[Thomas_Strothotte]Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics Modeling, Rendering, and Animation(pdf){Zzzzz}

Even as developments in photorealistic computer graphics continue to affect our work and leisure activities, practitioners and researchers are devoting more and more attention to non-photorealistic (NPR) techniques for generating images that appear to have been created by hand. These efforts benefit every field in which illustrations - thanks to their ability to clarify, emphasize, and convey very precise meanings - offer advantages over photographs. These fields include medicine, architecture, entertainment, education, geography, publishing, and visualization. "Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics" is the first and only resource to examine non-photorealistic efforts in depth, providing detailed accounts of the major algorithms, as well as the background information and implementation advice readers need to make headway with these increasingly important techniques. Already, an estimated 10 percent of computer graphics users require some form of non-photorealism. Strothotte and Schlechtweg's important new book is designed and destined to be the standard NPR reference for this large, diverse, and growing group of professionals. This book features hard-to-find information needed by a wide range and growing number of computer graphics programmers and applications users; traces NPR principles and techniques back to their origins in human vision and perception; focuses on areas that stand to benefit most from advances in NPR, including medical and architectural illustration, cartography, and data visualization; presents algorithms for two and three-dimensional effects, using pseudo-code where needed to clarify complex steps; helps readers attain pen-and-ink, pencil-sketch, and painterly effects, in addition to other styles; explores specific challenges for NPR-including 'wrong' marks, deformation, natural media, artistic technique, lighting, and dimensionality; and, includes a series of programming projects in which readers can apply the book's concepts and algorithms.

Product Description

From the Back Cover
In the past decade, the field of non-photorealistic computer graphics (NPR) has developed as the product of research marked by diverse and sometimes divergent assumptions, approaches, and aims. This book is the first to offer a systematic assessment of this work, identifying and exploring the underlying principles that have given the field its cohesion. In the course of this assessment, the authors provide detailed accounts of today's major non-photorealistic algorithms, along with the background information and implementation advice you need to put them to productive use. As NPR finds new applications in a broadening array of fields, Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics is destined to be the standard reference for researchers and practitioners alike.

Features
Traces NPR principles and techniques back to their origins in human vision and perception.
Emphasizes areas that stand to benefit most from advances in NPR, including medical and architectural illustration.
Presents algorithms for both 2D and 3D effects, using pseudo-code where needed.
Examines the techniques behind distinct styles, including pen-and-ink, pencil sketch, and painterly effects.
Explores specific challenges for NPR-including simulation of natural media, artistic techniques, deformations, illustrations, and lighting.
Concludes each chapter with a set of hands-on exercises.
Via a companion Web site, provides additional information on NPR, including a forum in which to interact with other NPR professionals.
About the Author
Thomas Strothotte is professor of computer science at the University of Magdeburg (Germany), where he founded undergraduate and graduate degree programs in computational visualistics. He studied at Simon Fraser University, the University of Waterloo, and McGill University. He has held teaching and research appointments at INRIA Rocquencourt, the University of Stuttgart, Free University of Berlin, and the former IBM Scientific Center in Heidelberg. Stefan Schlechtweg is assistant professor at the University of Magdeburg (Germany), where his teaching and research areas are computer graphics and interactive systems. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Magdeburg in 1999.

Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers In; 1st edition (24 April 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1558607870
ISBN-13: 978-1558607873

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

A good systematic presentation of non-photorealistic imaging 14 April 2007
By calvinnme -
As a hobby, I have spent several years rewriting the visual effects found in Photoshop in the Java programming language, and adding some that were not present in that package. This is one of the books that I used to duplicate the effects I wanted. The book is full of all kinds of good information that you can use to produce various visual effects. I'm not talking about simple mathematical transforms or pixel-in/pixel-out effects. This book is about producing an image that looks like a sketch or type of painting.

Chapter two, on pixel manipulation of images, gives an excellent explanation of dithering and halftoning methods. All of the details are presented in pseudocode. From chapter three forward, matters are not so simple. Chapters three through five still deal with image transforms in two dimensions, but now the emphasis is on simulating brush strokes, curves, and drawing lines for images that mimic hand-drawn sketches and paintings.

Starting in chapter six, three-dimensional techniques are explored. Chapter six deals with the encoding of 3D information in 2D data structures. Chapter seven is about dealing with geometric models as data types and using that geometric model information to add further detail to non-photorealistic versions of images. Chapter eight is largely a continuation of chapter seven, but there the subject is lighting models.

Chapter nine turns to a different subject entirely - distortion. Two basic methods are examined: image-space distortion and object-space distortion. Image-space distortion is the simplest method, and object-space distortion is more complex since it takes into account the underlying geometric model of the image, subdividing the image into objects.

Chapters ten and eleven really don't reveal anything new at the algorithm level. Chapter 10 discusses the applications of non-photorealistic rendering, and you may or may not be interested in it. However, chapter 11 presents a conceptual framework for binding the contents of the book together, and is rather an important chapter. It basically muses about the entirety of the book, assuming that the reader has been exposed to all of the ideas in it and comes up with a terminology that helps you describe the physics of the viewing process.

I thought the authors did a good job of explaining NPR graphics and of building from basic concepts to quite complex ones in a gradual and systematic way. Since the topic is very difficult, it would be impossible to write an easy book on the subject. However, this one is quite complete on the topics it covers. I would recommend it to anybody interested in this subject.

Excellent book 6 September 2004
By Christian Laforte -
I read this book when it came out and was quite happy with it. It's a very good review of the NPR field, that will allow a professional developer to implement most of the algorithms readily... otherwise all of the important academic papers are also well referenced. Well-written and accessible. A good addition to your library if you want to go farther than photorealism.