outline

Advanced Graphics

• Why we need them
• When to use them
• Warnings

Advanced Graphics types

• 3D Visualization (Ray Tracing)
• Morphing
• Animated GIFs

Ray Tracing

• The basic principle:
• Traces how light rays travel
• from camera off objects to light source
• scene definition language

POV-Ray

• Free software
• Extremely powerful
• Full-featured
• Not as friendly as commercial packages

Getting Started

• Download and install
• Run POV-RAY3.1
• Look at a sample scene

Creating a scene

• Add a camera
• Add light
• Add a shape (or two)

Modifying the look and feel

• Changing the pigment of the floor
• Changing the texture of the sphere
• Moving camera and light
• Moving other objects

Cool, but now what?

• Auto-saved images
• Conversion to web-ready format
• Anti-aliasing, color depth

More things to learn about POV-RAY

• Animation - create multiple images
• Advanced textures and shapes - globs, smoke, etc
• Rendering options for size and detail

One example:

Morphing

• Basic concepts
• Use and abuse
• How it's used

Morphing general concept

• Two different images
• control points to determine central features
• Estimates 'in-between' points, colors
• Creates smooth transition between different images

Using MorphWin

• Import two files
• Choose control points
• Define borders
• Fire away

Creating Animated GIFS

• Basic outline
• Import images
• Define control
• combine

Using GIF Construction Set

• Download GCS (or somehting like it)
• Choose images - smaller is better
• setting controls
• loop or one-shot

Special Tricks

• Import wizard
• Banner wizards
• Rotation

Warnings

• Animation is VERY expensive
• Use smaller images when possible
• Low color depth = faster
• No control once image is created