Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, 4th Edition

Chapter 10

Surface Shading

To make objects appear to have more volume, it can help to use shading, i.e., the surface is “painted” with light. This chapter presents the most common heuristic shading methods. The first two, diffuse and Phong shading, were developed in the 1970s and are available in most graphics libraries. The last, artistic shading, uses artistic conventions to assign color to objects. This creates images reminiscent of technical drawings, which is desirable in many applications.

10.1 Diffuse Shading

Many objects in the world have a surface appearance loosely described as “matte,” indicating that the object is not at all shiny. Examples include paper, unfinished wood, and dry, unpolished stones. To a large degree, such objects ...