Topic 1 Introduction to

Computer Graphics

Dr. Collins Oduor

Kenyatta University
 Objectives
 In this lecture, we explore what computer graphics
is about and survey some application areas
 We start with a historical introduction

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 Computer Graphics
 Computer graphics deals with all aspects of creating
images with a computer
 Hardware
 Software
 Applications

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 Example
 Where did this image come from?

 What hardware/software did we need to produce it?

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Preliminary Answer

 Application: The object is an artist’s rendition

of the sun for an animation to be shown in a
domed environment (planetarium)
 Software: Maya for modeling and rendering but
Maya is built on top of OpenGL
 Hardware: PC with graphics card for modeling
and rendering

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Basic Graphics System

Output device

Input devices
Image formed in FB

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CRT

Can be used either as a line-drawing device

(calligraphic) or to display contents of frame
buffer (raster mode)

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 Computer Graphics: 1950-

1960
Computer graphics goes back to the earliest days of
computing
 Strip charts
 Pen plotters
 Simple displays using A/D converters to go from
computer to calligraphic CRT
 Cost of refresh for CRT too high
 Computers slow, expensive, unreliable

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 Computer Graphics: 1960-

1970graphics
Wireframe
 Draw only lines
 Sketchpad
 Display Processors
 Storage tube

wireframe representation
of sun object

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Sketchpad
 Ivan Sutherland’s PhD thesis at MIT
 Recognized the potential of man-machine interaction
 Loop
 Display something
 User moves light pen
 Computer generates new display
 Sutherland also created many of the now common
algorithms for computer graphics

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Display Processor
 Rather than have the host computer try to
refresh display use a special purpose
computer called a display processor (DPU)

 Graphics stored in display list (display file) on

display processor
 Host compiles display list and sends to DPU

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Direct View Storage Tube
 Created by Tektronix
 Did not require constant refresh
 Standard interface to computers
 Allowed for standard software
 Plot3D in Fortran
 Relatively inexpensive
 Opened door to use of computer graphics for CAD
community

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 Computer Graphics: 1970-

1980
Raster Graphics
 Beginning of graphics standards
 IFIPS
 GKS: European effort
 Becomes ISO 2D standard
 Core: North American effort
 3D but fails to become ISO standard
 Workstations and PCs

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Raster Graphics
 Image produced as an array (the raster) of picture
elements (pixels) in the frame buffer

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Raster Graphics
 Allows us to go from lines and wire frame images to
filled polygons

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PCs and Workstations
 Although we no longer make the distinction
between workstations and PCs, historically they
evolved from different roots
 Early workstations characterized by
 Networked connection: client-server model
 High-level of interactivity
 Early PCs included frame buffer as part of user
memory
 Easy to change contents and create images

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 Computer Graphics: 1980-
Realism1990
comes to computer graphics

smooth shading environment bump mapping

mapping

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 Computer Graphics: 1980-

1990
Special purpose hardware
 Silicon Graphics geometry engine
 VLSI implementation of graphics pipeline
 Industry-based standards
 PHIGS
 RenderMan
 Networked graphics: X Window System
 Human-Computer Interface (HCI)

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 Computer Graphics: 1990-

2000
OpenGL API
 Completely computer-generated feature-length
movies (Toy Story) are successful
 New hardware capabilities
 Texture mapping
 Blending
 Accumulation, stencil buffers

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 Computer Graphics: 2000-

2010
Photorealism
 Graphics cards (GPU) for PCs dominate market
 Nvidia, ATI
 Game boxes and game players determine direction
of market (Wii, Kinect, etc)
 Computer graphics routine in movie industry: Maya,
Lightwave
 Programmable pipelines

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 Computer Graphics: 2010-
 Mobile Computing
 iPhone
 Cloud Computing
 Amazon Web Services (AWS)
 Virtual Reality
 Oculus Rift
 Artificial Intelligence
 Big Data/Deep Learning
 Google Car

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What is Computer Graphics?
(1/2)
Computer graphics generally means creation,
storage and manipulation of models and images
 Such models come from diverse and expanding set
of fields including physical, biological,
mathematical, artistic, and conceptual/abstract
structures
Frame from animation by William Latham,
shown at SIGGRAPH 1992. Latham creates
his artwork using rules that govern patterns
of natural forms.

Our newest visual computing faculty

member, Daniel Ritchie’s Ph.d. thesis:
Probabilistic Programming for Procedural Modeling and Desi
gn

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What is Computer Graphics?
(2/2)
 William Fetter coined term “computer
graphics” in 1960 to describe new design
methods he was pursuing at Boeing for
cockpit ergonomics
 Created a series of widely reproduced images
on “pen plotter” exploring cockpit design,
using
“Perhaps3D
the model
best way of human
to define body.
computer graphics is to find out what it is not. It is
not a machine. It is not a computer, nor a group of computer programs. It is not the
know-how of a graphic designer, a programmer, a writer, a motion picture
specialist, or a reproduction specialist.
Computer graphics is all these – a consciously managed and documented
technology directed toward communicating information accurately and
descriptively.”
Computer Graphics, by William A. Fetter, 1966

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What is Interactive* Computer
Graphics? (1/2)
 User controls content, structure, and appearance of objects
and their displayed images via rapid visual feedback
 Basic components of an interactive graphics system
 input (e.g., mouse, stylus, multi-touch, in-air fingers…)
 processing (and storage of the underlying representation/model)
 display/output (e.g., screen, paper-based printer,
video recorder…)
 First truly interactive graphics system,
Sketchpad, pioneered by Ivan Sutherland 1963 Ph.D. thesis
Sketchpad, A
Note CRT monitor, light
Man-Machine Graphical Communication System pen, and function-key
panels – the “organ
 Used TX-2 transistorized “mainframe” console” showing bi-
at MIT Lincoln Lab manual operation

* Sometimes called real-time computer graphics, and in certain

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contexts, real-time rendering

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What is Interactive Computer
Graphics? (2/2)
 Almost all key elements of interactive graphics system are
expressed in first paragraph of Sutherland’s 1963 Ph.D. thesis

The Sketchpad system uses drawing as a novel

communication medium for a computer. The system
contains input, output, and computation programs
which enable it to interpret information drawn
directly on a computer display. Sketchpad has shown
the most usefulness as an aid to the understanding
of processes, such as the motion of linkages, which
can be described with pictures. Sketchpad also
makes it easy to draw highly repetitive or highly
accurate drawings and to change drawings
previously drawn with it…

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What is Batch Computer
Graphics?
 Today, we still use non-interactive batch mode (aka offline rendering) for
final production-quality video and film (special effects – FX). Rendering a
single frame of The Good Dinosaur (2015, a 24 fps movie) averaged 48
hours on a 30,000-core render farm!

Still from The Good Dinosaur Pixar’s Render Farm

Statistics from
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https://www.fxguide.com/featured/making-the-world-of-pixars-the-goo
d-dinosaur/

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Enabling Modern Computer
Graphics (1/5)

 Hardware revolution
 Moore’s Law: every 12-18 months, computer power
improves by factor of 2 in price / performance as size
shrinks
 Newest CPUs are 64-bit with 4, 8, 16, even up to 22
cores
 Intel Coffee Lake – consumer processor with 8 cores,
16 threads, and a fully featured graphics chip built in
to the processor
 Significant advances in commodity graphics chips
every 6 months vs. several years for general purpose
CPUs
 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti… 4352 cores, 11GB
memory, and 14+ teraflops of processing power in a
single chip
NVIDIA statistics from
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https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/rtx-2080-ti/

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Enabling Modern Computer
Graphics
 (2/5)
Graphic subsystems
 Offloads graphics processing from CPU to chip designed for doing
graphics operations quickly
 NVIDIA GeForce™, AMD Vega™, and Intel HD and Iris Pro Graphics
 GPUs originally designed to handle special-purpose graphics
computations
 Increasingly, GPUs used to parallelize other types of computation
(known as GPGPU, or General-Purpose Computing on the Graphics
Processing Unit)
 Hardware show and tell: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (2017)
 3584 cores, 1.58 GHz clock, 11GB memory, 139 billion pixels/second
fill rate
 Department machines (row 6): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (2014) –
still VR capable
 1664 cores, 1.05 GHz clock, 4GB memory, 75 billion pixels/second fill
rate
 Department machines: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 (2010) – fine for
123 assgns.
 336 cores, 1.35 GHz clock, 1GB memory, 37.8 billion pixels/second fill
rate
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Enabling Modern Computer
Graphics (3/5)

 Input Devices
 Mouse, tablet & stylus, multi-touch, force feedback, and
other game controllers (e.g., JoyCon for Nintendo Switch),
scanner, digital camera (images, computer vision), etc.
 Body as interaction device
 http://youtu.be/zXghYjh6Gro
 Kinect is not as relevant anymore commercially b/c VR is
more immersive
Xbox Kinect: Leap Motion:

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Enabling Modern Computer
Graphics (4/5)
 Many form factors
 Smartphones/laptops/desktops/tablets
 Smart watches Android Phones
Tablets
 Head-mounted displays (HMDs) Apple iPhone

 HTC Vive
 Augmented Reality
 Virtual Reality
 AR vs VR: Different experiences!
Microsoft’s first
Surface Apple Watch Android Wear

Brown’s old Cave Microsoft Hololens Vive Oculus Rift Google Cardboard

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Enabling Modern Computer
Graphics (5/5)
 Software Improvements
 Algorithms and data structures
 Modeling of materials

 Rendering of natural phenomena

 “Acceleration data structures” for ray tracing and other

renderers
 Parallelization
 Most operations are embarrassingly parallel: calculating

value of one pixel is often independent of other pixels

 Distributed and Cloud computing
 Send operations to the cloud, get back results, don’t care

how
 Rendering even available as internet service!

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Graphics Display Hardware

Vector (calligraphic, stroke, random- Raster (TV, bitmap, pixmap) used

scan) in displays and laser printers
 Driven by display commands  Driven by array of pixels (no semantics,
 (move (x, y), char(“A”) , line(x, y)…) lowest form of representation)
 Survives as “scalable vector
 Note “jaggies” (aliasing errors) due to
graphics” discrete sampling of continuous
primitives

Ideal Vector
Drawing Drawing Outline Filled

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Conceptual Framework for
Interactive Graphics
 Graphics library/package is intermediary between application and display
hardware (Graphics System)
 Application program maps application objects to views (images) of
those objects by calling on graphics library. Application model may
contain lots of non-graphical data (e.g., non-geometric object
properties)
 User interaction results in modification of image and/or model
 This hardware and software framework is 5 decades old but is still
useful
Software Hardware

Graphics
System/
Application Application Graphics GPU
Model / database program Library

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Graphics Library

 Examples: OpenGL™, DirectX™, Windows Presentation

Foundation™ (WPF) accessed via XAML, RenderMan™,
HTML5 + WebGL™
 Primitives (characters, lines, polygons, meshes,…)
 Attributes
 Color, line style, material properties for 3D
 Lights
 Transformations
 Immediate mode vs. retained mode
 immediate mode: no stored representation, package
holds only attribute state, and application must
completely draw each frame
 retained mode: library compiles and displays from
scenegraph that it maintains, a complex DAG. It is a
display-centered extract of the Application Model

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Application Distinctions: Two Basic
Paradigms

Sample-based graphics vs Geometry-based

graphics

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Sample-based Graphics (1/3)

 Sample-based graphics:
Discrete samples are used to
describe visual information
 pixels can be created by digitizing
images, using a sample-based
“painting” program, etc.
 often some aspect of the physical
world is sampled for visualization,
e.g., temperature across the US
 example programs: Adobe
Photoshop™, GIMP™ , Adobe
AfterEffects™ (which came out of
CS123/CS224!)

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Sample-based Graphics (2/3)
 Pixels are point locations with associated sample values,
usually of light intensities/colors, transparency, and other
control information
 When we sample an image, we sample the point location along
the continuous signal and we cannot treat the pixels as little
circles or squares,
CRT* beamthough they
illumination may be displayed as such
pattern
light
intensity

1 pixel
Visualization of a Can’t visually
mathematical pixel LCD display resolve adjacent
grid pixels on CRT
* Cathode Ray Tube, like those really old TVs

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Sample-based Graphics (3/3)

 Samples created directly in Paint-type program, or by sampling of continuous (analog)

visual materials (light intensity/color measured at regular intervals) with many devices
including:
 flatbed and drum scanners
(e.g., https://luminous-landscape.com/drum-scans/ )
 digital still and motion (video) cameras
 Sample values can also be input numerically (e.g., with numbers from computed dataset)
 Once an image is defined as pixel-array, it can be manipulated
 Image editing: changes made by user, such as cutting and pasting sections, brush-type tools,
and processing selected areas
 Image processing: algorithmic operations that are performed on image (or pre-selected portion
of image) without user intervention. Blurring, sharpening, edge-detection, color balancing,
rotating, warping. These are front-end processes to Computer Vision, Computational
Photography

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Sampling

an Image
Lets do some sampling of CIT building

3D scene
 A color value is measured at every grid point and used to color
corresponding grid square
0 = white, 5 = gray, 10 =
black

 Crude sampling and image reconstruction method creates blocky

image

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What’s the Advantage?

 Once image is defined in terms of

colors at (x, y) locations on grid, can
change image easily by altering
location or color values
 E.g., if we reverse our mapping above
and make 10 = white and 0 = black,
the image would look like this:
 Pixel information from one image can
be copied and pasted into another,
replacing or combining with
previously stored pixels

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What’s the Disadvantage?

 WYSIAYG (What You See Is All You Get): No

additional information
 No depth information
 Can’t examine scene from different point of view
 At most can play with the individual pixels or groups
of pixels to change colors, enhance contrast, find
edges, etc.
 But increasingly great success in image-based
rendering to fake 3D scenes and arbitrary camera
positions. New images constructed by interpolation,
composition, warping and other operations.
 For a computational and cognitive science
perspective, take James Tompkin’s Computer Vision
(CSCI1430)
“Scene Reconstruction from High Spatio-
Angular Resolution Light Fields” by Kim,
Zimmer et al., 2013

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Geometry-Based Graphics (1/2)

 Geometry-based graphics (also called

scalable vector graphics or object-
oriented graphics): geometrical model is
created, along with various appearance
attributes, and is then sampled for
visualization (rendering, a.k.a image
synthesis)
 often some aspect of physical world is
visually simulated, or “synthesized”
 examples of 2D apps: Adobe Illustrator™
and Corel CorelDRAW™
 examples of 3D apps: Autodesk’s
AutoCAD™, Autodesk’s (formerly Alias|
Wavefront’s) Maya™, Autodesk’s 3D
Studio Max™

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Geometry-Based Graphics (2/2)
 Geometry-based graphics applications
 Store mathematical descriptions, or “models,” of geometric
elements (lines, polygons, polyhedrons, polygonal meshes…)
and associated attributes (e.g., color, material properties).
 Geometric elements are primitive shapes, primitives for
short.
 Images are created via sampling of geometry for viewing, but
not stored as part of model.
 Users cannot usually work directly with individual pixels in
geometry-based programs; as user manipulates geometric
elements, program resamples and redisplays elements
 Increasingly rendering combines geometry- and sample-
based graphics, both as performance hack and to increase
quality of final product
 CG animated characters (geometry) on painted or filmed
scene images (samples)
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What is Geometric Modeling?

 What is a model?
 Captures salient features (data, behavior) of
object/phenomenon being modeled
 data includes geometry, appearance, attributes…
 note similarity to OOP ideas
 Modeling allows us to cope with complexity
 Our focus: modeling and viewing simple everyday objects
 Consider this:
 Through 3D computer graphics, we have abstract, easily changeable 3D
forms, for the first time in human history
 Has revolutionized working process of many fields – science,
engineering, industrial design, architecture, commerce, entertainment,
etc. Profound implications for visual thinking and visual literacy
 “Visual truth” is gone in the Photoshop and FX-saturated world (but
consider painting and photography…) – seeing no longer is believing…(or
shouldn’t be!)

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Modeling vs. Rendering
 Rendering
 Modeling
 Create models Take “picture” with camera
 Apply materials to models
 Place models around scene  Both can be done with commercial software:
 Place lights in scene
 Place the camera Autodesk MayaTM ,3D Studio MaxTM, BlenderTM
etc.

Point Light
Spot
Light
Directional Light
Ambient
Light

CS128 lighting assignment by Patrick Doran, Spring 2009

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Decomposition of a Geometric
Model
Divide and Conquer
 Hierarchy of geometrical components
 Reduction to primitives (e.g., spheres, cubes, etc.)
 Simple vs. not-so-simple elements (nail vs. screw)

Head
Shaft
Point
composition decomposition

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Hierarchical (Tree) Diagram of
Nail
 Object to be modeled is (visually) analyzed, and then decomposed into
collections of primitive shapes.
 Tree diagram provides visual method of expressing “composed of” relationships
of model

Nail root node

Head Body
(cylinder)
Shaft Point leaf nodes
(cylinder) (cone)
tree diagram
 Such diagrams are part of 3D program interfaces (e.g., 3D Studio MAX, Maya)
 As a data structure to be rendered, it is called a scenegraph

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Composition of a Geometric
Model
Translate
Scale and Translate

Rotate and Translate

Primitives Composition
in their own modeling in world (root)
coordinate system coordinate system
 Primitives created in decomposition process must be
assembled to create final object. Done with affine
transformations, T, R, S (as in above example).
Order matters – these are not commutative!

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In Summary

 Computer graphics involves both real-time / interactive applications and

batch / offline applications
 Both equally important, but different use cases
 Photo-realism has really advanced
 But it still takes dozens of hours on fastest computers to mimic physics of
photons interacting with physical environments
 Hardware evolution from vector to raster graphics
 Vector graphics survives as Scalable Vector Graphics, which transforms without
artifacts
 Geometry-based vs. image-based graphics
 Mathematical definition vs. pixel manipulation
 Pixels are discrete samples of continuous functions
 Causes artifacts (“jaggies”/ “aliases”) to appear (we will study fixes – “anti-
aliasing” thru filtering)
 Geometric models typically constructed hierarchically
 Scene graph data structure

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