Computer Graphics Lecture note

Chapter one
Application of Computer Graphics
Computer graphics refers to the creation, storage and manipulation of pictures and drawings using
a digital computer. With developments in computing technology interactive computer graphics
has become an effective tool for the presentation of information in such diverse fields as science,
engineering, medicine, business, industry, government, art, entertainment, advertising, education,
and training. There is virtually no field in which graphical displays cannot be used to some
advantage and that is the basic reason why application of computer graphics is so widespread
It is a fact that one picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore, interfaces empowered with
graphics enhance the communication between the computer and its users. Representation of a
huge set of numbers in the form of a graph or a picture helps in a better understanding and
interpretation of the characteristics or pattern of the data contained in the set of numbers. Graphic
displays also improve understanding of complex systems, and visualization of two-dimensional
(2D), three-dimensional (3D) objects: A major application of computer graphics are mentioned
below.

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

for engineering and architectural systems etc. Objects maybe displayed in a wireframe outline
form. Multi-window environment is also favored for producing various zooming scales and
views. Animations are useful for testing performance.
Presentation Graphics
To produce illustrations which summarize various kinds of data. Except 2D, 3D graphics are good
tools for reporting more complex data.
Computer Art
Painting packages are available. With cordless, pressure-sensitive stylus, artists can produce
electronic paintings which simulate different brush strokes, brush widths, and colors.
Photorealistic techniques, morphing and animations are very useful in commercial art. For films,
24 frames per second are required. For video monitor, 30 frames per second are required.
Entertainment
Motion pictures, Music videos, and TV shows, Computer games
Education and Training
Training with computer-generated models of specialized systems such as the training of ship
captains and aircraft pilots.
Visualization
For analyzing scientific, engineering, medical and business data or behavior. Converting data to
visual form can help to understand mass volume of data very efficiently.
Image Processing
Image processing is to apply techniques to modify or interpret existing pictures. It is widely used
in medical applications.

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Graphical User Interface

A graphical user interface is mouse-oriented paradigm, which allows the user to interact with a
computer. Multiple windows, icons, menus allow a computer setup to be utilized more efficiently.

Graphical Hardware
Graphic hardware can be divided into two major categories of devices:
(1) Input devices with which the user interacts to generate necessary instruction or data for creating
graphics
(2) Display systems where the graphics are rendered on the monitor screen.
Input Devices
Various devices are available for data input on graphics workstations. Most systems have a
keyboard and one or more additional devices specially designed for interactive input. These
include a mouse, trackball, spaceball, joystick, digitizers, dials, and button boxes. Some other
input devices used in particular applications are data gloves, touch panels, image scanners, and
voice systems.
Keyboards
An alphanumeric keyboard on a graphics system is used primarily as a device for entering text
strings. The keyboard is an efficient device for inputting such nongraphic data as picture labels
associated with a graphics display. Keyboards can also be provided with features to facilitate
entry of screen coordinates, menu selections, or graphics functions.
Cursor-control keys and function keys are common features on general purpose keyboards.
Function keys allow users to enter frequently used operations in a single keystroke, and cursor-
control keys can be used to select displayed objects or coordinate positions by positioning the
screen cursor. Other types of cursor-positioning devices, such as a trackball or joystick, are
included on some keyboards. Additionally, a numeric keypad is, often included on the keyboard
for fast entry of numeric data.
Mouse
A mouse is small hand-held box used to position the screen cursor. Wheels or rollers on the
bottom of the mouse can be used to record the amount and direction of movement. Another
method for detecting mouse motion is with an optical sensor. For these systems, the mouse is
moved over a special mouse pad that has a grid of horizontal and vertical lines. The optical sensor
detects movement across the lines in the grid.
Trackball and Spaceball
As the name implies, a trackball is a ball that can be rotated with the fingers or palm of the hand
to produce screen-cursor movement. Potentiometers, attached to the ball, measure the amount and
direction of rotation. Trackballs are often mounted on keyboards.
While a trackball is a two-dimensional positioning device, a spaceball provides six degrees of
freedom. Unlike the trackball, a spaceball does not actually move. Strain gauges measure the
amount of pressure applied to the spaceball to provide input for spatial positioning and orientation

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as the ball is pushed or pulled in various directions. Spaceballs are used for three-dimensional
positioning and selection operations in virtual-reality systems, modeling, animation, CAD, and
other applications.
Joysticks
A joystick consists of a small, vertical lever (called the stick) mounted on a base that is used to
steer the screen cursor around. Most joysticks select screen positions with actual stick movement;
others respond to pressure the stick. Some joysticks are mounted on a keyboard; others function
as stand-alone units.
The distance that the stick is moved in any direction from its center position corresponds to
screen-cursor movement in that direction. Potentiometers mounted at the base of the joystick
measure the amount of movement, and springs return the stick to the center position when it is
released. One or more buttons can be programmed to act as input switches to signal certain
actions once a screen position has been selected.
Data Glove
Data glove uses to grasp a "virtual" object. The glove is constructed with a series of sensors that
detect hand and finger motions. Electromagnetic coupling between transmitting antennas and
receiving antennas is used to provide information about the position and orientation of the hand.
The transmitting and receiving antennas can each be structured as a set of three mutually
perpendicular coils, forming a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. Input from the
glove can be used to position or manipulate objects in a virtual scene. A two-dimensional
projection of the scene can be viewed on a video monitor, or a three-dimensional projection can
be viewed with a headset.
Digitizers
A common device for drawing, painting, or interactively selecting coordinate positions on an
object is a digitizer. These devices can be used to input coordinate values in either a two-
dimensional or a three-dimensional space. Typically, a digitizer is used to scan over a drawing or
object and to input a set of discrete coordinate positions, which can be joined with straight-line
segments to approximate the curve or surface shapes.
Image Scanners
Drawings, graphs, color and black-and-white photos, or text can be stored for computer
processing with an image scanner by passing an optical scanning mechanism over the information
to be stored.
Touch Panels
As the name implies, touch panels allow displayed objects or screen positions to be selected with
the touch of a finger.
Light Pens
Pencil-shaped devices are used to select screen positions by detecting the light coming from
points on the CRT screen.
Voice Systems

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Speech recognizers are used in some graphics workstations as input devices to accept voice
commands The voice-system input can be used to initiate graphics operations or to enter data.
These systems operate by matching an input against a predefined dictionary of words and phrases

Display Devices
The display medium for computer graphic-generated pictures has become widely diversified.
Typical examples are CRT-based display, Liquid Crystal, LED and Plasma based display. CRT
display is by far the most common display technology and most of the fundamental display
concepts are embodied in CRT technology. This unit focuses on CRT-based display technologies
explaining the related concepts followed by illustrations of structural and functional components
and working principles of each.
The most prominent part in a personal computer is the display system that makes graphic display
possible. The display system may be attached to a PC to display character, picture and video
outputs. Some of the common types of display systems available in the market are:
1. Raster Scan Displays
2. Random Scan Displays
3. Flat Panel Displays
The display systems are often referred to as Video Monitor or Video Display Unit (VDU). The
most common video monitor that normally comes with a PC is the Raster Scan type. However,
every display system has three basic parts – the display adapter that creates and holds the image
information, the monitor which displays that information and the cable that carries the image data
between the display adapter and the monitor. Before we discuss the major display systems let us
first know about some basic terms.
Pixel
A pixel may be defined as the smallest size object or colour spot that can be displayed and
addressed on a monitor. Any image that is displayed on the monitor is made up of thousands of
such small pixels (also known as picture elements). The closely-spaced pixels divide the image
area into a compact and uniform two-dimensional grid of pixel lines and columns. Each pixel has
a particular colour and brightness value. Though the size of a pixel depends mostly on the size of

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the electron beam within the CRT, they are too fine and close to each other to be perceptible by
the human eye. The finer the pixels the more the number of pixels displayable on a monitor
screen. However, it should be remembered that the number of pixels in an image is fixed by the
program that creates the image and not by the hardware that displays it.
Resolution
There are two distinctly different terms, which are often confused. One is Image Resolution and
the other is Screen Resolution. Strictly speaking image resolution refers to the pixel spacing, i.e.,
the distance from one pixel to the next pixel. A typical PC monitor displays screen images with a
resolution somewhere between 25 pixels per inch and 80 pixels per inch (ppi). In other words,
resolution of an image refers to the total number of pixels along the entire height and width of the
image. For example, a full-screen image with resolution 800 × 600 means that there are 800
columns of pixels, each column comprising 600 pixels, i.e., a total of 800 × 600 = 4,80,000 pixels
in the image area.
The internal surface of the monitor screen is coated with red, green and blue phosphor material
that glows when struck by a stream of electrons. This coated material is arranged into an array of
millions of tiny cells–red, green and blue, usually called dots. The dot pitch is the distance
between adjacent sets (triads) of red, green and blue dots.

Pixel therefore, is the smallest element of a displayed image, and dots (red, green and blue) are
the smallest elements of a display surface (monitor screen). The dot pitch is the measure of screen
resolution. The smaller the dot pitch, the higher the resolution, sharpness and detail of the image
displayed.
In order to use different resolutions on a monitor, the monitor must support automatic changing of
resolution modes. Originally, monitors were fixed at a particular resolution, but for most monitors
today display resolution can be changed using software control. This lets you use higher or lower
resolution depending on the need of your application. A higher resolution display allows you to
see more information on your screen at a time and is particularly useful for operating systems
such as Windows. However, the resolution of an image you see is a function of what the video
card outputs and what the monitor is capable of displaying. To see a high resolution image such
as 1280 × 1024 you require both a video card capable of producing an image this large and a
monitor capable of displaying it.
Cathode-Ray Tubes (CRT)
The primary output device in a graphical system is the video monitor. The main element of a
video monitor is the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), shown in the following illustration.
The operation of CRT is very simple:
1. The electron gun emits a beam of electrons (cathode rays).
2. The electron beam passes through focusing and deflection systems that direct it towards
specified positions on the phosphor-coated screen.
3. When the beam hits the screen, the phosphor emits a small spot of light at each position
contacted by the electron beam.

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4. It redraws the picture by directing the electron beam back over the same screen points
quickly.

Electrostatic deflection of the electron beam in a CRT

An electron gun emits a beam of electrons, which passes through focusing and deflection systems
and hits on the phosphor-coated screen. The number of points displayed on a CRT is referred to
as resolutions (eg. 1024x768). Different phosphors emit small light spots of different colors,
which can combine to form a range of colors. A common methodology for color CRT display is
the Shadow-mask meth.

The light emitted by phosphor fades very rapidly, so it needs to redraw the picture repeatedly.
There are 2 kinds of redrawing mechanisms: Raster-Scan and Random-Scan
RASTER SCAN DISPLAY
This type of display basically employs a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) or LCD Panel for display. The
CRT works just like the picture tube of a television set. Its viewing surface is coated with a layer
of arrayed phosphor dots. At the back of the CRT is a set of electron guns (cathodes) which
produce a controlled stream of electrons (electron beam). The phosphor material emits light when
struck by these high-energy electrons. The frequency and intensity of the light emitted depends on

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the type of phosphor material used and energy of the electrons. To produce a picture on the
screen, these directed electron beams start at the top of the screen and scan rapidly from left to
right along the row of phosphor dots.

They return to the left-most position one line down and scan again, and repeat this to cover the
entire screen. The return of the beam to the leftmost position one line down is called horizontal
retrace during which the electron flow is shut off. In performing this scanning or sweeping type
motion, the electron guns are controlled by the video data stream that comes into the monitor
from the video card. This varies the intensity of the electron beam at each position on the screen.
The instantaneous control of the intensity of the electron beam at each dot is what controls the
colour and brightness of each pixel on the screen. All this happens very quickly, and the entire
screen is drawn in a fraction (say, 1/60th) of a second. An image in raster scan display is basically
composed of a set of dots and lines; lines are displayed by making those dots bright (with the
desired colour) which lie as close as possible to the shortest path between the endpoints of a line.

Refresh Rate and Interlacing

When a dot of phosphor material is struck by the electron beam, it glows for a fraction of a
second and then fades. As brightness of the dots begins to reduce, the screen-image becomes
unstable and gradually fades out. In order to maintain a stable image, the electron beam must
sweep the entire surface of the screen and then return to redraw it a number of times per second.
This process is called refreshing the screen. After scanning all the pixel-rows of the display
surface, the electron beam reaches the rightmost position in the bottommost pixel line. The
electron flow is then switched off and the vertical deflection mechanism steers the beam to the top
left position to start another cycle of scanning. This diagonal movement of the beam direction
across the display surface is known as vertical retrace. If the electron beam takes too long to
return and redraw a pixel, the pixel will begin to fade; it will return to full brightness only when
redrawn. Over the full surface of the screen, this becomes visible as a flicker in the image, which
can be distracting and hard on the eyes.

In order to avoid flicker, the screen image must be redrawn fast enough so that the eye cannot tell
that refresh is going on. The refresh rate is the number of times per second that the screen is
refreshed. It is measured in Hertz (Hz), the unit of frequency. The refresh rates are somewhat
standardized.

Some monitors use a technique called interlacing to cheat a bit and allow them to display at a
higher resolution than is otherwise possible. Instead of refreshing every line of the screen, when
in an interlaced mode, the electron guns sweep alternate lines on each pass. In the first pass, odd-
numbered lines are refreshed, and in the second pass, even numbered lines are refreshed. This
allows the refresh rate to be doubled because only half the screen is redrawn at a time. The usual

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refresh rate for interlaced operation is 87 Hz, which corresponds to 43.5 Hz of ‘real’ refresh in
half-screen interlacing.

In the Figure above the odd-numbered lines represent scanning one half of the screen and the
even-numbered lines represent scanning of the other half. There are two separate sets of
horizontal and vertical retrace.

As we can observe in the figure below, The electron beam is swept across the screen one
row at a time from top to bottom. As it moves across each row, the beam intensity is turned on
and off to create a pattern of illuminated spots. This scanning process is called refreshing. Each
complete scanning of a screen is normally called a frame.
The refreshing rate, called the frame rate, is normally 60 to 80 frames per second, or described as
60 Hz to 80 Hz.

Picture definition is stored in a memory area called the frame buffer. This frame buffer
stores the intensity values for all the screen points. Each screen point is called a pixel (picture
element).
On black and white systems, the frame buffer storing the values of the pixels is called a bitmap.
Each entry in the bitmap is a 1 -bit data which determine the on (1) and off (0) of the intensity of
the pixel.

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On color systems, the frame buffer storing the values of the pixels is called a pixmap
(Though nowadays many graphics libraries name it as bitmap too). Each entry in the pixmap
occupies a number of bits to represent the color of the pixel. For a true color display, the number
of bits for each entry is 24 (8 bits per red/green/blue channel, each channel 28=256 levels of
intensity value, ie. 256 voltage settings for each of the red/green/blue electron guns).
Random-Scan (Vector Display)

The CRT's electron beam is directed only to the parts of the screen where a picture is to be
drawn. The picture definition is stored as a set of line-drawing commands in a refresh display file
or a refresh buffer in memory.
Random-scan generally have higher resolution than raster systems and can produce
smooth line drawings, however it cannot display realistic shaded scenes.
Display Controller
For a raster display device reads the frame buffer and generates the control signals for the screen,
ie. the signals for horizontal scanning and vertical scanning. Most display controllers include a
color map (or video look-up table). The major function of a color map is to provide a mapping
between the input pixel value to the output color.
Anti-Aliasing
On dealing with integer pixel positions, jagged or stair step appearances happen very usually.
This distortion of information due to under sampling is called aliasing. A number of ant aliasing
methods have been developed to compensate this problem.
One way is to display objects at higher resolution. However there is a limit to how big we can
make the frame buffer and still maintaining acceptable refresh rate.

GRAPHICS SOFTWARE
There are two general classifications for graphics software: general programming packages and
special-purpose applications packages. A general graphics programming package provides an
extensive set of graphics functions that can be used in a high-level programming language, such
as C or FORTRAN. An example of a general graphics programming package is the GL (Graphics
Library) system on Silicon Graphics equipment. Basic functions in a general package include
those for generating picture components (straight lines, polygons, circles, and other figures),
setting color and intensity values, selecting views, and applying transformations. By contrast,
application graphics packages are designed for nonprogrammers, so that users can generate

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displays without worrying about how graphics operations work. The interface to the graphics
routines in such packages allows users to communicate with the programs in their own terms.
Examples of such applications packages are the artist's painting programs and various business,
medical, and CAD systems.
Coordinate Representations
With few exceptions, general graphics packages are designed to be used with Cartesian
coordinate specifications. If coordinate values for a picture are specified in some other reference
frame (spherical, hyperbolic, etc.), they must be converted to Cartesian coordinates before they
can be input to the graphics package.
Special-purpose packages may allow use of other coordinate frames that are appropriate to the
application. In general; several different Cartesian reference frames are used to construct and
display a scene. We can construct the shape of individual objects, such as trees or furniture, in a
scene within separate coordinate reference frames called modeling coordinates, or sometimes
local coordinates or master coordinates. Once individual object shapes have been specified, we
can place the objects in to appropriate positions within the scene using a reference frame called
world coordinates. Finally, the world-coordinate description of the scene is transformed to one
or more output-device reference frames for display. These display coordinate systems are referred
to as device coordinates. Or screen coordinates in the case of a video monitor. Modeling and
world coordinate definitions allow us to set any convenient floating-point or integer dimensions
without being hampered by the constraints of a particular output device. For some scenes, we
might want to specify object dimensions in fractions of a foot, while for other applications we
might want to use millimeters, kilometers, or light-years.

Generally, a graphics system first converts world-coordinate positions to normalized device

coordinates, in the range from 0 to 1, before final conversion to specific device coordinates. This
makes the system independent of the various devices that might be used at a particular
workstation.
Graphics Functions
A general-purpose graphics package provides users with a variety of functions for
creating and manipulating pictures. These routines can be categorized according to whether they
deal with output, input, attributes, transformations, viewing, or general control.
The basic building blocks for pictures am referred to as output primitives. They include
character strings and geometric entities, such as points, straight lines, curved Lines, filled areas
(polygons, circles, etc.), and shapes defined with arrays of color points. Routines for generating
output primitives provide the basic tools for constructing pictures.
Attributes are the properties of the output primitives; that is, an attribute describes how a
particular primitive is to be displayed. They include intensity and color specifications, line styles,
text styles, and area-filling patterns. Functions within this category can be used to set attributes
for an individual primitive class or for groups of output primitives.

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We can change the size, position, or orientation of an object within a scene using
geometric transformations. Similar modeling transformations are used to construct a scene using
object descriptions given in modeling coordinates.
Given the primitive and attribute definition of a picture in world coordinates, a graphics package
projects a selected view of the picture on an output device. Viewing transformations are used to
specify the view that is to be presented and the portion of the output display area that is to be
used.
Pictures can be subdivided into component parts, called structures or segments or objects,
depending on the software package in use. Each structure defines one logical unit of the picture.
A scene with several objects could reference each individual object in a-separate named structure.
Routines for processing structures carry out operations such as the creation, modification, and
transformation of structure.
Interactive graphics applications use various kinds of input devices, such as a mouse, a
tablet, or a joystick. Input functions are used to control and process the data flow from these
interactive devices
Software standards
The primary goal of standardized graphics software is portability. When packages are designed
with standard graphics functions, software can he moved easily from one hardware system to
another and used in different implementations and applications. Without standards, programs
designed for one hardware system often cannot be transferred to another system without extensive
rewriting of the programs.
International and national standards planning organizations in many countries have
cooperated in an effort to develop a generally accepted standard for computer graphics. After
considerable effort, this work on standards led to the development of the Graphical Kernel
System (GKS).This system was adopted as the first graphics software standard by the
International Standards Organization (ISO) and by various; national standards organizations,
including the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).Although GKS was originally
designed as a two-dimensional graphics package, a three-dimensional GKS extension was
subsequently developed. The second software standard to be developed and a p proved by the
standards organizations was PHIGS (Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics
standard), which is an extension of GKS .Increased capabilities for object modeling, color
specifications, surface rendering, and picture manipulations are provided In PHIGS.
Subsequently, an extension of PHIGS, called PHIGS+, was developed to provide three-
dimensional surface-shading capabilities not available in PHIGS.
Standard graphics Functions are defined as a set of Specifications that is Independent of
any programming language. A language binding is then defined for a particular high-level
programming language. This binding gives the syntax for accessing the various standard graphics
functions from this language.

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Chapter Two
Simple Drawing Algorithms
The major objective of computer graphics is to model graphic objects in a scene. Such
objects comprise entity primitives like point, line, circle, ellipse and curves. For displaying
these entities on a raster display the representative sets of pixels of the appropriate
intensity or colour must be identified. There are standard scan conversion algorithms to
calculate first the position coordinates of the representative pixels of each entity primitive
from basic input data and then store pixel-wise intensity information into the graphics
memory. This unit discusses the different approaches and issues for implementing line,
circle and ellipse in digital space.

POINTS AND LINES

In the previous chapters we have seen that in order to draw the primitive objects, one has to
first scan convert the objects. This refers to the operation of finding out the location of pixels
to be intensified and then setting the values of corresponding bits, in the graphics memory,
to the desired intensity code. Each pixel on the display surface has a finite size depending on
the screen resolution and hence a pixel cannot represent a single mathematical point.
However, we consider each pixel as a unit square area identified by the coordinate of its
lower left corner, the origin of the reference coordinate system being located at the lower
left corner of the display surface. Thus each pixel is accessed by a non-negative integer
coordinate pair (x, y). The x values start at the origin and increase from left to right along a
scan line and the y values (i.e., the scan line numbers) start at bottom and increase upwards.
Line drawing is accomplished by calculating intermediate point coordinates along the line
path between two given end points. Since screen pixels are referred with integer values,
plotted positions may only approximate the calculated coordinates – i.e., pixels which are
intensified are those which lie very close to the line path if not exactly on it which is in the
case of perfectly horizontal, vertical or 45° lines only. Standard algorithms are available to
determine which pixels provide the best approximation to the desired line. Still, screen
resolution is a big factor towards improving the approximation. In a high resolution system

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the adjacent pixels are so closely spaced that the approximated line-pixels lie very close to
the actual line path and hence the plotted lines appear to be much smoother — almost like
straight lines drawn on paper. In a low resolution system, the same approximation
technique causes lines to be displayed with a ‘stairstep appearance’ – not smooth (see Fig.
below (a)).

LINE DRAWING ALGORITHMS

Several line drawing algorithms are developed with the basic objective to create visually
satisfactory images in least possible time. This is achieved by reducing the calculations to a
minimum preferably using integer rather than floating point arithmetic. Such ways of minimizing
even a single arithmetic operation is so important, because every drawing or image generated will
have a large number of line segments in it and every line segment will have many pixels. So
saving of even one computation per pixel will save number of computations in generating an
object, which, in turn, minimizes the time required to generate the whole image on the screen.
Here, we will discuss DDA and Bresenham’s algorithms, which scan converts lines with
acceptable approximation in sufficiently less time.
A line connects two points. It is a basic element in graphics. To draw a line, you need two points
between which you can draw a line. In the following lgorithms, we refer the one point of line as
X0, Y0 and the second point of line as X1, Y1.
Here, we will discuss DDA and Bresenham’s algorithms, which scan converts lines with
acceptable approximation in sufficiently less time.

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DDA Algorithm
Assume that a line is to be rasterized between given endpoints (xstart, ystart) and (xend, yend).
Now let us consider the equation of the line as
y = mx + c
where m represents the slope of the line and c is the y intercept. This slope can be expressed as

Digital Differential Analyzer (DDA) algorithm is the simple line generation algorithm which is
explained step by step here.
Step 1: Get the input of two end points (X0, Y0) and (X1, Y1).
Step 2: Calculate the difference between two end points.

Step 3: Based on the calculated difference in step-2, you need to identify the number of steps to
put pixel. If dx > dy, then you need more steps in x coordinate; otherwise in y coordinate.

Step 4: Calculate the increment in x coordinate and y coordinate.

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Step 5: Put the pixel by successfully incrementing x and y coordinates accordingly and complete
the drawing of the line.

Bresenham’s Line Generation

One serious drawback of the DDA algorithm is that it is very time-consuming as it deals with a
rounding off operation and floating point arithmetic. Moreover, successive addition of floating
point increment (m or 1/m) causes accumulation of round off error and eventually a drift away of
the plotted pixels from the true line path in case of long line segments.

The Bresenham algorithm is another incremental scan conversion algorithm. The big advantage of
this algorithm is that, it uses only integer calculations. Moving across the x axis in unit intervals
and at each step choose between two different y coordinates.
For example, as shown in the following illustration, from position (2, 3) you need to choose
between (3, 3) and (3, 4). You would like the point that is closer to the original line.

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At sample position xk+1, the vertical separations from the mathematical line are labeled as dupper
and dlower.

From the above illustration, the y coordinate on the mathematical line at Xk+1 is:
Y = (Xk + 1) + b
So, dupper and dlower are given as follows:

And

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You can use these to make a simple decision about which pixel is closer to the mathematical line.
This simple decision is based on the difference between the two pixel positions.

Let us substitute m with dy/dx where dx and dy are the differences between the endpoints.

So, a decision parameter Pk for the kth step along a line is given by:

The sign of the decision parameter Pk is the same as that of dlower – dupper If Pk is negative, then
choose the lower pixel, otherwise choose the upper pixel. Remember, the coordinate changes
occur along the x axis in unit steps, so you can do everything with integer calculations. At step
k+1, the decision parameter is given as:

Subtracting Pk from this we get:

Then

Where, Yk+1 – yk is either 0 or 1 depending on the sign of Pk.

The first decision parameter P0 is evaluated at (X0, Y0) is given as:
P0 = 2 y − x
Now, keeping in mind all the above points and calculations, here is the Bresenham algorithm for
slope m < 1:
Step 1: Input the two end-points of line, storing the left end-point in (X0, Y0).
Step 2: Plot the point (X0, Y0).

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Step 3: Calculate the constants dx, dy, 2dy, and (2dy – 2dx) and get the first value for the
decision parameter as:
0=2 y– x
Step 4: At each Xk along the line, starting at k = 0, perform the following test:
If Pk < 0, the next point to plot is (Xk+1, Yk) and
PK+1 = k + 2dy otherwise,
Pk+1 = k + 2 y − 2 x
Step 5: Repeat step 4 (dx – 1) times. For m > 1, find out whether you need to increment X while
incrementing Y each time. After solving, the equation for decision parameter Pk will be very
similar, just the X and Y in the equation gets interchanged.
Mid-Point Algorithm
Mid-point algorithm is a modified Bresenham . Assume that you have already put the point P at
(x, y) coordinate and the slope of the line is 0 ≤ k ≤ 1 as shown in the following illustration.
Now you need to decide whether to put the next point at E or N. This can be chosen by
identifying the intersection point Q closest to the point N or E. If the intersection point Q is
closest to the point N then N is considered as the next point; otherwise E.

Figure: Mid-point Algorithm

To determine that, first calculate the mid-point M(x+1, y + ½). If the intersection point Q of the
line with the vertical line connecting E and N is below M, then take E as the next point; otherwise
take N as the next point. In order to check this, we need to consider the implicit equation:
F(x,y) = mx + b – y
For positive m at any given X,
 If y is on the line, then F(x, y) = 0
 If y is above the line, then F(x, y) < 0
 If y is below the line, then F(x, y) > 0

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CIRCLE-GENERATING ALGORITHMS
Drawing a circle on the screen is a little complex than drawing a line. There are two popular
algorithms for generating a circle: Bresenham’s Algorithm and Midpoint Circle Algorithm. These
algorithms are based on the idea of determining the subsequent points required to draw the circle.
Properties of Circles
A circle is defined as the set of points that are all at a given distance r from a center position
(xc,yc). This distance relationship is expressed by the Pythagorean theorem in Cartesian
coordinates as

We could use this equation to calculate the position of points on a circle circumference by
stepping along the x axis in unit steps from x-r to x+r and calculating the corresponding y values
at each position as

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

Bresenham’s Algorithm
We cannot display a continuous arc on the raster display. Instead, we have to choose the nearest
pixel position to complete the arc.
From the following illustration, you can see that we have put the pixel at (X, Y) location and now
need to decide where to put the next pixel: at N (X+1, Y) or at S (X+1, Y-1).

This can be decided by the decision parameter d.

 If d <= 0, then N(X+1, Y) is to be chosen as next pixel.
 If d > 0, then S(X+1, Y-1) is to be chosen as the next pixel.
Algorithm
Step 1: Get the coordinates of the center of the circle and radius, and store them in x, y, and R
respectively. Set P=0 and Q=R.
Step 2: Set decision parameter D = 3 – 2R.
Step 3: Repeat through step-8 while X < Y.
Step 4: Call Draw Circle (X, Y, P, Q).
Step 5: Increment the value of P.

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Step 6: If D < 0 then D = D + 4x + 6.

Step 7: Else Set Y = Y + 1, D = D + 4(X-Y) + 10.
Step 8: Call Draw Circle (X, Y, P, Q).

Mid Point Algorithm

Step 1: Input radius r and circle center (xc, yc) and obtain the first point on the circumference of
the circle centered on the origin as

Step 2: Calculate the initial value of decision parameter as P0 = 5/4 – r (See the following
description for simplification of this equation.)

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

Step 3: At each XK position starting at K=0, perform the following test:

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Step 4: Determine the symmetry points in other seven octants.

Step 5: Move each calculate pixel position (X, Y) onto the circular path centered on (XC, YC) and
plot the coordinate values.

Step 6: Repeat step-3 through 5 until X >= Y.

ELLIPSE-GENERATINGALGORITHMS
Loosely stated, an ellipse is an elongated circle. Therefore, elliptical curves can be generated by
modifying circle-drawing procedures to take into account the different dimensions of an ellipse
along the major and minor axes.
Properties of Ellipses
An ellipse is defined as the set of points such that the sum of the distances from two fixed
positions (foci) is the same for all points (Fig. below.

If the distances to the two foci from any point P = ( x , y) on the ellipse are labeled dl and d2, then
the general equation of an ellipse can be stated as
d1+ d2 = constant

Expressing distances d1 and d2 in terms of the focal coordinates F1 = (x1, y2) and F2= (x1, y2), we
have

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By squaring this equation, isolating the remaining radical, and then squaring
again, we can rewrite the general ellipse equation in the form
Ax2+ By2+ Cxy + Dx + Ey + F = 0
where the coefficients A, B, C, D, E , and F are evaluated in terms of the focal coordinates and the
dimensions of the major and minor axes of the ellipse. The major axis is the straight line segment
extending from one side of the ellipse to the other through the foci. The minor axis spans the
shorter dimension of the ellipse, bisecting the major axis at the halfway position (ellipse center)
between the two foci.
Chapter 3
Transformation
The graphics packages range from the simple Windows Paint to the specialized AutoCAD and
ANSYS. They all have the facility to change the shape or size or position or orientation of the
displayed objects. Animations are produced by resizing an object or moving the object or camera
along the animation path. All these concerns operate upon the object geometry by applying
various geometric transformations like translation, rotation, and scaling. Each of these
transformations is represented by specific transformation matrices, the nature and origin of which
are demonstrated in this unit. The 2D point object is considered as representative of any graphic
object.

Representation of Point and Object

A points coordinates can be expressed as elements of a matrix. Two matrix formats are used: one
is row matrix and other is column matrix format. For a 2D point (x, y) the row matrix format is a
1-row, 2-column matrix [x y]. For a 3D point (x, y, z) it is a 1-row, 3-column matrix [x y z]. The
same points in the column matrix format can be expressed as 1-column 2-row, and 1-column

3-row matrix respectively.

In this course we will follow column matrix convention. As all graphic objects are built with
finite no. of points each such object can be uniquely represented by a optimum no. of definition
points lying on the object. Though there may be thousands of different adjacent points on a line
between its two end points, this particular line segment can be uniquely expressed by the end
1 3
points only. For example in column matrix format, may represent one and only one line
2 4
between points (1, 2) and (3, 4).

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A closer look at the line in the figure above it will reveal that it is basically a series of adjacent
points, maintaining the straight line connectivity between the definition points (1, 2) & (3, 4).
Similarly the arc segment ‘C’ is uniquely represented by 3 points (1, 1) – (5, 2) – (6, 4) in
1 5 6
column-matrix format
1 2 4

Fig 3.2 Fig 3.3

A triangle having vertices at (1, 1, 1), (3, 5, 5) and (5, 4, 6) in 3D space (Figure 33) can be
1 3 5
represented uniquely by 1 5 4
1 5 6
A 5 × 3 2D rectangle having its lower left vertex at (1, 1) in Figure 3.2 can be represented by

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The rectangular parallelopiped ABCDEFGH in 3D space (Figure 5.3) may be defined by the
matrix

TRANSLATION
Let us think of a point P on a 2D plane. Assume that the current position or location of P is
depicted by its coordinate (x, y) in a reference frame.
Now if we force P to move x distance horizontally and at the same time y distance vertically
then the changed location of P becomes (x +∆x, y+∆y). In the terms of object transformation we
can say that the original point object P(x, y) has been translated to become P´ (x´ y´) and amount
of translation applied is the

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

In general, the above equation (1) may be expressed as [X´] = [X] + [TT], where [X´] is the
transformed object matrix, [X] is the original object matrix and [TT] is the transformation
(translation) matrix.
Consider the line (shown in Figure 3.5) with end points A (0,8) and B (9,12). If we have to move
this line AB to A´B´ we have to apply equal translation to each of the endpoints A and B and then
redraw the line between the new end points deleting the old line AB. The actual operation of
drawing a line between two endpoints depends on the display device used and the draw–algorithm
followed. Here, we consider only the mathematical operations on the position vectors of the
endpoints.

It is to be noted that whatever amount of translation we apply to a straight line, the length and
orientation (slope) of the translated line remains same as that of the original line.

6
It is implied from the Figrue 3.5 that this translation matrix is theoretically applied to (i.e.,
−3
added to) all the points forming the line AB. This can be tested with any intermediate point AB
between A & B. Think of the midpoint; before transformation it is

And this is the reason why we can express transformations in terms of any constituent point of the
object concerned.

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

For changing the position of a circle or ellipse, we translate the centre coordinates and redraw the
figure in the new location.

Note from Figures 3.5 and 3.6 that we are transforming the objects without distorting the original
shape size and orientation. Thus we can define Translation as a rigid body transformation that
moves objects without deformation. Every point on the object is translated by the same amount
and there exists a one to one correspondence between the transformed points and original points.

ROTATION

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

This transformation is used to rotate objects about any point in a reference frame. Unlike
translation rotation brings about changes in position as well as orientation. The point about which
the object is rotated is called the pivot point or rotation point. Conventionally anti-clockwise
rotation about the pivot point is represented by positive angular value. Such transformation can
also be visualized as rotation about an axis that is perpendicular to the reference plane and passes
through the pivot point.

Rotation about Origin

Consider a trial case where the pivot point is the origin as shown in Figure 5.7. Then the point to
be rotated P(x, y) can be represented as

where (r, ) is the polar coordinate of P. When this point P is rotated through an angle in anti-
clockwise direction, the new point P´(x´, y´) becomes,

Rewriting the above equations using laws of sines and cosines from trigonometry,

Replacing rcos∅ and rsin∅ with x and y respectively in (2) we get the simplified form,

In matrix rotation the above relation can be more compactly expressed as,

Rotation About an Arbitrary Pivot Point

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

Eqn. (3) is applicable only for rotation about the origin. But in many applications the pivot point
will not be the origin. It may be any point lying on the object(s) to be rotated or any point outside
the object simply anywhere in the same 2D plane. For example consider the cases when we want
to rotate any strait .line about one of its end points or any rectangle about one of the corner points
or any object lying on a circle about its centre.

Refer Figure 3.9. The Pivot Point is an arbitrary point PP having coordinates (xP, yP). After
rotating P (x, y) through a positive angle its new location is x´y´ (P´)

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

SCALING
Scaling with Respect to the Origin
Scaling is a transformation that changes the size or shape of an object. Scaling with reference to
origin can be carried out by multiplying the coordinate values (x, y) of each vertex of a polygon,
or each endpoint of a line or arc or the centre point and peripheral definition points of closed
curves like a circle by scaling factors sx and sy respectively to produce the coordinates (x´ y´).

The mathematical expression for pure scaling is,

Sx expands or shrinks object dimensions along X direction whereas sy affects dimensions along Y
direction.

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

We can represent the scaling transformation carried out on square ABCD in Figure 3.11 as,

Notice that in the 2nd case where , sx ≠ sy a distortion in shape has occurred – the square has
transformed into a rectangle.

In general, for uniform scaling, if sx = sy >1, a uniform expansion occurs; i.e. the object becomes
larger. If sx = sy < 1, then a uniform compression occurs; i.e. the object gets smaller. Non-
uniform expansions or compressions occur, depending on whether sx and sy are individually > 1
or < 1 but unequal, such scaling is also known as differential scaling. While the basic object
shape remains unaltered in uniform scaling, the shape and size both changes in differential
scaling. Another interesting point to be noted is that, there is always a translation associated with
scaling. Look at the figures, irrespective of the nature of scaling and the scale factors the scaled
objects have substantially moved from their respective original positions. This is easily
understood if we recall that during scaling transformation, the position vectors of the definition

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

points are actually scaled with respect to the origin. For example, consider the position vector of
point Q (6, 2) of line PQ. Its magnitude with respect to origin is √6 + 2 =2√10.

The magnitude of the position vectors of the scaled points Q´ (3, 1), Q´´ (12, 4) are respectively
√10=√10 implying uniform scaling with scale factors 0.5 and 2 respectively.

Scaling with Respect to Any Arbitrary Point

By scaling an object we generally expect it to grow or shrink in size or shape based on its original
position (as shown in Figures 5.12 and 5.13). Apart from scaling, the movement of the object
(which is intrinsically associated in scaling) with respect to origin, is mostly unwanted and can be
eliminated by scaling the object with respect to a point conveniently chosen on the object itself.
The point so chosen, called the fixed point remains unaltered in position after the scaling
transformation when the scale factors are applied on the objects dimensions relative to that fixed
point. As a result the object seems to expand or shrink in size or change in shape without any
displacement of the object as a whole.

For example, consider the scaling transformation of PQ to PQ´ (not P´Q´) in Figure 3.12. Here P
is considered as the fixed point. So, instead of multiplying the scale factor (s = 2) to both P & Q
position vectors it is multiplied with Q – P and then added with P to obtain shifted Q´ and then the
line PQ´ is reconstructed.

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Note that Q – P is the dimension of the line PQ relative to P. Now compare the result with the
scaling of line PQ as shown in Figure 3.11 Instead of endpoint P if we consider the midpoint
ofPQ as the fixed point it will expand symmetrically in both direction forming P´Q´ (Figure 3.13),
the midpoint remaining unchanged in position. For scaling of a rectangle shown in Figure 5.13 the
fixed point is the centroid of the rectangle. Thus the fixed point need not necessary lie on the
object—it can be any point either on, within or outside the object. Here we derive the most
generalized expression for scaling any object (P) coordinate say (x, y) with respect to any
arbitrary point say, Pf (xf, yf).

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

VIEWING AND CLIPPING

The primary use of clipping in computer graphics is to remove objects, lines, or line segments that
are outside the viewing pane. The viewing transformation is insensitive to the position of points
relative to the viewing volume – especially those points behind the viewer – and it is necessary to
remove these points before generating the view.
Point Clipping
Clipping a point from a given window is very easy. Consider the following figure, where the
rectangle indicates the window. Point clipping tells us whether the given point (X, Y) is within
the given window or not; and decides whether we will use the minimum and maximum
coordinates of the window.

The X-coordinate of the given point is inside the window, if X lies in between Wx1 ≤ X ≤ Wx2.
Same way, Y coordinate of the given point is inside the window, if Y lies in between Wy1 ≤ Y ≤
Wy2.

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

Line Clipping
The concept of line clipping is same as point clipping. In line clipping, we will cut the portion of
line which is outside of window and keep only the portion that is inside the window.
Cohen-Sutherland Line Clippings
This algorithm uses the clipping window as shown in the following figure. The minimum
coordinate for the clipping region is (XWmin, YWmin) and the maximum coordinate for the
clipping region is (XWmax, YWmax).

We will use 4-bits to divide the entire region. These 4 bits represent the Top, Bottom, Right, and
Left of the region as shown in the following figure. Here, the TOP and LEFT bit is set to 1
because it is the TOP-LEFT corner.

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

There are 3 possibilities for the line:

1. Line can be completely inside the window (This line should be accepted).
2. Line can be completely outside of the window (This line will be completely removed from
the region).
3. Line can be partially inside the window (We will find intersection point and draw only
that portion of line that is inside region).
Algorithm
Step 1: Assign a region code for each endpoints.
Step 2: If both endpoints have a region code 0000 then accept this line.
Step 3: Else, perform the logical AND operation for both region codes.
Step 3.1: If the result is not 0000, then reject the line.
Step 3.2: Else you need clipping.
Step 3.2.1: Choose an endpoint of the line that is outside the window.
Step 3.2.2: Find the intersection point at the window boundary (base on region
code).
Step 3.2.3: Replace endpoint with the intersection point and update the region
code.
Step 3.2.4: Repeat step 2 until we find a clipped line either trivially accepted or
trivially rejected.
Step-4: Repeat step 1 for other lines.

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Computer Graphics Lecture note

Polygon Clipping (Sutherland Hodgman Algorithm)

A polygon can also be clipped by specifying the clipping window. Sutherland Hodgeman polygon
clipping algorithm is used for polygon clipping. In this algorithm, all the vertices of the polygon
are clipped against each edge of the clipping window. First the polygon is clipped against the left
edge of the polygon window to get new vertices of the polygon. These new vertices are used to
clip the polygon against right edge, top edge, bottom edge, of the clipping window as shown in
the following figure.

While processing an edge of a polygon with clipping window, an intersection point is found if
edge is not completely inside clipping window and the a partial edge from the intersection point
to the outside edge is clipped. The following figures show left, right, top and bottom edge
clippings:

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