3D Computer Graphics:
A User’s Guide for Artists and Designers
My first book, Computer Graphics User’s Guide, had been popular when it came out, but time marched on and eventually it became pretty dated. A publisher approached me with a book deal to write a second edition. Although I only intended to revise the first edition, I ended up deciding I needed to replace everything.
At the time I was working as a Researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). I made time in the evenings and weekends for writing. I used the terrific Tioga word-processing program at PARC to write this completely new book. So many years ahead of its time in many ways, I don’t think I’ve had quite as pleasant a writing experience as I had working with Tioga on my PARC-built Dorado computer.
I created the figures while visiting Digital Arts, who kindly offered use of their modeling and rendering systems. The cover was created for me by Eric Grant of UNC-CH, using his dynamic waterfall and erosion programs. The book was translated into Japanese, with a cover that I find kind of abstract, but still nice.
This book is long out of print.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Basic Concepts and Hardware
- Geometry and Color
- Computer Graphics Hardware
- Surfaces and Materials
- Lighting and Shading
- Polygons and Polygonal Meshes
- Textures
- Fractals
- Curved Surfaces
- Basic Modeling
- Principles of Rendering
- Rendering Algorithms
- Advanced Algorithms
- Advanced Modeling
- Computer-Assisted Animatino
- Production Techniques
- Bibliography
- Index