The Magic of Computer Graphics

Computer graphics is a vast field that is becoming larger every day. It is impossible to cover every topic of interest, even within a specialization such as CG rendering. For many years, Noriko Kurachi has reported on the latest developments for Japanese readers in her monthly column for CG World. Being something of a pioneer herself, she selected topics that represented original and promising new directions for research. Many of these novel ideas are the topics covered in The Magic of Computer Graphics.

Starting from the basic behavior of light, the first section of the book introduces the most useful techniques for global and local illumination using geometric descriptions of an environment. The second section goes on to describe image-based techniques that rely on captured data to do their magic. In the final section, the author looks at the synthesis of these two complementary approaches and what they mean for the future of computer graphics.

Table of Contents

Part I. Geometry-Based Approaches
Chapter 1. Introduction to Photorealistic Rendering
Chapter 2. Global Illumination
Chapter 3. Volume Rendering and Participating Media
Chapter 4. Subsurface Scattering

Part II. Image-Based Approaches
Chapter 5. Image-Based Rendering
Chapter 6. High Dynamic Range Imaging
Chapter 7. Image-Based Lighting

Part III. Coalescence of Geometry-Based and Image-Based Approaches
Chapter 8. Reconstruction of Reflectance
Chapter 9. Bidirectional Texture Function
Chapter 10. Radiance Transfer