CSCI 5107
Computer Graphics I

The objective of this course is to provide you with an introduction to the hardware, drawing methods, geometrical transforms, and shape representation schemes that are important in computer graphics. The hardware systems to be surveyed include vector refresh devices, raster graphic displays, and hard copy units. Line and polygon clipping techniques will be addressed. Two and three dimensional geometric transforms will be covered and various projection schemes will be presented. Local and global illumination simulation, including ray tracing, will be discussed. Finally, we will look at methods for modeling three dimensional objects.

Another major objective of this course is to give you “hands-on” experience with a graphics hardware and software system. The programming assignments will be performed on either a Unix workstation in the IT Labs or on a PC running a public domain Unix simulator. We will work in C or C++ and we will use publicly available graphics software that is described in the textbook. In the programming assignments in this course you will develop, from scratch,a simple rendering system that can produce wireline pictures of three dimensional objects and a ray tracer that can generate fully shaded images of a complex scene. All programming assignments will be done individually.