3D Computer Graphics 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. Someone 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.
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 then translated into Japanese, with a cover that I find kind of abstract, but still nice.
Here’s a 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 Modeling
- Computer-Assisted Animation
- Production Techniques
- Bibliography
- Index
The book is long out of print, but I was proud of it in its day. If you’re looking for historical artifacts, you can probably find some used copies of the book at Abe’s Books, or at Amazon.