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From: rrizzo@bbn.com (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: help wanted: pointers to books
Message-ID: <44401@bbn.COM>
Date: 16 Aug 89 18:58:38 GMT
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: rrizzo@BBN.COM (Ron Rizzo)
Lines: 44


I'm new to computer graphics & comp.graphics.  I'd appreciate any
bibliographical pointers people could give me to books about graphics
and/or animation.

I'm almost finished reading Hearn & Baker's textbook COMPUTER GRAPHICS.
I picked it for the pretty color pictures, figuring a poorly illustrated
computer graphics text is something to avoid.  Hearn & Baker is a good
first pass, but I find I want more depth.  So I've started reading the
optics chapters in volume 1 of Feynman's Lectures.  Feynman says the
basic principles of geometrical optics are simple & have been understood
for centuries, and that computers have made the laborious but obviously
ideal method of ray tracing feasible at least.  He's not interested in 
engineering.  So what I really need is a kind of engineering text on the
physics & optics of illumination.  A local bookstore sells a 1989 volume
by Roy Hall for $49.50 that looks fascinating (Springer Verlag publisher).
It not only gives a lot of code, but the underlying mathematics & physics
behind ray-tracing and other methods (Phong, Goureaud, etc.) that 
realistically render complex lighting & shading effects.  But the price
tag is too high and I doubt most libraries have a copy yet.

Any recommendations?

I find myself being drawn to the following topics: shading & coloring
models & techniques; ray-tracing; perspective projections.

I'd also be interested in any recommendations people can make about books
on computer animation and computer art (stills).

I know that ideally I should beg, steal or borrow access to a good &
powerful graphics system and play with it as much as I can.  Barring
that, am I condemned to plough throw lengthy equation-scrawled papers
in the SIGGRAPH proceedings volumes?  How do find your way through
THAT forest?

BTW, has anyone posted summary descriptions of SIGGRAPH '89 events (eg,
the animation extravanganza) to this newsgroup or comp.graphics.digest?

Finally, for eastern Massachusetts netters, can you recommend any computer
graphics courses to take?  The 2-semester sequence at Harvard Extension
sounds interesting.

Regards,
Ron