The Ap Professional Graphics Cd-Rom Library
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Description
Welcome to Graphics Gems III, an entirely new collection of tips, techniques, and algorithms for the practicing computer graphics programmer. Many ideas that were once passed on through personal contacts or chance conversations can now be found here, clearly explained and demonstrated. Many are illustrated with accompanying source code.
It is particularly pleasant for me to see new volumes of Gems, since each is something of a surprise. The original volume was meant to be a self-contained collection. At the last moment we included a card with contributor’s information in case there might be enough interest to someday prepare a second edition. When the first volume was finished and at the printer ’s, I returned to my research in rendering, modeling and animation techniques. As with the first volume, I was surprised by the quantity and quality of the contributions that came flowing in. We realized there was a demand,a need for an entirely new second volume, and Graphics Gems II was born. The same cycle has now repeated itself again, and we have happily arrived at the creation of a third collection of useful graphics tools. Since the first volume of Graphics Gems was published, I have spoken to many readers and discovered that these books have helped people learn graphics by starting with working codes and just exploring intuitively. I didn’t expect people to play with the codes so freely, but I think I now see why this helps. It is often exciting to start learning a new medium by simply messing around in it, and understanding how it flows. My piano teacher encourages new students to begin by spending time playing freely at the keyboard: keep a few scales or chord progressions in mind, but otherwise explore the spaces of melody, harmony, and rhythm. When I started to learn new mediums in art classes, I often spent time simply playing with the medium: squishing clay into odd shapes or brushing paint on paper in free and unplanned motions. Of course one often moves on to develop control and technique in order to communicate one’s message better, hut much creativity springs from such uncontrolled and spirited play.
It is difficult for the novice to play at programming. There is little room for simple expression or error. A simple program does not communicate with the same range and strength as a masterfully simple line drawing or haunting melody. A programmer cannot hit a few wrong notes, or tolerate an undesired ripple in a line. If the syntax isn’t right, the program won’t compile; if the semantics aren’t right, the program won’t do anything interesting. There are exceptions to the latter statement, but they are notable because of their rarity. If you’re going to write a program to accomplish a task, you’ve got to do some things completely right, and everything else almost perfectly. That can be an intimidating realization particularly for the beginner: if a newly constructed program doesn’t work, the problem could be in a million places, anywhere from the architecture to data structures, algorithms, or coding errors. The chance to start with something that already works removes the barrier to exploration: your program already works. If you want to change it, you can, and you will discover which new ideas work and which ones don’t. |
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