Computer graphics describes any use of computers to create images from 3D to 2D and manipulate them. This book (26 chapters) explains the fundamental concepts, mathematics, and theory of computer graphics.

Chapter 1 gives an introduction to computer graphics technology. The authors call chapters 2 through 8 the “core core.” Chapter 2 shows the mathematical foundations of computer graphics like vector, curve, surface, and triangles. Chapter 3 focuses on raster images. Chapter 4 discusses raytracing. Before going into chapter 6 on transformation matrices, it’s important for chapter 5 to introduce linear algebra. Chapter 7 illustrates the viewing transformation for 3D to 2D mapping. Chapter 8 is about the graphics pipeline, which is to show how to update pixels in the image during rendering.

The authors call the remaining chapters the “outer core.” Chapter 9 focuses on signal processing, including convolution and filters. Chapter 10 focuses on surface shading. Texture mapping is covered in chapter 11. Chapter 12 discusses spatial data structures. Chapter 13 provides more information on the topic of raytracing. Chapter 14 is about sampling, and chapter 15 covers parametric curves, including splines.

Chapters 16 to 26 cover computer animation, the OpenGL pipeline, light, color, visual perception, tone reproduction, implicit modeling, global illumination, reflection models, games, and data visualization.

The book gives the foundational mathematics and theory, and it covers such topics as understanding and manipulating 3D to 2D transformations, the image rendering process, and texture mapping. Some parts are organized around a modern shader-based version of OpenGL. The content is presented very clearly and readers of all levels will find this book easy to follow.

Notes for beginners: although the book shows some codes using a shader-based version of OpenGL, this is not the book for learning OpenGL. I suggest that beginners focus on the first eight “core core” chapters, and then do self-selected reading of the other chapters.

In summary, this is an excellent text for learning computer graphics fundamentals.