WHAT IS COMPUTER GRAPHICS ?
Computer graphics is a branch of computer science that deals with the theory and techniques of computer image synthesis.Computer produce image by analysing a collection of dots, or pixels. In order to create graphics, it require several components such as digital computer to store and manipulate images, a display screen, input/output devices, and specialized software that enable the computer to draw, colour, and manipulate images held in memory.
Computer graphics is used to enhance the transfer and understanding of information in science, engineering, medicine, education, and business by facilitating the generation, production,and display of synthetic images of natural objects with realism almost indistinguishable from photographs. Computer graphics facilitating the production of images that range in complexity from simple line drawing to three-dimensional reconstructions. User interaction can be increased through animation, which covey's large amount of information by seemingly bringing to life multiple related images.
HISTORY OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS
Here's a brief timeline of some key moments in the history of computer graphics. In this section, most links will take you to Wikipedia articles about the pioneering people and programs.
1951: Jay Forrester and Robert Everett of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) produce Whirlwind, a mainframe computer that can display crude images on a television monitor or VDU (visual display unit).
1955: Directly descended from Whirlwind, MIT's SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Equipment) computer uses simple vector graphics to display radar images and becomes a key part of the US missile defence system.
1959: General Motors and IBM develop Design Augmented by Computers-1 (DAC-1), a CAD (computer-aided design) system to help engineers design cars.
1961: John Whitney, Sr. uses computer graphics to design a captivating title sequence for the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Vertigo.
1961: MIT student Steve Russell programs Spacewar, the first graphical computer game, on a DEC PDP-1 minicomputer
.
1963: Ivan Sutherland, a pioneer of human-computer interaction (making computers intuitively easy for humans to use), develops Sketchpad (also called Robot Draftsman), one of the first computer-aided design packages, in which images can be drawn on the screen using a lightpen (an electronic pen/stylus wired into the computer). Later, Sutherland develops virtual reality equipment and flight simulators.
1965: The Howard Wise Gallery holds an exhibition of computer-drawn art in Manhattan, New York.
1966: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) develops an image-processing program called VICAR (Video Image Communication and Retrieval), running on IBM mainframes, to process images of the moon captured by spacecraft.
1970: Bézier curves are developed, soon becoming an indispensable tool in vector graphics.
1972: Atari releases PONG, a popular version of ping-pong (table tennis) played by one or two players on a computer screen.
1973: Richard Shoup produces SuperPaint, a forerunner of modern computer graphic packages, at the Xerox PARC (Palto Alto Research Center) laboratory.
1970s: Ivan Sutherland's student Edwin Catmull becomes one of the pioneers of 3D computer-graphic animation, later playing key roles at Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Disney.
1981: UK company Quantel develops Paintbox, a revolutionary computer-graphic program that allows TV producers and filmakers to edit and manipulate video images digitally.
1982: The movie Tron, starring Jeff Bridges, mixes live action and computer graphic imagery in a story that takes a man deep inside a computer system.
1980s: The appearance of the affordable, easy-to-use Apple Macintosh computer paves the way for desktop publishing (designing things on your own small office computer) with
popular computer graphic packages such as Aldus PageMaker (1985) and QuarkXPress (1987)
.
1990: The first version of Adobe PhotoShop (one of the world's most popular professional graphic design packages) is released. A simple, affordable home graphics program called PaintShop (later PaintShop Pro) is launched the same year.
1993: University of Illinois student Marc Andreessen develops Mosaic, the first web browser to show text and images side-by-side, prompting a huge explosion in interest in the Web virtually overnight.
1995: Toy Story, produced by Pixar Animation Studios (founded by Apple's Steve Jobs, with Ed Catmull as its chief technology officer) demonstrates the impressive possibilities of CGI graphics in moviemaking. Stunning follow-up movies from the same stable include A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.
1995: The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is developed by University of California students Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis.
1999: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) begins development of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), a way of using text-based (XML) files to provide higher-quality images on the Web. SVG images can include elements of both conventional vector and raster graphics.
2007: Apple launches its iPhone and iPod Touch products with touchscreen graphical user interfaces.
1951: Jay Forrester and Robert Everett of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) produce Whirlwind, a mainframe computer that can display crude images on a television monitor or VDU (visual display unit).
1955: Directly descended from Whirlwind, MIT's SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Equipment) computer uses simple vector graphics to display radar images and becomes a key part of the US missile defence system.
1959: General Motors and IBM develop Design Augmented by Computers-1 (DAC-1), a CAD (computer-aided design) system to help engineers design cars.
1961: John Whitney, Sr. uses computer graphics to design a captivating title sequence for the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Vertigo.
1961: MIT student Steve Russell programs Spacewar, the first graphical computer game, on a DEC PDP-1 minicomputer
.
1963: Ivan Sutherland, a pioneer of human-computer interaction (making computers intuitively easy for humans to use), develops Sketchpad (also called Robot Draftsman), one of the first computer-aided design packages, in which images can be drawn on the screen using a lightpen (an electronic pen/stylus wired into the computer). Later, Sutherland develops virtual reality equipment and flight simulators.
1965: The Howard Wise Gallery holds an exhibition of computer-drawn art in Manhattan, New York.
1966: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) develops an image-processing program called VICAR (Video Image Communication and Retrieval), running on IBM mainframes, to process images of the moon captured by spacecraft.
1970: Bézier curves are developed, soon becoming an indispensable tool in vector graphics.
1972: Atari releases PONG, a popular version of ping-pong (table tennis) played by one or two players on a computer screen.
1973: Richard Shoup produces SuperPaint, a forerunner of modern computer graphic packages, at the Xerox PARC (Palto Alto Research Center) laboratory.
1970s: Ivan Sutherland's student Edwin Catmull becomes one of the pioneers of 3D computer-graphic animation, later playing key roles at Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Disney.
1981: UK company Quantel develops Paintbox, a revolutionary computer-graphic program that allows TV producers and filmakers to edit and manipulate video images digitally.
1982: The movie Tron, starring Jeff Bridges, mixes live action and computer graphic imagery in a story that takes a man deep inside a computer system.
1980s: The appearance of the affordable, easy-to-use Apple Macintosh computer paves the way for desktop publishing (designing things on your own small office computer) with
popular computer graphic packages such as Aldus PageMaker (1985) and QuarkXPress (1987)
.
1990: The first version of Adobe PhotoShop (one of the world's most popular professional graphic design packages) is released. A simple, affordable home graphics program called PaintShop (later PaintShop Pro) is launched the same year.
1993: University of Illinois student Marc Andreessen develops Mosaic, the first web browser to show text and images side-by-side, prompting a huge explosion in interest in the Web virtually overnight.
1995: Toy Story, produced by Pixar Animation Studios (founded by Apple's Steve Jobs, with Ed Catmull as its chief technology officer) demonstrates the impressive possibilities of CGI graphics in moviemaking. Stunning follow-up movies from the same stable include A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.
1995: The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is developed by University of California students Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis.
1999: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) begins development of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), a way of using text-based (XML) files to provide higher-quality images on the Web. SVG images can include elements of both conventional vector and raster graphics.
2007: Apple launches its iPhone and iPod Touch products with touchscreen graphical user interfaces.
