Midterm Exam
CSCI-4961/6961: Three-Dimensional Computer Graphics
Fall 2006

Administrivia

Topics

1. Graphics hardware: Displays, input/output devices, vector and raster scan, frame buffers, color lookup tables
2. Scan conversion of lines and polygons, DDA and Bresenham algorithms
3. Geometric modeling:
   • Transformation matrices for translation, rotation, scaling; affine transformations,
   • Homogeneous coordinates, composite transformation matrices, reflection and shear
   • Change of coordinate systems, Rotations about an arbitrary axis
4. OpenGL basics: organization, primitives, modeling and viewing transformations, order of transformations, matrix stacks, projections, lighting
5. Viewing and projection transformations
   • Viewing transformations, viewing volumes
   • Perspective and parallel projections
6. Clipping of lines and polygons: Cohen-Sutherland, Sutherland-Hodgman, and Weiler-Atherton algorithms
7. 3D rotations: Euler angle, axis-angle, and quaternion representations; Quaternion properties and use for rotation representation and interpolation
8. Illumination:
   • Local and global illumination, light sources (positional, directional)
   • Diffuse, specular, ambient, emissive components
   • Illumination models: Lambertian diffuse reflection, specular reflection, Phong illumination model, combined illumination model
   • Surface normal vectors
9. Shading: Flat, Gouraud (smooth), and Phong shading
10. Ray tracing
11. Visible surface detection: back face culling, depth buffer, scan line techniques, depth sorting, BSP trees, octrees, ray casting
12. Curves:
    • Basic characteristics (eg. continuity) and representations (eg. matrix) of spline curves
    • Bezier splines: blending functions, curve joining, recursive subdivision
    • Hermite splines, Catmull-Rom splines

Review

• Here are the formulas that will be available on the midterm exam ( pdf file)