BASIC CONCEPT OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS

By
Dr. Richard Amankwah
 INTRODUCTION
• Image generation can be accomplished in
three ways:
• Drawing
• Photography
• Computer graphics
• Drawing was the only way of producing
images before the advent of photography in
about 1839 and the followed by computer
• Unlike photography, image generation using
computers does not involve lenses, shutters
etc which are found in cameras and other
optical instruments.
LIMITS OF HUMAN VISUAL SYSTEM
• Applied imaging in general and computer
graphics in particular arise from the need to
extend image production beyond the human
visual system. This include revelation of minor
details, recording and storage of data on
images for analysis and reference purposes.
 What is Interactive Computer Graphics?

• User controls contents, structure, and appearance of

objects and their displayed images via rapid visual
feedback
• Basic components of an interactive graphics system
– input (e.g., mouse, tablet and stylus, force feedback
device,scanner…)
– processing (and storage)
– display/output (e.g., screen, paper-based printer, video
recorder…)

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 History of computer graphics
Overview
• The term computer graphics has been used in a broad sense to describe
almost everything on computers that is not text or sound.
• Typically, the term computer graphics refers to several things like :
• the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer
• the various technologies used to create and manipulate images
• the images so produced, and
• the sub-field of computer science which studies methods for digitally
synthesizing and manipulating visual contents.
• The name computer graphics was created in 1960 by William Fetter, a
graphic designer at Boeing.
 Initial 1960’s developments
• In 1959, the TX-2 computer was developed at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory.
• A light pen could be used to draw sketches on the computer using Ivan
Sutherland's revolutionary Sketchpad software.
• Using a light pen, Sketchpad allowed one to draw simple shapes on the
computer screen, save them and even recall them later. The light pen
itself had a small photoelectric cell in its tip. This cell emitted an
electronic pulse whenever it was placed in front of a computer screen
and the screen's electron gun fired directly at it. By simply timing the
electronic pulse with the current location of the electron gun, it was easy
to pinpoint exactly where the pen was on the screen at any given
moment.
• The Sutherland program has created a platform for other computer
graphics developers to follow.
• Today, if one wants to draw a square for example, s/he does not have to
worry about drawing four lines perfectly to form the edges of the box.
One can simply specify that s/he wants to draw a box, and then specify
the location and size of the box. The software will then construct a perfect
box, with the right dimensions and at the right location.
• Another example is that Sutherland's software modelled objects - not just
a picture of objects. In other words, with a model of a car, one could
change the size of the tires without affecting the rest of the car. It could
stretch the body of the car without deforming the tires.
• These early computer graphics were vector graphics, composed of thin
lines whereas modern day graphics are Raster based using pixels.
 Further 1960’s developments
• Also in 1961 another student at MIT, Steve Russell, created the first video
game “Spacewar”.
• E. E. Zajac, a scientist at Bell Telephone Laboratory (BTL), created a film
called "Simulation of a two-giro gravity attitude control system" in 1963. In
this computer generated film, Zajac showed how the attitude of a satellite
could be altered as it orbits the Earth. He created the animation on an IBM
7090 mainframe computer.
• Frank Sindon created a film called Force, Mass and Motion illustrating
Newton's laws of motion in operation.
• Around the same time, scientist like Nelson Max, At Lawrence Radiation
Laboratory, created the films, "Flow of a Viscous Fluid" and "Propagation
of Shock Waves in a Solid Form."
• Boeing Aircraft also created a film called "Vibration of an Aircraft.“
• IBM was quick to respond to rapid this interest by releasing the IBM 2250
graphics terminal, the first commercially available graphics computer.
• Ralph Baer, a supervising engineer at Sanders Associates, came up with a
home video game in 1966 that was later licensed to Magnavox and called
the Odyssey. While very simplistic, and requiring fairly inexpensive
electronic parts, it allowed the player to move points of light around on a
screen. It was the first consumer computer graphics product.
• Also in 1966, Sutherland at MIT invented the first computer controlled
head-mounted display (HMD). Called the Sword of Damocles because of
the hardware required for support, it displayed two separate wireframe
images, one for each eye. This allowed the viewer to see the computer
scene in stereoscopic 3D.
• David C. Evans was director of engineering at Bendix Corporation's
computer division from 1953 to 1962, after which he worked for the next
five years as a visiting professor at Berkeley.
• In 1967 Sutherland was recruited by Evans to join the computer science
program at the University of Utah.
• In 1969, the ACM initiated A Special Interest Group in Graphics
(SIGGRAPH) which organizes conferences, graphics standards, and
publications within the field of computer graphics. In 1973, the first
annual SIGGRAPH conference was held, which has become one of the
focuses of the organization. SIGGRAPH has grown in size and importance
as the field of computer graphics has expanded over time.
 1970’s
• Edwin Catmull started at the University of Utah in 1970 and signed up for
Sutherland's computer graphics class.
• Edwin Catmsull along side his Fred Parke started the journey in creating a
full length motion picture using computer graphics.
• This era give rise to the innovation of 3D animation.
• The first major advance in 3D computer graphics was created at UU by
these early pioneers, the hidden-surface algorithm. In order to draw a
representation of a 3D object on the screen, the computer must
determine which surfaces are "behind" the object from the viewer's
perspective, and thus should be "hidden" when the computer creates (or
renders) the image.
 1980’s
• In the early 1980s, the availability of bit-slice and 16-bit microprocessors
started to revolutionise high resolution computer graphics terminals which
now increasingly became intelligent, semi-standalone and standalone
workstations.
• Typical of the early move to high resolution computer graphics intelligent
workstations for the computer-aided engineering market were the Orca
1000, 2000 and 3000 workstations, developed by Orcatech in Ottawa, a
spin-off from Bell-Northern Research, and led by an early workstation
pioneer David John Pearson.
• The Orca 3000 was based on Motorola 68000 and AMD bit-slice
processors and had Unix as its operating system. It was targetted squarely
at the sophisticated end of the design engineering sector.
• Artists and graphic designers began to see the personal computer,
particularly the Commodore Amiga and Macintosh, as a serious design
tool, one that could save time and draw more accurately than other
methods.
• In the late 1980s, SGI computers were used to create some of the first
fully computer-generated short films at Pixar. The Macintosh remains a
highly popular tool for computer graphics among graphic design studios
and businesses.
• Modern computers, dating from the 1980s often use graphical user
interfaces (GUI) to present data and information with symbols, icons and
pictures, rather than text. Graphics are one of the five key elements of
multimedia technology.
 1990’s
• In this era, 3D graphics became more popular in the 1990s in gaming,
multimedia and animation.
• At the end of the 80s and beginning of the nineties in France, were the
very first computer graphics TV series: "La Vie des bêtes" by studio Mac
Guff Ligne (1988), Quarxs, the first HDTV computer graphics series by
Maurice Benayoun and François Schuiten (studio Z-A production, 1991-
1993).
• In 1995, Toy Story, the first full-length computer-generated animation film,
was released in cinemas worldwide.
• In 1996, Quake, one of the first fully 3D games, was released. Since then,
computer graphics have only become more detailed and realistic, due to
more powerful graphics hardware and 3D modeling software.
 What is computer graphics
• Computer graphics are pictures created using
computers and the representation of image
data by a computer specifically with help from
specialized graphic hardware and software.
• Computer graphics can be defined as the
process of generating images by the use of
computers
• Computer graphics majors use computers and
math to create realistic images and learn how
to develop graphics software.
 Physical and mathematical bases of
computer graphics
• Physical bases of computer
graphics[physics]deals with electromagnetic
radiation and its interaction with matter

• Mathematical bases of graphics deal with

transformation concept
 Physical bases of computer graphics
• Recall that vision is the basis of imaging. Vision
in this concept does not only refer to the
human visual perception which as you shall
see is limited. Graphics and other imaging
devices also posses visual ability and this
depends on the degree of the interaction of
electromagnetic radiation with matter.
 Applications of Computer Graphics

Applications of Computer Graphics

• divided in 4 majors area
– Display of Information
– Design
– Simulation
– User Interface

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 Display of Information
• Geographic information
system (GIS)
• Computerized
Tomography (CT)
• Magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/soest/about.ftp.html

• Ultrasound

http://www.queens.org/qmc/services/imaging/ct.htm

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 Design
• Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
– Architecture
– Design of Mechanical part
– VLSI
– etc...

http://www.memagazine.org/contents/current/features/push/push.htm

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 Simulation
• Graphical flight simulator
– reduce training process
• Robotic simulation The Concorde Panel.

• TV, Movie, advertising industries

– generate photo realistic images
• Virtual Reality (VR)
– reduce risk of training
• surgery
• astronaut
http://www.motionshop.com/pr/festocosimirlg.shtm

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 User Interfaces
• Window system
– Window 2003
– X window
– MAC OS
• Graphical Network browsers
– Netscape
– Internet Explorer

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Areas of research in Graphics (1/2)
• mathematical modeling:
– interpolation, curve and surface fitting
– computational geometry: algorithmic applications
in geometry
– study of light and optical phenomenon: colour,
texture, shades
– modelling the characteristics of physical objects
(bouncing Jello)

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Areas of research in Graphics (2/2)
• Software technology
– standardized graphics languages and libraries
– graphics tools and interfaces
– algorithm design
• Hardware
– specialized graphics chips, monitors, interface
devices

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 Graphics Applications (1/5)
• Entertainment: Cinema
Pixar: Geri’s Game

Universal: Jurassic Park

Antz

A bug’s Life 29
 Graphics Applications (2/5)
• Entertainment: Games

Aki Ross : Final Fantasy

Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II

Quake III 30
 Graphics Applications (3/5)
• Medical Visualization

The Visible Human Project

http://www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw44/koenig.html
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 Graphics Applications (4/5)
• Computer Aided Design (CAD)

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 Graphics Applications (5/5)
• Scientific Visualization

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Curve and Surface
Modeling
1 http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/2057/nurbs.html
2
3
4

8 7

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 Photorealistic Illumination
Models
http://www.pixar.com

http://www.ktx.com/3dsmaxr3/ http://www.aliaswavefront.com

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Fractal Systems

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/fractals.htm
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Information Visualization

Visible Decisions SeeIT (http://www.vdi.com)

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Uses of computer graphics
 Major Applications
• Almost any endeavor can make some use of
computer graphics, but the major consumers
of computer graphics technology include the
following industries
 Video games
• Video games increasingly use sophisticated 3D
models and rendering algorithms.
 Cartoons
• Cartoons are often rendered directly from 3D
models. Many traditional 2D cartoons use
backgrounds rendered from 3D models, which
allows a continuously moving viewpoint
without huge amounts of artist time.
 Visual effects
• Visual effects use almost all types of computer
graphics technology. Almost every modern
film uses digital compositing to superimpose
backgrounds with separately filmed
foregrounds. Many films also use 3D modeling
and animation to create synthetic
environments, objects, and even characters
that most viewers will never suspect are not
real.
 Animated films
• Animated films use many of the same
techniques that are used for visual effects, but
without necessarily aiming for images that
look real.
 CAD/CAM
stands for computer-aided design
• CAD/CAM stands for computer-aided design and
computer-aided manufacturing. These fields use
computer technology to design parts and
products on the computer and then, using these
virtual designs, to guide the manufacturing
process. For example, many mechanical parts are
designed in a 3D computer modeling package
and then automatically produced on a computer-
controlled milling device.
 Simulation
• Simulation can be thought of as accurate video
gaming. For example, a flight simulator uses
sophisticated 3D graphics to simulate the
experience of flying an airplane. Such
simulations can be extremely useful for initial
training in safety-critical domains such as driving,
and for scenario training for experienced users
such as specific fire-fighting situations that are
too costly or dangerous to create physically.
 Medical imaging
• Medical imaging creates meaningful images of
scanned patient data. For example, a
computed tomography (CT) dataset is
composed of a large 3D rectangular array of
density values. Computer graphics is used to
create shaded images that help doctors
extract the most salient information from such
data.
 Information visualization
• Information visualization creates images of
data that do not necessarily have a “natural”
visual depiction. For example, the temporal
trend of the price of ten different stocks does
not have an obvious visual depiction, but
clever graphing techniques can help humans
see the patterns in such data
 Mathematical preliminaries of computer
graphics
• Data fed to a computer system can also be manipulated
mathematically to produce different orientation of the
image. This is known as transformation. The following
transformation operations are
• Translation
• Enlargement
• Reduction
• Rotation
• Each of this transformation can be affected by matrices.
 THE GRAPHICS SYSTEM
• A typical computer graphics system consist of
Input/output [I/O] devices.
• Mouse
• Keyboard
• Trackball
• Joystick
• Light pen
Output devices.
• X-Y plotters
• Cathode ray tube [crt]
• Liquid crystal display[lcd]
• Plasma display monitors
Processor
• This perform all arithmetic and graphics
operations in the system before the image is
displayed
Memory
• The memory stores all data for future
references
• Frame buffers
• This constitutes part of the memory and
stores a collection of pixels- for
implementation. The number of bits [2n is used for
each pixel defines the depth of the frame buffer. Number of
bits determines how many colours that are allowed
NUMBER OF BITS[n] NUMBER OF COLOURS[2n]
2 4
3 8
6 64
8 256
 The block flow diagram for a typical
graphics system i

FRAME
INPUTE PROCESSOR OUTPUT
BUFFER

MEMORY
 GRAPHICS IMAGES
• There are basically 2 types of images produced
by a graphics system
• Geometric images
• Raster images
 Geometric images
• Geometric images are
1. Lines
2. circles and
3. polygons
They are called geometric primitives because
they form the basis for all geometric objects
 Raster images
• Raster images on the other hand are pixel
based.
• A pixel picture element or the smallest part of
an electronically coded element. Resolution
increases with number of bits
 Colours in graphics
• The frame buffer enables various colours to be
implemented. Computer graphics is based on
the RGB colour system, a combination of
which gives various colours of an image.
END OF LECTURE