Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics

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INTRODUCTION

Since its inception in the 1960s, computer graphics has been dominated by the goal of generating images that mimic the effect of a traditional photographic camera. At the time, the term photorealism was taken from a style of painting popular in North America. Artists had developed techniques to simulate by hand the workings of a camera. The techniques were perfected to the point where the resultant handmade images could hardly be distinguished from real photographs (see Figure 1.1). Thus, the term photorealistic computer graphics was chosen to denote algorithmic techniques that resemble the output of a photographic camera and that even make use of the physical laws being involved in the process of photography.

FIGURE 1.1 Example ...