CS 174A Winter 2015

Introduction to Computer Graphics

Professor Demetri Terzopoulos
TAs: Franklin (Jingyi) Fang, Garett Ridge

Computer Graphics
The Art and Science of creating imagery by computer
Art

Mathematics
Vision

Physics

Engineering

Optics

Biomechanics

Artificial
Intelligence

Applications of CG
Entertainment
Films
Computer Games
Virtual reality

Scientific visualization
Medical visualization
Flight simulation
Architecture

Education

History
2000 B.C.
orthographic projection
1400s
Perspective: Italian Renaissance
1600s
coordinate systems: Descartes
optics: Huygens
calculus, physics, optics: Newton

History
1897 oscilloscope: Braun
1950-1970
computers with vector displays
1966
first true raster display
1993
1200x1200, 500k triangles/sec, 36-bit color, stereo,
texture mapping all at 60Hz
1995
feature-length CG films
Todaystill rapidly evolving

Genesis of Computer Graphics and

Interactive Techniques
A PhD project at MIT in the early 1960s
Ivan E. Sutherland, 1963
Sketchpad, a man-machine graphical
communication system

Quiz
http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/~waynec/history/timeline.html
1. When was the term Computer Graphics first stated?
William Fetter of Boeing coins the term "computer graphics"
for his human factors cockpit drawings 1960.
2. When was the Graphical User Interface developed?
GUI developed by Xerox (Alan Kay) 1969
3. When was Tron released?
Disney contracts Abel, III, MAGI and DE to create computer
graphics for the movie Tron released in 1981.

Quiz
4. Which is the first animated movie to employ CG?
The Great Mouse Detective (1986) was the first animated
film to be aided by CG.
5. When was the game Doom released?
1993
6. Which is the best selling game of all time?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games
Tetris (135M copies), Wii Sports (82M), Minecraft (54M),
Super Mario Bros. (40M), Mario Kart Wii (35M),
Grand Theft Auto V (34M),

Quiz
7. Which is the newest CG animated movie?
?? (trick question)
8. Which is bigger in terms of gross revenue, the game industry
or the (Hollywood) movie industry?
The game industry
9. Which is your favorite animated movie?

The First Computer Game?

Pong, Atari, 1972

Spacewars, PDP1, MIT, 1961

Metal Gear
Solid 4

Games
Focus on interactivity

Movies
To reality and beyond !

Movies
Special effects

Movies

Digital Compositing

Digital compositing

Digital Compositing

Cartoons

Computer-Aided Design
Precision modeling
Engineering
visualization

Modeling Clay

Computer-Aided Design
Its not just about visualization
Simulation is also useful

Visualization: Scientific

Molecular Biology
Environmental Physics

Visualization: Medical

Visualization: Architectural

http://www.diamondschmitt.com/

Visualization: Info

Smith and Fiore

Graphical User Interfaces

Steven Schkolne

Art

Steven Schkolne

Digital Art
Genetically evolved

Carl Sims

Digital Art

By Jason Salavon
The Top-Grossing Film of All Time
^nd
2

Titanic

What is an Image / Video?

Array of pixels (one or more numbers)
A video is a time sequence of images
How they are formed:
Objects in the world
(static or dynamic)
Illumination
(light sources)
Imaging device
(eye, camera)

Camera

We want to synthesize images/videos

Basic Elements
Modeling
Animation
Rendering
Interaction

Illumination

Objects

Basic Elements
Modeling
How do we model (mathematically represent) objects?
How do we construct models of specific objects?
Animation
How do we represent the motions of objects?
How do we give animators control of this motion?
Rendering
How do we simulate the real-world behavior of light?
How do we simulate the formation of images?
Interaction
How do we enable humans and computers to interact?
How do we design human-computer interfaces?

Modeling
Primitives

3D points

3D lines and curves

surfaces (BREPs): polygons,

patches

volumetric representations

image-based representations

Attributes

Color, texture maps

Lighting properties

Geometric transformations

Rendering
Visibility
Simulating light
propagation
Reflection
Asborption
Scattering
Emission
Interference

Animation
Keyframe animation
Motion capture
Procedural animation
Physics-based animation
Behavioral animation

Interaction
Input/Output Devices
Tools
Modeling, rendering, and animation

Elements of CG
The graphics pipeline

Modeling

Animation

Rendering

Modeling
Representing
objects
geometrically on
a computer

Point clouds
Texture maps
Polygon meshes

Surface patches NURBS

Parametric curves

Modeling

Voxels

Alternative
representations
Blobs
Subdivision surfaces

Modeling
Altering geometric models
Affine transform

Ying, Kristjansson, Biermann, Zorin

Scanning Shapes

Digital Michaelangelo Project

Plant Modeling

Plant Modeling

Illumination

Rendering
Key elements
Camera

Pixels

Camera Model

Geometric Shape
& Reflectance

Rendering
Draw visible surfaces onto display
Camera
(view direction)

Clipping
Image
Plane
Camera
(eye position)

Reflectance Modeling

Scan
Conversion

Complex Reflectance

Subsurface Scattering
Translucency and varied levels of light penetration can be
created using subsurface scattering effects

Texture
Multilevel texture
synthesis

Non-Photorealistic Rendering

Aaron Hertzmann

Rendering: Information

Animation
Keyframe animation

Keyframing

Animation
Pixar: Luxo Jr. (1986)

Animation
Motion capture

Animating Golem in LOTR

Animation
The Animatrix
Final Flight of the Osiris

Animation
Example: Geris Game - Pixar

Cloth Simulation

Dynamics

Animation
Physics-based animation

Fluid Simulation
Modeling
Incompressibility
Viscocity

Navier-Stokes Equations

u 0
u
1
v (u) (u )u p g
t

Level Sets
u : fluid velocity field
g : gravity
p: pressure
v : viscosity

: density

Smoke Simulation
Assumptions
No viscosity

Rendering
Photon maps
Multiple scattering

u 0
u
1
(u )u p f
t

u : smoke velocity field

f : external forces
p: pressure

: density

Animation
Behavioral animation

Ethology

Reality is *Very* Complex

Reality is *Very* Complex

Great! But what are we going to do?

Learn the mathematical basics of graphics
Apply them in 3 programming assignments
Show that you know them in 2 exams

Summary of the Syllabus

Math
Rendering
Modeling
Animation
(Interaction)
(Hardware)

Math
Linear (vector/matrix) algebra
Coordinate systems
Geometry
Points, lines, planes

Affine transformations
Projection transformations
More geometry
Curves, surfaces

Comments From Previous Courses

Lots of (dry) math!
A lot of material
Fast pace
A lot of programming
Tough third project
Challenging final exam
Great animation shows at the
start of each lecture!

Advice
Attend lectures and discussion sessions!
You will perform better on this course if you do (trust me)
The lecture slides are your bible for the exams
Start the assignments EARLY!!
Get HELP from us with the assignments EARLY!
Do NOT do more on the assignments than you are required,
unless you are done with the required part of the assignment
You will NOT get more points for additional work
Refresh your knowledge of linear algebra and geometry, and
keep up with the math

Important Issues to Remember

Manage your course load
No plagiarism (of course)
Do individual work
Your code must work on HSSEAS systems
Please send e-mails to us from your UCLA accounts only

A Basic Graphics System

Input devices
Output devices
Computing & rendering
system

Input Devices
Keyboard
Mouse
Light Pen
Game controller
Tablet
Data glove
Other sensors

Output Devices
Display
CRT, Plasma, LCD, Micromirror

Printer
2D and 3D Printers

Plotter

Standard Display Devices

CRT

LCD

(Cathode Ray Tube)

(Liquid Crystal Display)

Plasma

Exotic Display Devices

Head-Mounted

Immersive

Holographic

Autostereoscopic

CRT Raster Graphics

Virtual raster device
Grid of m x n phosphors

Real raster device

Volumetric

Analog Video Signal Format

Displaying Intensities
Gamma Correction

Basic Analog Display Architecture

Pixels:
Bitmap: 1bit/pixel
Grey scale: 8 bits/pixel
Color map: 8 bits/pixel, indirect
True color: 24 bits/pixel
True color + Alpha Channel: 32 bits/pixel

Images Monochrome
How many intensities are enough?

Black and White (Bitmaps)

Grayscale

Color
Common format RGB (3x8 = 24 bits per pixel)

Rendering System
Software
Interface
Primitives
Techniques

Hardware
Graphics Pipeline

The Graphics Pipeline

Why a pipeline?
Well defined stages
Parallelism
Software and Hardware

Radeon X800 by ATI

16 parallel rendering pipelines
Floating point architecture
Millions of triangles per second

Graphics Pipeline
Modeling
Illumination
Viewing (Projection)
Clipping
Visibility
Rasterization

Radeon 9700 by ATI

Modeling
Geometric Primitives
Points
Lines
Planes
Polygons
Parametric surfaces
Implicit surfaces
Etc.

Modeling Transformations
Assembly

Viewing
Orthographic

Clipping
Remove what is not visible

Perspective

Visibility
Resolve occlusions
(efficiently)

Illumination
Compute normals and
color at vertices
Per vertex operations

Shading

Rasterization
Convert to colored pixels

Per Pixel / Fragment Operations

Hardware features
Vertex shaders
Fragment shaders

Texture Mapping

Other Issues
Shadows
Participating media
Subsurface scattering
Motion blur
Camera models
Etc.

Final Result