3 dimensional graphics. Other types of computer graphics

Three-dimensional graphics do not necessarily include projection onto a plane.....

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✪ Theory of 3D Graphics, lesson 01 - Introduction to 3D Graphics

✪ Computer graphics in cinema

✪ Lecture 1 | Computer graphics | Vitaly Galinsky | Lectorium

✪ 12 - Computer graphics. Basic concepts of computer graphics

✪ Lecture 4 | Computer graphics | Vitaly Galinsky | Lectorium

Subtitles

Application

Three-dimensional graphics is actively used to create images on the plane of a screen or a sheet of printed matter in science and industry, for example, in automation systems for design work (CAD; for creating solid elements: buildings, machine parts, mechanisms), architectural visualization (this includes the so-called "virtual archeology"), in modern medical imaging systems.

The widest application is in many modern computer games, as well as an element of cinematography, television, and printed products.

3D graphics usually deals with virtual, imaginary three-dimensional space that is displayed on a flat, two-dimensional surface of a display or sheet of paper. Currently, there are several ways to display three-dimensional information in a three-dimensional form, although most of them represent three-dimensional characteristics rather conditionally, since they work with a stereo image. From this area, stereo glasses, virtual helmets, 3D displays capable of demonstrating a three-dimensional image can be noted. Several manufacturers demonstrated 3D displays ready for mass production. However, 3D displays still do not allow you to create a full-fledged physical, tangible copy of a mathematical model created by 3D graphics methods. Rapid prototyping technologies, which have been developing since the 1990s, fill this gap. It should be noted that rapid prototyping technologies use the representation of a mathematical model of an object in the form of a solid body (voxel model).

Creation

To obtain a three-dimensional image on a plane, the following steps are required:

• modeling- creation of a three-dimensional mathematical model of the scene and objects in it;
• texturing- assignment of raster or procedural textures to the surfaces of models (it also implies setting the properties of materials - transparency, reflections, roughness, etc.);
• lighting- installation and configuration;
• animation(in some cases) - giving movement to objects;
• dynamic simulation(in some cases) - automatic calculation of the interaction of particles, hard / soft bodies, etc. with the simulated forces of gravity, wind, buoyancy, etc., as well as with each other;
• rendering(visualization) - building a projection in accordance with the selected physical model;
• compositing(layout) - finalization of the image;
• outputting the resulting image to an output device - a display or a special printer.

Modeling

The most popular purely modeling packages are:

• Robert McNeel & Assoc. Rhinoceros 3D ;

To create a three-dimensional model of a person or creature, Sculpture can be used as a prototype (in most cases).

Texturing

sketch up

Visualization of three-dimensional graphics in games and applications

There are a number of software libraries for rendering 3D graphics in application programs - DirectX, OpenGL, and so on.

There are a number of approaches to presenting 3D graphics in games - full 3D, pseudo-3D.

Such packages do not even always allow the user to operate a 3D model directly, for example, there is an OpenSCAD package, in which the model is formed by executing a user-generated script written in a specialized language.

3D displays

Three-dimensional or stereoscopic displays, (3D displays, 3D screens) - displays, through stereoscopic or any other effect, creating the illusion of real volume in the displayed images.

At present, the vast majority 3D images is shown with the help of stereoscopic effect, as the easiest to implement, although the use of stereoscopy alone cannot be called sufficient for volumetric perception. The human eye, both in pairs and alone, equally well distinguishes three-dimensional objects from flat images [ ] .

The question of what is the engine of the entire computer industry has long been of concern to many users. Or is it Intel, which, without ceasing, releases and releases new processors. But who then forces them to buy? Maybe Microsoft is to blame for everything, which constantly makes its windows bigger and more beautiful? No, you can be content with old versions of programs - especially since the range of their capabilities practically does not change. The conclusion suggests itself - the games are to blame for everything. Yes, it is games that tend to become more and more like the real world, creating its virtual copy, they want more and more powerful resources.

The entire history of computer graphics on the PC is proof of this. Remember, in the beginning there were Tetris, Diggers, Arkanoids. All graphics consisted of redrawing small areas of the screen, sprites, and worked fine even on XT. But those days have passed. Simulation star has risen.

With the release of games such as F19, Formula 1, etc., in which we had to redraw the entire screen, pre-preparing it in memory, we all had to get at least 286 processors. But progress didn't stop there. The desire to liken the virtual world in the game to the real world intensified, and Wolf 3D was born.

This is, one might say, the first 3D game in which some sort of, but still realistic world was modeled. To implement it, we had to use the upper (more than 640 KB) memory and drive the program into protected mode. For a full-fledged game, I had to install an 80386 processor. But the world of Wolf 3D also suffered from shortcomings. Although the walls weren't just solid rectangles, they were filled with low resolution textures, so the surfaces only looked decent from a distance. Of course, it was possible to go the way of increasing the resolution of textures, remember, for example, DOOM. Then we had to switch back to a newer processor and increase the amount of memory. True, it doesn't matter, although the image has improved, but all the same shortcomings were inherent in it. Yes, and flat objects and monsters - who cares. And then the star of Quake rose. In this game, a revolutionary approach was applied - the z-buffer, which made it possible to give volume to all objects. However, the whole game still worked in low resolution and was not very realistic.

A new hardware solution was brewing. And this solution turned out to be, in general, lying on the surface. Since users want to play in a three-dimensional virtual world, the process of its creation (remember the minutes of waiting spent at 3D Studio before the next picture appears) must be drastically accelerated. And since the central processor copes with this task very badly, a revolutionary decision was made - to make a specialized one.

And then the manufacturer of slot machines 3Dfx got out, making this fairy tale come true with the help of its Voodoo GPU. Mankind has taken another step into the virtual world.

And since operating system on a PC with texture windows floating back into the fog, there is not yet, and is not expected, the entire apparatus of three-dimensional graphics can only be applied to games so far, which is successfully done by all civilized mankind.

Model

To display three-dimensional objects on a monitor screen, a series of processes (usually called a pipeline) is required, followed by translation of the result into a two-dimensional view. Initially, an object is represented as a set of points, or coordinates, in three-dimensional space. A three-dimensional coordinate system is defined by three axes: horizontal, vertical, and depth, commonly referred to as the x, y, and z axes, respectively. An object can be a house, a person, a car, an airplane, or a whole 3D world, and coordinates determine the position of the vertices (nodal points) that make up the object in space. By connecting the vertices of the object with lines, we get a wireframe model, so called because only the edges of the surfaces of a three-dimensional body are visible. A wireframe defines the areas that make up the surface of an object that can be filled with color, textures, and illuminated by light rays.

Rice. 1: Cube wireframe

Even with this simplified explanation of the 3D graphics pipeline, it becomes clear how much computation is required to draw a 3D object on a 2D screen. One can imagine how much the amount of required calculations over the coordinate system increases if the object moves.

Rice. 2: Aircraft model with shaded surfaces

API Role

An Application Programmable Interface (API) consists of functions that control the 3D pipeline in software but can take advantage of the 3D hardware implementation if available. If there is a hardware accelerator, the API takes advantage of it, if not, then the API works with optimal settings designed for the most common systems. Thus, thanks to the use of the API, any number of software tools can be supported by any number of hardware 3D accelerators.

For general and entertainment applications, the following APIs exist:

• Microsoft Direct3D
• Criterion Renderware
• Argonaut BRender
• Intel 3DR

For professional applications running under Windows control NT dominates the OpenGL interface. Autodesk Company, largest manufacturer engineering applications, has developed its own API, called Heidi.
Companies such as Intergraph - RenderGL, and 3DFX - GLide have also developed their APIs.

The existence and availability of 3D interfaces that support multiple graphics subsystems and applications increases the need for real-time 3D graphics hardware accelerators. Entertainment applications are the main consumer and customer of such accelerators, but do not forget about professional applications for processing 3D graphics running under Windows NT, many of which are transferred from high-performance workstations such as Silicon Graphics to the PC platform. Internet applications will greatly benefit from the incredible agility, intuitiveness and flexibility that the 3D GUI provides. Interaction on the World Wide Web will be much easier and more convenient if it takes place in three-dimensional space.

graphics accelerator

The market for graphics subsystems before the advent of the concept multimedia was relatively easy to develop. An important milestone in the development was the VGA (Video graphics Array) standard, developed by IBM in 1987, thanks to which video adapter manufacturers were able to use higher resolution (640x480) and greater color depth on a computer monitor. With the growing popularity of the Windows operating system, there is an urgent need for 2D graphics hardware accelerators to offload the system's central processor, which is forced to process additional events. The distraction of the CPU for graphics processing significantly affects the overall performance of the GUI (Graphical User Interface) - the graphical user interface, and since Windows and its applications require as much CPU resources as possible, graphics processing was carried out with a lower priority, i.e. done very slowly. Manufacturers have added 2D graphics processing features to their products, such as drawing windows when opened and minimized, a hardware cursor that is constantly visible when moving the pointer, and painting areas on the screen at a high frequency of image refresh. So, there was a processor providing acceleration VGA (Accelerated VGA - AVGA), also known as Windows or GUI accelerator, which has become a must-have element in modern computers.

The introduction of multimedia has created new challenges by adding components such as audio and digital video to the 2D graphics feature set. It's easy to see today that many AVGA products support digital video processing in hardware. Therefore, if your monitor is playing video in a window the size of a postage stamp - it's time to install in your machine multimedia accelerator. Multimedia accelerator (multimedia accelerator) usually has built-in hardware functions that allow you to scale the video image along the x and y axes, as well as convert the digital signal to analog in hardware for output to the monitor in RGB format. Some multimedia accelerators may also have built-in digital video decompression capabilities.

Graphics designers must base their requirements partly on the size of the computer monitor, partly on the GUI, and partly on the GPU. The primary VGA standard, with a resolution of 640x480 pixels, was adequate for the 14" monitors most common at the time. Today, monitors with a diagonal tube size of 17" are most preferred due to the ability to display images with a resolution of 1024x768 or more.

The main trend in the transition from VGA to multimedia accelerators was the ability to fit as much visual information as possible on a computer monitor. The use of 3D graphics is a logical development of this trend. Huge amounts of visual information can be squeezed into the limited space of a monitor screen if it is presented in 3D. Processing of three-dimensional graphics in real time allows the user to easily operate the data presented.

Game engines

The first rule of computer games is that there are no rules. Traditionally, game developers are more interested in cool graphics in their programs than in following the advice of techies. While developers have many 3D APIs at their disposal, such as Direct3D, some programmers go the route of creating their own 3D game interface or engine. Proprietary game engines are one of the ways for developers to achieve incredible visual realism, in fact, to the limit of graphics programming.

There is nothing more desirable for a developer than to have direct access to the hardware features of system components. Several well-known developers have created their own game engines, running with optimal use of graphics hardware accelerators, which have brought them fame and money. For example, Interplay engines for Descent II and id Software for Quake provide true 3D action using full 3D hardware features where available.

Graphics without compromise

Talks that have been going on for quite some time about the prospects for using 3D graphics in areas such as entertainment and business have fueled the interest of potential users to the limit, a new type of product has already appeared on the market. These new technological solutions combine excellent 2D graphics support that meets today's requirements for Windows accelerators, hardware support for 3D graphics features and play digital video at the required frame rate.
In principle, these products can be safely attributed to a new generation of graphics subsystems that provide graphics without compromise, occupying a worthy place of standard equipment in desktop computing systems.
Among the representatives of the new generation, the following products can be mentioned, as an example:

• CPU Ticket-To-Ride companies Number Nine Visual Technologies
• processor series ViRGE companies S3 Inc.
• CPU RIVA128, developed jointly by companies SGS Thomson and nVidia

3D graphics technology

Let us still manage to convince you to try 3D graphics in action (if you have not already done so), and you decide to play one of the 3D games designed for using a 3D video card.
Let's say that such a game turned out to be a car racing simulator, and your car is already at the start, ready to rush to conquer new records. There is a pre-launch countdown, and you notice that the view from the cockpit displayed on the monitor screen is slightly different from what you are used to.
You have participated in such races before, but for the first time the image strikes you with exceptional realism, forcing you to believe in the reality of what is happening. The horizon, together with distant objects, sinks into the morning mist. The road looks unusually smooth, the asphalt is not a set of dirty gray squares, but a monochromatic pavement with road markings applied. The trees along the road do indeed have deciduous crowns in which individual leaves seem to be discernible. From the entire screen as a whole, one gets the impression of a high-quality photograph with a real perspective, and not as a pathetic attempt to simulate reality.

Let's try to figure out what technical solutions allow 3D video cards to convey virtual reality with such realism. How did the visual tools of the PC manage to reach the level of professional studios dealing with three-dimensional graphics.

Part of the computational operations associated with the display and modeling of the three-dimensional world is now transferred to the 3D accelerator, which is the heart of the 3D video card. The central processor is now practically not busy with display issues, the image of the screen is formed by the video card. This process is based on the implementation of a number of effects at the hardware level, as well as the use of a simple mathematical apparatus. Let's try to figure out what exactly a 3D graphics processor can do.

Returning to our example of a racing simulator, let's think about how the realistic display of road surfaces or buildings standing on the side of the road is achieved. This is done using a common technique called texture mapping.
This is the most common effect for surface modeling. For example, the facade of a building would require multiple faces to model multiple bricks, windows, and doors. However, texture (an image superimposed on the entire surface at once) gives more realism, but requires less computing resources, as it allows you to operate with the entire facade as a single surface. Before surfaces hit the screen, they are textured and shaded. All textures are stored in memory, usually installed on the graphics card. By the way, one cannot fail to notice here that the use of AGP makes it possible to store textures in system memory, and its volume is much larger.

Obviously, when surfaces are textured, perspective must be taken into account, for example, when displaying a road with a median that extends beyond the horizon. Perspective correction is necessary for textured objects to look correct. It ensures that the bitmap correctly overlays on different parts of the object - both those that are closer to the observer, and those that are more distant.
Perspective correction is a very time-consuming operation, so you can often find it not quite correct implementation.

When applying textures, in principle, you can also see the seams between the two nearest bitmaps. Or, more commonly, in some games, when depicting a road or long corridors, flickering is noticeable while moving. To overcome these difficulties, filtering (usually Bi- or tri-linear) is applied.

Bilinear filtering is a method of removing image distortions. When the object rotates or moves slowly, pixels may jump from one place to another, which causes flicker. To reduce this effect, bilinear filtering uses a weighted average of four adjacent texture pixels to display a surface point.

Trilinear filtering is somewhat more complicated. To obtain each pixel of the image, a weighted average of the results of two levels of bilinear filtering is taken. The resulting image will be even clearer and less flickering.

The textures that form the surface of an object change their appearance depending on the change in the distance from the object to the position of the viewer's eyes. With a moving image, for example, as the object moves away from the viewer, the texture bitmap should decrease in size along with the size of the rendered object. In order to perform this transformation, the GPU converts the texture bitmaps down to the appropriate size to cover the surface of the object, but the image must remain natural, i.e. the object must not deform in an unexpected way.

To avoid unexpected changes, most graphics processes create a series of pre-filtered, reduced-resolution texture bitmaps, a process called mip mapping . Then, the graphics program automatically determines which texture to use based on the details of the image that is already displayed. Accordingly, if the object is reduced in size, the size of its texture bitmap is also reduced.

But back to our racing car. The road itself already looks realistic, but problems are observed with its edges! Remember how a line drawn on the screen that is not parallel to its edge looks like. Here and on our road appear " torn edges". And to combat this shortcoming, the image is used.

This is a way of processing (interpolating) pixels to get sharper edges (borders) of an image (object). The most commonly used technique is to create smooth transition from line or edge color to background color. The color of a point lying on the boundary of objects is determined as the average of the colors of two boundary points. However, in some cases, a side effect of anti-aliasing is blurring the edges.

We are approaching the key point in the functioning of all 3D algorithms. Let's assume that the track on which our racing car drives is surrounded by a large number of various objects - buildings, trees, people.
Here, the main problem for the 3D processor is how to determine which of the objects are in the field of view, and how they are lit. Moreover, to know what is visible in this moment, not enough. It is necessary to have information about the relative position of objects. To solve this problem, a technique called z-buffering is used. This is the most reliable method for removing hidden surfaces. The so-called z-buffer stores the depth values ​​of all pixels (z-coordinates). When a new pixel is calculated (rendered), its depth is compared with the values ​​stored in the z-buffer, and more specifically with the depths of already rendered pixels with the same x and y coordinates. If the new pixel has a depth value greater than any value in the z-buffer, the new pixel is not written to the buffer for display, if less than it is.

Z-buffering in hardware implementation greatly increases performance. However, the z-buffer takes up large amounts of memory: for example, even at a resolution of 640x480, a 24-bit z-buffer will take up about 900 KB. This memory must also be installed on the 3D graphics card.

The resolution of the z-buffer is its most important attribute. It is critical for high-quality display of scenes with great depth. The higher the resolution, the higher the discreteness of the z-coordinates and the more accurate the rendering of distant objects. If there is not enough resolution when rendering, then it can happen that two overlapping objects will receive the same z-coordinate, as a result, the equipment will not know which object is closer to the viewer, which can cause image distortion.
To avoid these effects, professional boards have a 32-bit z-buffer and are equipped with large amounts of memory.

In addition to the above basics, 3D graphics cards usually have the ability to play some additional features. For example, if you drove your racing car into the sand, the view would be obstructed by the rising dust. To implement these and similar effects, fogging is used. This effect is created by combining blended computer color pixels with a fog color, controlled by a function that determines the fog depth. Using the same algorithm, distant objects are immersed in haze, creating the illusion of distance.

The real world consists of transparent, translucent and opaque objects. To take this circumstance into account, alpha blending is used - a method of transmitting information about the transparency of translucent objects. The translucency effect is created by combining the color of the original pixel with the pixel already in the buffer.
As a result, the dot color is a combination of the foreground and background colors. Typically, alpha has a normalized value between 0 and 1 for each color pixel. New pixel = (alpha)(color of pixel A) + (1 - alpha)(color of pixel B).

Obviously, in order to create a realistic picture of what is happening on the screen, frequent updating of its contents is necessary. When forming each next frame, the 3D accelerator goes through the entire counting path again, so it must have considerable speed. But in 3D graphics, other methods are used to make motion smoother. The key one is Double Buffering .
Imagine the old trick of animators drawing a cartoon character on the corners of a stack of paper, with a slightly different position on each subsequent sheet. Scrolling through the entire stack, bending the corner, we will see the smooth movement of our hero. Almost the same principle of operation has Double Buffering in 3D animation, i.e. the character's next position is already drawn before the current page is flipped. Without the use of double buffering, the image will not have the required smoothness, i.e. will be intermittent. Double buffering requires two areas reserved in the 3D graphics card's framebuffer; both areas must match the size of the image displayed on the screen. The method uses two buffers to receive an image: one for displaying the image, the other for rendering. While the contents of one buffer are being rendered, another is being rendered. When the next frame is processed, the buffers are switched (swapped). Thus, the player sees an excellent picture all the time.

In conclusion of the discussion of the algorithms used in 3D graphics accelerators, let's try to figure out how the application of all effects separately allows you to get a complete picture. 3D graphics are implemented using a multi-stage mechanism called a rendering pipeline.
The use of pipeline processing makes it possible to further speed up the execution of calculations due to the fact that calculations for the next object can be started before the completion of the calculations of the previous one.

The rendering pipeline can be divided into 2 stages: geometry processing and rasterization.

At the first stage of geometric processing, coordinate transformation (rotation, translation and scaling of all objects), cutting off invisible parts of objects, lighting calculation, determining the color of each vertex taking into account all light sources and the process of dividing the image into smaller shapes are performed. To describe the nature of the surface of an object, it is divided into various polygons.
The division into triangles and quadrilaterals is most often used when displaying graphical objects, since they are the easiest to calculate and manipulate. In this case, the coordinates of objects are converted from real to integer representation to speed up calculations.

At the second stage, all the described effects are applied to the image in the following sequence: removal of hidden surfaces, texture overlay taking into account the perspective of textures (using a z-buffer), applying fog and translucency effects, anti-aliasing. After that, the next point is considered ready to be placed in the buffer from the next frame.

From all of the above, you can understand for what purposes the memory installed on the 3D accelerator board is used. It stores textures, z-buffer and next frame buffers. When using the PCI bus, you cannot use ordinary RAM for these purposes, since the speed of the video card will be significantly limited by the bandwidth of the bus. That is why the advancement of the AGP bus is especially promising for the development of 3D graphics, which makes it possible to connect the 3D chip to the processor directly and thereby organize a fast data exchange with the RAM. This solution, moreover, should reduce the cost of 3D accelerators due to the fact that only a little memory for the frame buffer will remain on the board.

Conclusion

The widespread introduction of 3D graphics has caused an increase in the power of computers without any significant increase in their price. Users are stunned by the possibilities and eager to try them on their computers. Many new 3D maps allow users to see real-time 3D graphics on their home computers. These new accelerators allow you to add realism to images and accelerate graphics output bypassing the CPU, relying on their own hardware capabilities.

Although the 3D capabilities are currently only used in games, it is expected that business applications will also be able to benefit from them in the future. For example, computer-aided design already needs to output three-dimensional objects. Now creation and design will be possible on a personal computer thanks to the opportunities that are opening up. 3D graphics may also change the way humans interact with computers. The use of 3D software interfaces should make the process of communicating with a computer even easier than at present.

As mentioned above, computer graphics can be divided into three main categories according to the ways in which images are described: raster, vector, and three-dimensional graphics. Among two-dimensional graphics, pixel and fractal graphics stand out in a special way. 3D, CGI and infographics also require separate consideration.

Pixel graphics

The term "pixel art" pixel ) means a form of digital image created on a computer using a raster graphics editor, where the image is edited at the pixel (dot) level, and the image resolution is so small that individual pixels are clearly visible.

It is a common misconception that any drawing made using raster editors is pixel art. This is not true, pixel image differs from the usual raster technology - manual editing of the picture pixel by pixel. Therefore, a pixel art is characterized by its small size, limited color palette, and (usually) lack of anti-aliasing.

Pixel graphics use only the simplest tools of raster graphics editors, such as Pencil, Line (line) or Fill (color fill). Pixel graphics are reminiscent of mosaics and cross-stitch or beadwork, as the pattern is made up of small colored elements, similar to the pixels of modern monitors.

fractal graphics

A fractal is an object formed from irregular separate parts that are similar to the whole object. Since a more detailed description of elements of a smaller scale occurs according to a simple algorithm, such an object can be described with just a few mathematical equations.

Rice. 8.5.

Fractal graphics are indispensable for creating artificial mountains, clouds, sea waves. Thanks to fractals, complex objects are easily depicted, the images of which are similar to natural ones. Fractals allow you to describe entire classes of images, for a detailed description of which requires relatively little memory (Fig. 8.5). On the other hand, fractals are poorly applicable to images outside of these classes.

3D graphics

Three-dimensional graphics (3D - from English. 3 Dimensions - three dimensions) - three dimensions of the image) - a section of computer graphics, a set of techniques and tools (both software and hardware) designed to depict three-dimensional objects (Fig. 8.6).

Rice. 8.6.

3D image on a plane differs from a two-dimensional one in that it involves the construction of a geometric projection of a three-dimensional scene model onto a plane (for example, a computer screen) using specialized programs (however, with the creation and implementation of 3D -displays and 3D -3D graphics printers do not necessarily include projection onto a plane). In this case, the model can either correspond to objects from the real world (cars, buildings, a hurricane, an asteroid), or be completely abstract (a projection of a four-dimensional fractal).

3D modeling is the process of creating a three-dimensional model of an object. Task 3D - modeling - to develop a three-dimensional image of the desired object. With the help of three-dimensional graphics, you can create an exact copy of a particular object, and develop a new, even unrealistic representation of an object that never existed.

3D graphics operates on objects in 3D space. Usually the results are a flat picture, a projection. Three-dimensional computer graphics is widely used in television, cinema, computer games and the design of printed products.

Three-dimensional graphics is actively used to create images on the plane of a screen or a printed sheet in science and industry (for example, in computer-aided design work (CAD) systems); for the creation of solid elements: buildings, machine parts, mechanisms), architectural visualization (this includes the so-called "virtual archeology"), in modern medical imaging systems.

3D graphics usually deals with a virtual, imaginary three-dimensional space that is displayed on a flat, two-dimensional surface of a display or sheet of paper. Any image on the monitor, due to the plane of the latter, becomes a raster, since the monitor is a matrix, it consists of columns and rows. Three-dimensional graphics exist only in our imagination - what we see on the monitor is a projection of a three-dimensional figure, and we ourselves create the space. Thus, graphics visualization is only raster and vector, and the visualization method is only a raster (a set of pixels), the way the image is specified depends on the number of these pixels.

Currently, there are several methods for displaying three-dimensional information in a three-dimensional form, although most of them present three-dimensional characteristics rather conditionally, since they work with a stereo image. From this area, stereo glasses, virtual helmets, 3D displays capable of showing a three-dimensional image.

-graphic arts

The term "CGI graphics" computer generated imagery stands for computer-generated images) stands for still and moving images generated by 3D computer graphics and used in the visual arts, printing, cinematic special effects, television and simulations. Computer games typically use real-time computer graphics, but CGI-based in-game videos are also periodically added.

Moving images are created by computer animation, which is a narrower area of ​​CGI graphics, which is also applicable in cinema, where it allows you to create effects that cannot be obtained using traditional makeup and animatronics. Computer animation can replace the work of stuntmen and extras, as well as scenery.

infographics

The term "infographics" (from lat. information- awareness, clarification, presentation; and others - Greek. graphics - written, from grapho - I write) denote graphic way presentation of information, data and knowledge.

The range of application of infographics is huge - geography, journalism, education, statistics, technical texts. It helps not only organize large amounts of information, but also more clearly show the relationship of objects and facts in time and space, as well as demonstrate trends.

Infographics can be called any combination of text and graphics created with the intention of telling a particular story, conveying a particular fact. Infographics work where you need to show the device and algorithm of something, the relationship of objects and facts in time and space, demonstrate a trend, show what it looks like, organize large amounts of information.

An infographic is a visual representation of information. Used where complex information needs to be presented quickly and clearly.

• Animatronics - a technique used in cinematography, animation, computer modeling to create special effects of moving artificial parts of the body of a person, animal or other objects.

In our time, three-dimensional graphics are actively penetrating into all spheres of life, and graphic design is no exception.

3D graphics are everywhere: in magazines, on street advertising posters, in collages by popular photographers, and so on.

Many novice designers think that to create, for example, a cool movie poster, Photoshop is enough and 3D graphics can not be used.

What they don't realize is that by refusing to use 3D graphics, they are limiting themselves and depriving themselves of the benefits it would give their work.

I'll give you an example. Below you can see the poster of the movie "Oblivion". As you can see, it is more than half of 3D graphics!

3D graphics provide you with incredible possibilities for bringing your artistic ideas to life!

One more example! Recently, while drinking coffee at McDonald's, I noticed a beautiful poster that hung on the wall.

What attracted me to this poster, you ask? Yes, the whole point is that the burger on this poster was somehow super-ideal!

Yes, he was excellent!

I (a person who knows a little about photography) understood that finding such a perfect burger, and even photographing it so cool, is simply unrealistic! It just takes an incredible amount of effort!

Therefore, I had a thought, but is it three-dimensional graphics?

When I got home and searched on the Internet, I came across the site of a 3D artist who drew this burger.

Yes, I was right! This burger was 100% modeled in 3D software.

This is another example of how popular 3D graphics are.

Let's look at a couple more examples of using 3D graphics in advertising.

Three-dimensional graphics have become so perfect that it is difficult to distinguish them from photography. It should be borne in mind that, as a rule, 3D graphics look much more attractive than a photograph.

Car manufacturers were among the first to realize the power of 3D graphics, and now on all advertising posters and in magazines you see not photos of cars, but their 3D models.

I'm not talking about the fact that with the help of 3D graphics you can literally disassemble a car for parts.

To sell a particular product, you must present it to customers in all its glory. It is for this reason that IKEA abandoned photography in favor of 3D graphics in 2013. Now all the images in the IKEA catalog are made using three-dimensional programs.

Here are some more examples:

I am sure that you, people already familiar with Photoshop, there is room to grow further and master new programs to keep up with the times!

What about programs for creating 3D graphics? What are the options at all, and what to look for if you are new to this matter.

There are many programs on the market today, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Here are some of them: 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Maya, Houdini, Blender.

But what to choose from this and where to start work, I will tell you tomorrow. And tomorrow you will be able to create your first 3D object! Till tomorrow!

Every day we all see a huge amount of advertising, films, cartoons and other media products of our modern world. The world of technology, without which, it seems, millions of people around the world cannot live.

Almost all people know that an increasing part of modern art is created with the help of computer graphics. But only a few of them understand the difference between raster graphics and vector graphics, and fractal graphics from 3d graphics. We will analyze these differences today. And more detailed description most programs and their cost can be found on the site https://www.architect-design.ru. So, let's go find out.

We can say that this type (type) of computer graphics is the most common. A treasure trove of vacation shots and millions of photos of the cutest kittens on the internet are all raster graphics.

Raster-type images are built according to a simple principle, which is similar, for example, to cross-stitch. A certain color is placed in the cell assigned to it. If you zoom in on a raster image, you can see how it is divided into squares of the same size, resembling a mosaic. Such an increase noticeably worsens its quality, since the picture is divided into visible squares with a strong increase. This effect is called pixelization, and each such square is called a dot, or pixel.

Raster graphics

The word "pixel" comes from the abbreviation "Picture element". The pixel is not divided into smaller parts, has a uniform color and is the smallest element bitmap. The size of a dot, a pixel, of which an image is made up, is approximately 0.05 millimeters.

The advantages of raster graphics include its high realism. The downside may be that if the picture is too small, then it simply will not work to enlarge it without losing quality. The most popular raster graphics creation and editing program is Adobe Photoshop.

Vector graphics

If in a raster graphics a point is the main element, then in a vector one can call it a line. Of course, there are also lines in the raster, but they themselves can be broken down into smaller details, pixels, but it is no longer possible to simplify a vector line.

Lines intersect, bend, close together to form shapes. For example, three lines closed at an angle form a primitive - a triangle. This triangle can be filled with a specific color or texture, stretched on one of its sides, or bent. But vector graphics are not only geometric primitives: an image can consist of bizarre blots, lines of different thicknesses, and any other shapes. The more such shapes are used, the better the vector image looks. In some ways, this is similar to a paper application, which consists of combinations of shapes cut out from different sheets of colored paper.

Vector graphics

The main advantage of this type of graphics is that the image quality does not change when scaling, and the size of such a file is smaller, because the program perceives each object used in creating an image as a formula. Such a formula occupies only one cell of information.

Let's say the line is designated by the program with the letter "L" and is written in one cell of the notebook. And if the line becomes red, then the letter “K” is also added to the letter “L”, as a color designation, but all this also fits into one memory cell.

Such a system somewhat simplifies the work with the image when editing. After all, each object can be bent, enlarged and scaled without affecting others.. There is only one minus: your pet, drawn in vector, will more likely look like a comic book hero than a real cat. Vector graphics are created more often in programs: Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator.

fractal graphics

From Latin, the word "fractal" can be translated as "consisting of parts, fragments." To create a fractal image, an object is used that is infinitely multiplied and repeated, parts of which are divided again and again, and their parts ... in general, you understand. It resembles a snowflake or a tree, as if each of its branches is divided into two, and those, in turn, into two more, and so on.

The nature of such division and multiplication is determined by a given mathematical formula. There are a great many modifications of similar objects, but all of them are laid down in a single mathematical calculus, changing which you can get more and more new variations of the fractal image. Apophysis is one of the programs that generates fractal images.

fractal graphics

3D graphics

A three-dimensional image created on a computer can be as realistic as possible. It can be rotated, viewed from all sides, zoomed in or out. Thus, 3D objects are similar to real life objects, as they have volume, texture and exist, as it were, in three dimensions, but only on the screen.

3D graphics can be simple, like a 3D square, or complex, full of detail. Objects can be given the effect of movement, movement in space or interaction with objects, if the one who created them so desires. We see 3D graphics in video games and cartoons - it is there that it comes to life and makes it possible to evaluate its volume and realism. The most popular programs for creating 3d graphics: 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, Blender. It is the 3ds Max program that is dedicated to the site where you are now.

3ds max - 3d graphics creation program