Lectures for CMSC 427: Introduction to Computer Graphics

This page has pointers to the material covered in each lecture and will be updated throughout the semester. The lecture notes appearing on this page are copyrighted by Amitabh Varshney, except for images and slides that appear with appropriate credits. Use of these lecture notes by students of the class CMSC 427 at the University of Maryland is permitted for their educational purposes. Any other use requires permission of the author.

These course notes are visible only from umd.edu domains.

Following each lecture I have listed the approximate (but usually not exhaustive) coverage of the topics that we covered in our lectures from the textbook by Hearn and Baker. The following reading suggestions are for the case when you do not fully understand what was discussed in the lectures. Unfortunately, the following list does not cover everything discussed in the class (there is no perfect textbook yet).


August 31

Discussion of course policies and course plan
Motivation, Overview
applications, pipeline
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Chapter 1, Section 2.2

September 5

Graphics APIs
OpenGL, Event-Driven Computing, GLUT, Pixel Operations
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 2.9, 3.1 to 3.4, 3.16, 3.19, 3.24, 4.1 to 4.3

September 7

Graphics Meshes and Illumination
Overview of triangles, normals, meshes, and local illumination models
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 3.15, 10.1 to 10.3

September 12 and 14

Meshes, Shading, and Texturing
Flat, Gouraud, Phong Shading, Texture Mapping
PDF(2), PDF(6)

September 19

2D and 3D Transformations
hierarchical transformations, 3D rotations
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Chapter 5

September 21

3D Viewing and Picking
canonical views and selection
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Chapter 7

September 26

Modeling Overview
implicit, parametric, procedural, and CSG
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.7, 8.20, 8.24

September 28

Parametrics and Mesh LOD
piecewise interpolation, Bezier, B-Spline curves and surfaces, level of detail for meshes
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, 8.11, 8.12, 8.13

October 3

Visibility Determination
visibility techniques, Z-buffer, Painter's algorithm, Cells/Portals, BSP trees
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 9.1, 9.3, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.14

October 5

Cullings, Depth Cues, and Collisions
VFC, backface, coherences, collision detection techniques
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 7.1, 9.2, 9.14 (collisions are not covered in textbook)

October 10

Shadows and Multipass Rendering
types, generation, mapping
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Section 10.6 (negligible coverage)

October 12

Streaming Architectures and GPUs
Evolution of graphics architectures, streaming, GPUs
PDF (2), PDF(6)

October 17

Procedural Graphics and Shading Languages
Evolution of shading languages and procedural techniques
PDF (2), PDF(6)

October 19

Shader Programming
General-purpose and Shader Programming on GPUs
PDF (2), PDF(6)

October 24

Color Spaces and Transparency
color models, gamma correction, dithering, blending
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Chapter 12

November 2

Ray Tracing
overview, acceleration
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Section 10.11

November 7

Global Illumination
radiosity and photon mapping
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 10.12, 10.14

November 9

Line and Polygon Scan-Conversion
overview, various alogrithms
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 3.4, 3.5, 3.14, 3.15

November 14

Point-based and Image-based Graphics
overview, applications
PDF(2), PDF(6)

November 16 and 21

Volume Graphics
overview, applications
PDF(2), PDF(6)

November 28

Human Visual Systems and Displays
overview, CRT, LCD, DMD, stereo displays
PDF(2), PDF(6)

November 30

Sampling and Filtering
aliasing causes, antialiasing
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Section 4.17

December 5

Computer Animation
keyframe, procedural, mocap, stylization, quaternions
aliasing causes, antialiasing
PDF(2), PDF(6)
HB: Sections 13.2 through 13.10

December 7

Abstraction and Perception
motivation, recent results
PDF(2), PDF(6)

December 12

Course Recap
discussion of the course and the sample final exam
PDF(2), PDF(6)

December 18

Final Exam
CSI 3117, 10:30am - 12:30pm

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