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Preface
This edition of Fundamentals of Computer Graphics adds four new contributed
chapters and contains substantial reorganizations and improvements to the core
material. The new chapters add coverage of implicit modeling and of two impor-
tant graphics applications: games and information visualization. The fourth new
contributed chapter is a major upgrade to the material on color science. As with
the chapters added in the second edition, we have chosen the contributors both for
their expertise and for their clear way of expressing ideas.
We have made a number of changes to the early chapters of the book, integrat-
ing the second author’s experience teaching introductorygraphics at Cornell using
the first and second editions. Most of these have been revised and updated, partic-
ularly the chapters on images, viewing, ray tracing, the graphics pipeline, and the
material on triangle meshes. Some of the original material from these chapters
has been reorganized, sometimes with topics appearing in different chapters than
in the previous editions.
Our aim in this reorganization has been to move the elementary material to-
wards the beginning. In our thinking, Chapters 2 through 8 constitute the “core
core,” taking the straight and narrow path through what is absolutely required
for understanding how images get onto the screen using the complementary ap-
proaches of ray tracing and rasterization. Ray tracing is covered first, since it is
the simplest way to generate images of 3D scenes, followed by the mathemati-
cal machinery required for the graphics pipeline, then the pipeline itself. After
that, the “outer core” covers other topics that would commonly be included in an
introductory class. For example, ray tracing is split into two chapters, with the
more advanced material now in Chapter 13. The material on spatial data struc-
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xii Preface
tures (some formerly under Ray Tracing and Hidden Surfaces) is consolidated in
Chapter 12 together with an expanded section on triangle meshes.
In all these revisions, we have endeavored to retain the informal, intuitive
style of presentation that characterizes the earlier editions, while at the same time
improving consistency, precision, and completeness. We hope the reader will find
the result is a better platform for a variety of courses in computer graphics.
About the Cover
The cover image is from Tiger in the Water by J. W. Baker (brushed and air-
brushed acrylic on canvas, 16” by 20”, www.jwbart.com).
The subject of a tiger is a reference to a wonderful talk given by Alain Fournier
(1943–2000) at the Cornell Workshop in 1998. His talk was an evocative verbal
description of the movements of a tiger. He summarized his point:
Even though modelling and rendering in computer graphics have
been improved tremendously in the past 35 years, we are still not
at the point where we can model automatically a tiger swimming in
the river in all its glorious details. By automatically I mean in a way
that does not need careful manual tweaking by an artist/expert.
The bad news is that we have still a long way to go.
The good news is that we have still a long way to go.
Online Resources
The web site for this book is http://www.cs.cornell.edu/∼srm/fcg3/. We will con-
tinue to maintain a list of errata and links to courses that use the book, as well as
teaching materials that match the book’s style. Most of the figures in this book are
in Abobe Illustrator format, and we would be happy to convert specific figures into
or srm@cs.cornell.edu.
Acknowledgments
The following people have provided helpful information, comments, or feedback
about the various editions of this book: Ahmet O˘guz Aky¨uz, Josh Andersen,
Zeferino Andrade, Adam Berger, Adeel Bhutta, Solomon Boulos, Stephen
Chenney, Michael Coblenz, Greg Coombe, Frederic Cremer, Brian Curtin, Dave
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Preface xiii
Edwards, Jonathon Evans, Karen Feinauer, Amy Gooch, Eungyoung Han, Chuck
Hansen, Andy Hanson, Razen Al Harbi, Dave Hart, John Hart, John “Spike”
Hughes, Helen Hu, Vicki Interrante, Doug James, Henrik Wann Jensen, Shi Jin,
Mark Johnson, Ray Jones, Revant Kapoor, Kristin Kerr, Erum Arif Khan, Mark
Kilgard, Dylan Lacewell, Mathias Lang, Philippe Laval, Marc Levoy, Howard
Lo, Joann Luu, Ron Metoyer, Keith Morley, Eric Mortensen, Koji Nakamaru,
Micah Neilson, Blake Nelson, Michael Nikelsky, James O’Brien, Steve Parker,
Sumanta Pattanaik, Matt Pharr, Peter Poulos, Shaun Ramsey, Rich Riesenfeld,
Nate Robins, Nan Schaller, Chris Schryvers, Tom Sederberg, Richard Sharp,
Sarah Shirley, Peter-Pike Sloan, Hannah Story, Tony Tahbaz, Jan-Phillip
Tiesel, Bruce Walter, Alex Williams, Amy Williams, Chris Wyman, and
Kate Zebrose.
Ching-Kuang Shene and David Solomon allowed us to borrow their exam-
ples. Henrik Wann Jensen, Eric Levin, Matt Pharr, and Jason Waltman generously
provided images. Brandon Mansfield helped improve the discussion of hierarchi-
cal bounding volumes for ray tracing. Philip Greenspun (philip.greenspun.com)
kindly allowed us to use his photographs. We are extremely thankful to J. W.
Baker for helping create the cover Pete envisioned. In addition to being a talented
artist, he was a great pleasure to work with personally.
Many works that were helpful in preparing this book are cited in the chap-
ter notes. However, a few key texts that influenced the content and presentation
deserve special recognition here. These include the two classic computer graph-
ics texts from which we both learned the basics: Computer Graphics: Princi-
ples & Practice (Foley et al., 1990) and Computer Graphics (Hearn & Baker,
1986). Other texts include both of Alan Watt’s influential books (Watt, 1993,
1991), Hill’s Computer Graphics Using OpenGL (Francis S. Hill, 2000), Angel’s
Interactive Computer Graphics: A Top-Down Approach Using OpenGL (Angel,
2002), HuguesHoppe’s University of Washington dissertation (Hoppe, 1994), and
Rogers’ two excellent graphics texts (D. F. Rogers, 1985, 1989).
We would like to especially thank Alice and Klaus Peters for encouraging
Pete to write the first edition of this book and for their great skill in bringing a
book to fruition. Their patience with the authors and their dedication to making
their books the best they can be has been instrumental in guiding us through three
editions. This book certainly would not exist without their extraordinary efforts.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Ithaca, New York
May 2009
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