Survey of Computer Graphics !
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings, or other images. Graphics often combine text, illustration, and color.
Computer Graphics is the use of computers to display and manipulate information in graphical or pictorial form, either on a visual-display unit or via a printer or plotter.
Computer graphics are graphics created by computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer.
The term computer graphics includes almost everything on computers that is not text or sound. Today nearly all computers use some graphics and users expect to control their computer through icons and pictures rather than just by typing. The term Computer Graphics has several meanings:
- the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer
- the various technologies used to create and manipulate such pictorial data
- the images also produced
Today computers and computer-generated images touch many aspects of our daily life. Computer imagery is found on television, in newspapers, in weather reports, education, medicine, business, art and during surgical procedures. A well-constructed graph can present complex statistics in a form that is easier to understand and interpret. Such graphs are used to illustrate papers, reports, theses, and other presentation material. A range of tools and facilities are available to enable users to visualize their data, and computer graphics are used in many disciplines.
2D Computer Graphics
2D computer graphics are the computer-based generation of digital images mostly from two-dimensional models, such as 2D geometric models, text, and digital images, and by techniques specific to them. The word may stand for the branch of computer science that comprises such techniques, or for the models themselves. 2D computer graphics started in the 1950s.
2D computer graphics are mainly used in applications that were originally developed upon traditional printing and drawing technologies, such as typography, cartography, technical drawing, advertising, etc.. In those applications, the two-dimensional image is not just a representation of a real-world object, but an independent artifact with added semantic value; two-dimensional models are therefore preferred, because they give more direct control of the image than 3D computer graphics, whose approach is more akin to photography than to typography.
3D Computer Graphics
3D computer graphics in contrast to 2D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images. Such images may be for later display or for real-time viewing.3D computer graphics are often referred to as 3D models. However, there are differences.
Computer animation is the art of creating moving images via the use of computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation. Increasingly it is created by means of 3D computer graphics, though 2D computer graphics are still widely used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time rendering needs. Sometimes the target of the animation is the computer itself, but sometimes the target is another medium, such as film. It is also referred to as CGI (Computer-generated imagery or computer-generated imaging), especially when used in films.
To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer screen then quickly replaced by a new image that is similar to the previous image, but shifted slightly. This technique is identical to the illusion of movement in television and motion pictures.
Concepts and Principles
In common usage, an image or picture is an artifact, usually two-dimensional, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person. Images may be two-dimensional, such as a photograph, screen display, and as well as a three-dimensional, such as a statue. They may be captured by optical devices—such as cameras, mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, etc. and natural objects and phenomena, such as the human eye or water surfaces.
A digital image is a representation of a two-dimensional image using ones and zeros (binary). Depending on whether or not the image resolution is fixed, it may be of vector or raster type. Without qualifications, the term "digital image" usually refers to raster images.
In digital imaging, a pixel is the smallest piece of information in an image. Pixels are normally arranged in a regular 2-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots or squares. Each pixel is a sample of an original image, where more samples typically provide a more accurate representation of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable; in color systems, each pixel has typically three or four components such as red, green, and blue, or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
Raster images have a finite set of digital values, called picture elements or pixels. The digital image contains a fixed number of rows and columns of pixels. Pixels are the smallest individual element in an image, holding quantized values that represent the brightness of a given color at any specific point.
Typically, the pixels are stored in computer memory as a raster image or raster map, a two-dimensional array of small integers. These values are often transmitted or stored in a compressed form.