

Computer science

Note: This template roughly follows the 2012 ACM Computing Classification System.

Hardware|

* Printed circuit board
* Peripheral
* Integrated circuit
* Very Large Scale Integration
* Systems on Chip (SoCs)
* Energy consumption (Green computing)
* Electronic design automation
* Hardware acceleration

Computer systems
organization|

* Computer architecture
* Embedded system
* Real-time computing
* Dependability

Networks|

* Network architecture
* Network protocol
* Network components
* Network scheduler
* Network performance evaluation
* Network service

Software organization|

* Interpreter
* Middleware
* Virtual machine
* Operating system
* Software quality

Software notations
and tools|

* Programming paradigm
* Programming language
* Compiler
* Domain-specific language
* Modeling language
* Software framework
* Integrated development environment
* Software configuration management
* Software library
* Software repository

Software development|

* Software development process
* Requirements analysis
* Software design
* Software construction
* Software deployment
* Software maintenance
* Programming team
* Open-source model

Theory of computation|

* Model of computation
* Formal language
* Automata theory
* Computational complexity theory
* Logic
* Semantics

Algorithms|

* Algorithm design
* Analysis of algorithms
* Algorithmic efficiency
* Randomized algorithm
* Computational geometry

Mathematics
of computing|

* Discrete mathematics
* Probability
* Statistics
* Mathematical software
* Information theory
* Mathematical analysis
* Numerical analysis

Information
systems|

* Database management system
* Information storage systems
* Enterprise information system
* Social information systems
* Geographic information system
* Decision support system
* Process control system
* Multimedia information system
* Data mining
* Digital library
* Computing platform
* Digital marketing
* World Wide Web
* Information retrieval

Security|

* Cryptography
* Formal methods
* Security services
* Intrusion detection system
* Hardware security
* Network security
* Information security
* Application security

Human–computer
interaction|

* Interaction design
* Social computing
* Ubiquitous computing
* Visualization
* Accessibility

Concurrency|

* Concurrent computing
* Parallel computing
* Distributed computing
* Multithreading
* Multiprocessing

Artificial
intelligence|

* Natural language processing
* Knowledge representation and reasoning
* Computer vision
* Automated planning and scheduling
* Search methodology
* Control method
* Philosophy of artificial intelligence
* Distributed artificial intelligence

Machine learning|

* Supervised learning
* Unsupervised learning
* Reinforcement learning
* Multi-task learning
* Cross-validation

Graphics|

* Animation
* Rendering
* Image manipulation
* Graphics processing unit
* Mixed reality
* Virtual reality
* Image compression
* Solid modeling

Applied
computing|

* E-commerce
* Enterprise software
* Computational mathematics
* Computational physics
* Computational chemistry
* Computational biology
* Computational social science
* Computational engineering
* Computational healthcare
* Digital art
* Electronic publishing
* Cyberwarfare
* Electronic voting
* Video games
* Word processing
* Operations research
* Educational technology
* Document management

* Book
* Category
* Outline
* WikiProject
* Commons

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