Chapter One Introduction to Computer Graphics
Chapter One Introduction to Computer Graphics
Chapter One
Computer graphics is commonly seen as a computer science branch that deals with the
computerized image fusion theory and technology. As simple as a triangle outline, a
computer-generated image may represent a scene. The computer has become a powerful
tool for producing images quickly and economically.
When a computer is used to create images, the same process is followed as creating
images manually. The process's primary computational steps give a boost to several
important computer graphics areas.
Also on computers, the term computer graphics covers almost everything. Here in the
computer graphics program's classroom, we think of computer graphics as drawing
images on machines, often known as rendering. The images can be photos, sketches,
animations, or pictures of items imagined. Or they may be pictures, we cannot see
directly, like internal body parts.
Computer Graphics involves technology to access. The Process transforms and presents
information in a visual form. The role of computer graphics insensible. In today life,
computer graphics has now become a common element in user interfaces, T.V.
commercial motion pictures. Computer Graphics is the creation of pictures with the help
of a computer. The end product of the computer graphics is a picture it may be a business
graph, drawing, and engineering.
In computer graphics, two or three-dimensional pictures can be created that are used for
research. Many hardware devices algorithm has been developing for improving the
speed of picture generation with the passes of time. It includes the creation storage of
models and image of objects. These models for various fields like engineering,
mathematical and so on. Today computer graphics is entirely different from the earlier
one. It is not possible. It is an interactive user can control the structure of an object of
various input devices.
Computer graphics is an art of drawing pictures on computer screens with the help of
programming. It involves computations, creation, and manipulation of data. In other
words, we can say that computer graphics is a rendering tool for the generation and
manipulation of images.
We have put a great deal of our time to develop how computer images can replicate real-
world scenes. We want objects on computers not only to look more real, but also their
colors to be more realistic and how different materials appear. We can call it "real
synthesis of the image."
The term computer graphics has been used to define "almost everything on the computer,
including text or sound." Generally, the term computer graphics refer to the following
things:
The next area of computer graphics that deals with the placement of a triangle is
called transformation. Here we can use matrices to get the mapping of a triangle in image
space. We can also set up the transformation matrix to control the location and orientation
of the displayed image. We can also resize the triangle.
Computer Graphics involves technology to access. The Process transforms and presents
information in a visual form. The role of computer graphics insensible. In today life,
computer graphics has now become a common element in user interfaces, T.V.
commercial motion pictures. Computer Graphics is the creation of pictures with the help
of a computer. The end product of the computer graphics is a picture it may be a business
graph, drawing, and engineering.
In computer graphics, two or three-dimensional pictures can be created that are used for
research. Many hardware devices algorithm has been developing for improving the
speed of picture generation with the passes of time. It includes the creation storage of
models and image of objects. These models for various fields like engineering,
mathematical and so on. Today computer graphics is entirely different from the earlier
one. It is not possible. It is an interactive user can control the structure of an object of
various input devices.
It is the computer graphics in which user can interact with the image on the computer
screen. Here exists two-way communication between the user and the image. The image
is totally under the control of user. Example: Playing the computer game in the computer.
Here user controls the image completely. According to the user wish image makes the
movements on the screen.
Advantages:
1. Higher Quality
2. More precise results or products
3. Greater Productivity
4. Lower analysis and design cost
5. Significantly enhances our ability to understand data and to perceive trends.
Frame Buffer: A digital frame buffer is large, contiguous piece of computer memory used
to hold or map the image displayed on the screen.
▪ At a minimum, there is 1 memory bit for each pixel in the raster. This amount of
▪ ∵ A memory bit has only two states (binary 0 or 1), a single bit plane yields a black
2. Resolution: Use to describe the number of pixels that are used on display image.
3. Aspect Ratio: It is the ratio of width to its height. Its measure is unit in length or number
of pixels.
Aspect Ratio =
It is the computer graphics in which user does not have any kind of control over the
image. Image is merely the product of static stored program and will work according to
the instructions given in the program linearly. The image is totally under the control of
program instructions not under the user. Example: screen savers.
Computer Graphics (CG) was first developed as a visualization tool. Computer graphics
were basically introduced for scientists and engineers in government and corporate
research centers, i.e., Bell Labs and Boeing in the 1950s. After then the tools would be
developed at Universities in the 60s and 70s at places, i.e., Ohio State University, MIT,
University of Utah, Cornell, North Carolina, and the New York Institute of Technology.
The computer graphics are invented by researchers Verne Hudson and William Fetter of
Boeing. It is often brief as computer graphics.
The early development that took place in academic centers continued at research centers
such as the famous Xerox PARC in the 1970?s. These achievements broke first into
broadcast video graphics and then major motion pictures in the late 70?s and early 1980?s.
Computer graphic research continues still today around the world. Companies such as
Industrial Light and Magic by George Lucas are regularly refining the cutting edge of
computer graphic technology to present the world with a new manufactured digital
reality.
1940-1941: The first directly digital computer-generated graphics that would associate
with today as being actual CG. The very first radiosity image was invented at MIT in the
1940s.
1946: The images were first presented at the 1946 national technical conference of the
Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.
1948: The images were published in the book: Lighting Design by Moon and D. E.
Spencer. 1948.
1950: John Whitney Sr. invents his computer-assisted mechanisms to create some of his
graphic artwork and short films.
The General Motors Research Laboratory also begins the study of computer-aided
graphical design applications.
1955: Sage system uses the first light pen as an input device at MIT Lab by Bert
Sutherland.
1956: Lawrence Livermore labs associate graphics display with IBM 704 and film recorder
for color images.
Bertram Herzog uses analog computers to create CRT graphics in the behavior of military
vehicles at the University of Michigan computing center.
1957: In the National Bureau of Standards first image-processed photo was used.
The IBM 740 created a sequence of points on a CRT monitor to represent lines and shapes.
1958: Steven Coons, Ivan Sutherland, and Timothy Johnson started working with the TX-
2 computer system to manipulate the drawn pictures.1959: The first commercial film
recorder produced in San Diego, CA.
Don Hart and Ed Jacks invented the first computer-aided drawing system at General
Motors Research Laboratory and IBM.
1960: William Fetter was first termed “Computer Graphics” for cockpit drawing.
1963: An analog computer was developed by Charles Csuri and used to transform a
drawing.
1966: Ralph Baer developed the first consumer computer graphics game, “Odyssey.”
1968: Tony Pritchett made the first computer animation “FLEXIPEDE” in the UK.
1972: Nolan Bushnell, “the father of Electronic games,” developed PONG game.
1973: The concept of Z-buffer algorithm and texture mapping were developed by Edwin
Catmull.
1976: The first 3D appearance film was created by Gary Demos, John Whitey Jr. at Triple-
I.
1978: For the mechanical Universe Jim Blinn produced the first series of animation. Jim
Blinn has also published the technique of bump mapping.
1980: The first digital computer was used in computer graphics in the Digital Equipment
Corporation(DEC).
1981: The making of computer graphics for IMAX film format is done by Nelson Max at
Lawrence Liver more National Laboratory. The Donkey Kong video game was
introduced by Nintendo.
1982: The first broad use of 3D graphics animation was done in Disney featured film.
1989: Super video graphics array (SVGA) was recommended. Tim Berners Lee developed
the first website ever, which has the original URL (Universal resource locator).
1993: Mosaic, the web browser was released by UIUC for general usage. The Codename
of mosaic was “Mozilla.”
The Mosaic, the first web browser was released. First public call made by cell phone.
1995: First, fully CGI (Computer-generated imagery) was released. MS Internet Explorer
1.0 released.
2009: The state of the art of computer graphics, as of 2009, was brief in a short video.
2018: Now, we can create “realistic” graphics on mobile phones. We can also create a
completely CGI-based human face in real-time.
Suppose a shoe manufacturing company want to show the sale of shoes for five years.
For this vast amount of information is to store. So a lot of time and memory will be
needed. This method will be tough to understand by a common man. In this situation
graphics is a better alternative. Graphics tools are charts and graphs. Using graphs, data
can be represented in pictorial form. A picture can be understood easily just with a single
look.
Flight Simulator: It helps in giving training to the pilots of airplanes. These pilots spend
much of their training not in a real aircraft but on the ground at the controls of a Flight
Simulator.
Advantages:
• Fuel Saving
• Safety
• Ability to familiarize the training with a large number of the world's
airports.
2. Use in Biology: Molecular biologist can display a picture of molecules and gain
insight into their structure with the help of computer graphics.
3. Computer-Generated Maps: Town planners and transportation engineers can use
computer-generated maps which display data useful to them in their planning
work.
4. Architect: Architect can explore an alternative solution to design problems at an
interactive graphics terminal. In this way, they can test many more solutions that
would not be possible without the computer.
5. Presentation Graphics: Example of presentation Graphics are bar charts, line
graphs, pie charts and other displays showing relationships between multiple
parameters. Presentation Graphics is commonly used to summarize
❖ Financial Reports
❖ Statistical Reports
❖ Mathematical Reports
❖ Scientific Reports
❖ Economic Data for research reports
❖ Managerial Reports
❖ Consumer Information Bulletins
❖ And other types of reports
6. Computer Art: Computer Graphics are also used in the field of commercial arts. It
is used to generate television and advertising commercial.
7. Entertainment: Computer Graphics are now commonly used in making motion
pictures, music videos and television shows.
8. Visualization: It is used for visualization of scientists, engineers, medical
personnel, business analysts for the study of a large amount of information.
9. Educational Software: Computer Graphics is used in the development of
educational software for making computer-aided instruction.
10. Printing Technology: Computer Graphics is used for printing technology and
textile design.
LOGO
COREL DRAW
AUTO CAD
3D STUDIO
CORE
GKS (Graphics Kernel System)
PHIGS
CAM (Computer Graphics Metafile)
CGI (Computer Graphics Interface)
Graphic Systems
Display Processor
It is interpreter or piece of hardware that converts display processor code into pictures.
It is one of the four main parts of the display processor
Display File Memory: It is used for generation of the picture. It is used for
identification of graphic entities.
Display Controller:
1. It handles interrupt
2. It maintains timings
3. It is used for interpretation of instruction.
Display Generator:
Display Console: It contains CRT, Light Pen, and Keyboard and deflection system.
The raster scan system is a combination of some processing units. It consists of the control
processing unit (CPU) and a particular processor called a display controller. Display
Controller controls the operation of the display device. It is also called a video controller.
Working: The video controller in the output circuitry generates the horizontal and
vertical drive signals so that the monitor can sweep. Its beam across the screen during
raster scans.
As fig showing that 2 registers (X register and Y register) are used to store the coordinate
of the screen pixels. Assume that y values of the adjacent scan lines increased by 1 in an
upward direction starting from 0 at the bottom of the screen to ymax at the top and along
each scan line the screen pixel positions or x values are incremented by 1 from 0 at the
leftmost position to xmax at the rightmost position.
The origin is at the lowest left corner of the screen as in a standard Cartesian coordinate
system.
X register is set to 0 and y register is set to ymax. This (x, y') address is translated into a
memory address of frame buffer where the color value for this pixel position is stored.
The controller receives this color value (a binary no) from the frame buffer, breaks it up
into three parts and sends each element to a separate Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC).
These voltages, in turn, controls the intensity of 3 e-beam that are focused at the (x, y)
screen position by the horizontal and vertical drive signals.
This process is repeated for each pixel along the top scan line, each time incrementing the
X register by Y. As pixels on the first scan line are generated, the X register is incremented
through xmax.
Then x register is reset to 0, and y register is decremented by 1 to access the next scan line.
Pixel along each scan line is then processed, and the procedure is repeated for each
successive scan line units pixels on the last scan line (y=0) are generated. For a display
system employing a color look-up table frame buffer value is not directly used to control
the CRT beam intensity.
It is used as an index to find the three pixel-color value from the look-up table. This
lookup operation is done for each pixel on every display cycle. As the time available to
display or refresh a single pixel in the screen is too less, accessing the frame buffer every
time for reading each pixel intensity value would consume more time what is allowed:
Multiple adjacent pixel values are fetched to the frame buffer in single access and stored
in the register. After every allowable time gap, the one-pixel value is shifted out from
the register to control the warm intensity for that pixel. The procedure is repeated with
the next block of pixels, and so on, thus the whole group of pixels will be processed.
Display Devices:
The most commonly used display device is a video monitor. The operation of most
video monitors based on CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). The following display devices are
used:
Components of CRT
Main Components of CRT are:
5. Phosphorus-coated screen: The inside front surface of every CRT is coated with
phosphors. Phosphors glow when a high-energy electron beam hits them.
Phosphorescence is the term used to characterize the light given off by a
phosphor after it has been exposed to an electron beam.
Random Scan System uses an electron beam which operates like a pencil to create a line
image on the CRT screen. The picture is constructed out of a sequence of straight-line
segments. Each line segment is drawn on the screen by directing the beam to move from
one point on the screen to the next, where its x & y coordinates define each point. After
drawing the picture. The system cycles back to the first line and design all the lines of the
image 30 to 60 time each second. The process is shown in
Advantages:
1. A CRT has the electron beam directed only to the parts of the screen where an
image is to be drawn.
2. Produce smooth line drawings.
3. High Resolution
Disadvantages:
A Raster Scan Display is based on intensity control of pixels in the form of a rectangular
box called Raster on the screen. Information of on and off pixels is stored in refresh buffer
or Frame buffer. Televisions in our house are based on Raster Scan Method. The raster
scan system can store information of each pixel position, so it is suitable for realistic
display of objects. Raster Scan provides a refresh rate of 60 to 80 frames per second.
Frame Buffer is also known as Raster or bit map. In Frame Buffer the positions are called
picture elements or pixels. Beam refreshing is of two types. First is horizontal retracing
and second is vertical retracing. When the beam starts from the top left corner and reaches
the bottom right scale, it will again return to the top left side called at vertical retrace.
Then it will again more horizontally from top to bottom call as horizontal retracing shown
in fig:
▪ Interlaced Scanning
▪ Non-Interlaced Scanning
In Interlaced scanning, each horizontal line of the screen is traced from top to bottom.
Due to which fading of display of object may occur. This problem can be solved by
Non-Interlaced scanning. In this first of all odd numbered lines are traced or visited by
an electron beam, then in the next circle, even number of lines are located.
For non-interlaced display refresh rate of 30 frames per second used. But it gives
flickers. For interlaced display refresh rate of 60 frames per second is used.
Advantages:
2. Realistic image
3. Million Different colors to be generated
4. Shadow Scenes are possible.
Disadvantages:
1. Low Resolution
2. Expensive
The Beam-Penetration method has been used with random-scan monitors. In this
method, the CRT screen is coated with two layers of phosphor, red and green and the
displayed color depends on how far the electron beam penetrates the phosphor layers.
This method produces four colors only, red, green, orange and yellow. A beam of slow
electrons excites the outer red layer only; hence screen shows red color only. A beam of
high-speed electrons excites the inner green layer. Thus screen shows a green color.
Advantages:
▪ Inexpensive
Disadvantages:
2. Shadow-Mask Method:
Shadow Mask Method is commonly used in Raster-Scan System because they produce a
much wider range of colors than the beam-penetration method. It is used in the majority
of color TV sets and monitors.
Construction: A shadow mask CRT has 3 phosphor color dots at each pixel position.
This type of CRT has 3 electron guns, one for each color dot and a shadow mask grid just
behind the phosphor coated screen. Shadow mask grid is pierced with small round holes
in a triangular pattern. Figure shows the delta-delta shadow mask method commonly
used in color CRT system.
Working: Triad arrangement of red, green, and blue guns. The deflection system of the
CRT operates on all 3 electron beams simultaneously; the 3 electron beams are deflected
and focused as a group onto the shadow mask, which contains a sequence of holes
aligned with the phosphor- dot patterns.
When the three beams pass through a hole in the shadow mask, they activate a dotted
triangle, which occurs as a small color spot on the screen. The phosphor dots in the
triangles are organized so that each electron beam can activate only its corresponding
color dot when it passes through the shadow mask.
Advantage:
▪ Realistic image
▪ Million different colors to be generated
▪ Shadow scenes are possible
Disadvantage:
1. Emissive Display: The emissive displays are devices that convert electrical
energy into light. Examples are Plasma Panel, thin film electroluminescent display
and LED (Light Emitting Diodes).
2. Non-Emissive Display: The Non-Emissive displays use optical effects to
convert sunlight or light from some other source into graphics patterns. Examples
are LCD (Liquid Crystal Device).
1. Cathode: It consists of fine wires. It delivers negative voltage to gas cells. The
voltage is released along with the negative axis.
2. Anode: It also consists of line wires. It delivers positive voltage. The voltage is
supplied along positive axis.
3. Fluorescent cells: It consists of small pockets of gas liquids when the voltage is
applied to this liquid (neon gas) it emits light.
4. Glass Plates: These plates act as capacitors. The voltage will be applied, the cell
will glow continuously.
The gas will slow when there is a significant voltage difference between horizontal and
vertical wires. The voltage level is kept between 90 volts to 120 volts. Plasma level does
not require refreshing. Erasing is done by reducing the voltage to 90 volts. Each cell of
plasma has two states, so cell is said to be stable. Displayable point in plasma panel is
made by the crossing of the horizontal and vertical grid. The resolution of the plasma
panel can be up to 512 * 512 pixels.
Advantage:
▪ High Resolution
▪ Large screen size is also possible.
▪ Less Volume
▪ Less weight
▪ Flicker Free Display
Disadvantage:
▪ Poor Resolution
▪ Wiring requirement anode and the cathode is complex.
▪ Its addressing is also complex.
In an LED, a matrix of diodes is organized to form the pixel positions in the display and
picture definition is stored in a refresh buffer. Data is read from the refresh buffer and
converted to voltage levels that are applied to the diodes to produce the light pattern in
the display.
LCD uses the liquid-crystal material between two glass plates; each plate is the right angle
to each other between plates liquid is filled. One glass plate consists of rows of conductors
arranged in vertical direction. Another glass plate is consisting of a row of conductors
arranged in horizontal direction. The pixel position is determined by the intersection of
the vertical & horizontal conductor. This position is an active part of the screen. Liquid
crystal display is temperature dependent. It is between zero to seventy degree Celsius. It
is flat and requires very little power to operate.
Advantage:
Disadvantage:
Input Devices
The Input Devices are the hardware that is used to transfer transfers input to the
computer. The data can be in the form of text, graphics, sound, and text. Output device
display data from the memory of the computer. Output can be text, numeric data, line,
polygon, and other objects.
Output Devices
It is an electromechanical device, which accepts data from a computer and translates
them into form understand by users.
▪ Printers
▪ Plotters