Leader: Ray Smith

Offered

Not offered in 2008

Synopsis

Introduction to computer graphics: brief history, applications, hardware and software and the fundamental ideas behind modern computer graphics. Development of visualisations of two dimensional and three dimensional objects and environments using device-independent programming, graphics primitives and attributes. Study of mathematical transformations including translation, rotation, scaling and projections. Introduces ray-tracing, texture mapping, transparency and shadows. Investigates the representation of curved 2D lines and 3D surfaces using splines including cubic splines and bezier curves and splines. Utilises the OpenGL graphics library for practical work

Objectives

At the completion of this unit, students will have:

1. knowledge of the fundamental concepts and techniques used in the field of computer graphics
2. knowledge of the history of computer graphics and associated technologies
3. an understanding of modern technologies used in computer graphics
4. an understanding of and ability to apply the principles used in modeling light sources, object materials and light-surface interactions as required to develop realistic, efficient and effective graphics
5. an understanding and ability to apply the mathematical transformations and operations necessary to develop and display views of modeled two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) environments
6. understand the compromises and simplifications necessary to create interactive graphics compared to complex realistic graphics produced off-line under conditions demanding few temporal constraints
7. an understanding of more advanced computer graphics techniques such as ray-tracing, transparency, shadow determination and the representation of curves in 2D lines and 3D surfaces
8. the ability to analyse a visualisation problem, determine appropriate structures and models, evaluate alternative techniques and build an application to solve the problem within the capabilities of the tools available
9. the ability to listen to, compare and evaluate the thoughts and opinions of experts and novices in the computer graphics field and determine the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments
10. the confidence to state their opinions and participate in discussions while recognising the limitations of their knowledge and understanding
11. the ability to design, develop and debug software applications written in C/C++ and using OpenGL. OpenGL is a very powerful graphics library that is widely used commercially including in the games and entertainment industry.
12. the experience of utilising basic elements within the OpenGL library to create more complex entities and to use texture mapping and other techniques to make these entities appear more realistic and convincing

Assessment

Assignments: 40%
Examination (3 hours): 60%

Prerequisites

MAIT Students: FIT9008, FIT9010.

Prohibitions

GCO3817, CSE3313, Translation set GCO4817