Book2014
Learn OpenGL
Joey de Vries
Teaches modern OpenGL from first pixel to physically based rendering by building up a single renderer feature by feature, aimed at readers who learn graphics by writing a graphics program.
Computer Graphics & Visualisation
Turning models into pixels, and data into pictures.
11 topics · 17 curated works
Topics
- 01Foundations & Overviews1
- 02Rasterisation1
- 03Ray Tracing2
- 04Physically Based Rendering2
- 05Shading & Lighting Models2
- 06Geometric Modelling2
- 07Animation & Rigging1
- 08Real-Time Rendering1
- 09Image Processing2
- 10Data Visualisation1
- 11Computational Photography2
Reading in Computer Graphics & Visualisation
17A way in
Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
Learn OpenGL
Joey de Vries · 2014
Teaches modern OpenGL from first pixel to physically based rendering by building up a single renderer feature by feature, aimed at readers who learn…
+2 more at this level
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
GPU Gems
Randima Fernando (ed.) · 2004
A collection of production rendering techniques from practitioners across the industry, published free by NVIDIA as programmable shading hardware was…
+1 more at this level
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
Illumination for Computer Generated Pictures
Bui Tuong Phong · 1975
Approximates specular highlights with a cosine power term cheap enough to compute per pixel, giving curved surfaces a convincing shine without…
+11 more at this level
12 of 17 works
Paper2014
Ten Simple Rules for Better Figures
Nicolas P. Rougier, Michael Droettboom & Philip E. Bourne
Argues most scientific figures fail for a small, fixable set of reasons — wrong plot type, poor contrast, hidden data — and gives ten concrete rules a researcher can apply before publishing one.
Book2016
Ray Tracing in One Weekend
Peter Shirley
Builds a working ray tracer in a few hundred lines, arguing that the core ideas of rendering are learned faster by writing one than by reading the theory first.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Book2004
GPU Gems
Randima Fernando (ed.)
A collection of production rendering techniques from practitioners across the industry, published free by NVIDIA as programmable shading hardware was making real-time effects previously reserved for offline rendering possible.
FreeIntermediate
Series2016
Lectures on Digital Photography
Marc Levoy (Stanford)
Explains the camera as an optical and computational system — lenses, sensors, exposure, then computational photography — by the engineer who led Google's work on it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper1975
Illumination for Computer Generated Pictures
Bui Tuong Phong
Approximates specular highlights with a cosine power term cheap enough to compute per pixel, giving curved surfaces a convincing shine without simulating physical reflection.
Paper1980
An Improved Illumination Model for Shaded Display
Turner Whitted
Introduces recursive ray tracing, showing that reflection, refraction and shadows can all be generated by the same recursive procedure.
7 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Paper1982
A Reflectance Model for Computer Graphics
Robert L. Cook & Kenneth E. Torrance
Models a surface as a collection of microfacets to derive reflectance from roughness and Fresnel effects directly, replacing Phong's empirical highlight with one grounded in optics.
Paper1983
The Laplacian Pyramid as a Compact Image Code
Peter J. Burt & Edward H. Adelson
Represents an image as a set of band-pass images at successive scales, showing this pyramid can be built and inverted efficiently and compresses naturally because each level decorrelates from the next.
Paper1986
The Rendering Equation
James T. Kajiya
Formulates image synthesis as a single integral equation balancing emitted and reflected light, unifying ray tracing, radiosity and every rendering algorithm since as different ways of approximating the same equation.
Paper1986
A Computational Approach to Edge Detection
John Canny
Derives an edge detector from explicit criteria — good detection, good localisation, one response per edge — rather than an ad hoc filter, and the resulting operator is still the standard baseline.
Paper1987
Marching Cubes: A High Resolution 3D Surface Construction Algorithm
William E. Lorensen & Harvey E. Cline
Extracts a polygonal surface from a 3D scalar field one cube at a time by looking up a pre-computed table of how the surface crosses each cube, turning volumetric data such as a CT scan into a renderable mesh.
In order written
1975 – 2016- 1975Illumination for Computer Generated PicturesBui Tuong Phong
- 1980An Improved Illumination Model for Shaded DisplayTurner Whitted
- 1982A Reflectance Model for Computer GraphicsRobert L. Cook & Kenneth E. Torrance
- 1983The Laplacian Pyramid as a Compact Image CodePeter J. Burt & Edward H. Adelson
- 1986The Rendering EquationJames T. Kajiya
- 1986A Computational Approach to Edge DetectionJohn Canny
- 1987Marching Cubes: A High Resolution 3D Surface Construction AlgorithmWilliam E. Lorensen & Harvey E. Cline
- 1988A Parallel Algorithm for Polygon RasterizationJuan Pineda
- 1996Light Field RenderingMarc Levoy & Pat Hanrahan
- 1998Subdivision Surfaces in Character AnimationTony DeRose, Michael Kass & Tien Truong
- 2000Pose Space Deformation: A Unified Approach to Shape Interpolation and Skeleton-Driven DeformationJ.P. Lewis, Matt Cordner & Nickson Fong
- 2004GPU GemsRandima Fernando (ed.)
- 2004Physically Based RenderingMatt Pharr, Wenzel Jakob & Greg Humphreys
- 2014Learn OpenGLJoey de Vries
- 2014Ten Simple Rules for Better FiguresNicolas P. Rougier, Michael Droettboom & Philip E. Bourne
- 2016Ray Tracing in One WeekendPeter Shirley
- 2016Lectures on Digital PhotographyMarc Levoy (Stanford)