Computer Graphics Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for reviewing computer graphics concepts.

Motion Capture

Capturing the motion of a model from a real-life actor, typically by placing markers on the actor’s body and tracking them with calibrated cameras.

Rendering Pipeline

A sequence of stages including modelling, transformation, lighting, rasterisation, and pixel shading to transform a 3D scene into a 2D image.

Alpha Channel

A component in texture maps representing transparency, allowing textures to have varying levels of opacity.

MIP Mapping

A technique in OpenGL that improves texture rendering by creating prefiltered texture images at different resolutions, enhancing quality and performance.

Global Illumination

A rendering technique that simulates how light interacts with surfaces and scatters throughout a scene, considering both specular and diffuse lighting.

Local Illumination

A rendering model that calculates lighting based only on the direct light sources, without considering light bouncing from other objects in the scene.

Gouraud Shading

A shading technique characterized by L[D|S]E, representing single diffuse or specular reflection.

Phong Shading

A shading technique characterized by L[D|S]E, representing single diffuse or specular reflection.

Ray Tracing

A rendering technique characterized by LDS*E, representing single diffuse but multiple specular reflections.

Radiosity Method

A rendering technique characterized by LD*E, representing multiple diffuse reflections.

Normals

Vectors perpendicular to a surface, used for lighting calculations, bump mapping, displacement mapping, and surface smoothing.

Phong Model

A local illumination model that estimates reflection intensity based on local geometry and incoming light, without considering global effects like caustics.

Whitted Ray Tracing

A ray tracing technique that traces rays backward from the camera, stopping at diffuse surfaces and creating shadow rays to the light source. It can render shadows but does not simulate caustics well.

Path Tracing

A global illumination technique that shoots many rays from each pixel and follows their random paths, realistically simulating complex light interactions, including caustics.

Z-buffer Algorithm

A hidden surface removal algorithm that handles occlusions by recording the depth of each rendered pixel and overwriting it if a new, closer surface is rendered on the same location.

Painters Algorithm

A rendering algorithm that renders objects from back to front, allowing transparency to be handled by blending the pixel's color with the previous color based on the alpha value.