A Simple 3D Application - Essentials of Interactive Computer Graphics - page 352

application window. In this case, we will use the simple scene from Figure 13.1
to help us begin developing 3D computer graphics programs.
Figure 13.2 shows the set-up that took the photograph of Figure 13.1. Based
on this simple set-up, we can identify some important elements in creating this
photograph.

• The model. This is the subject of the photograph. In this case, we custom
tailored two pieces of papers with specific sizes (8

× 8and5 × 5cm).

• The camera. This is the imaging device. In this case, we have a simple
pinhole-like camera with no focusing capability. Light sources. We will ex-

amine examples of illumina-
tion models and light sources
in Appendix A.

• The scene. This is the composition, or arrangement of the model, the cam-
era, and the light sources. In this case, we have arranged the two pieces of
paper to touch at their corners and placed the camera 25 cm away from the
center of the large piece of paper. There is no light source in this scene.

As we will see, developing a 3D computer graphics program involves all of the
above elements. The goal of this chapter is to analyze a computer graphics solu-
tion of Figure 13.1 such that we can relate programming code to these elements.

Figure 13.2. The set-up that took the picture of Figure 13.1.