Interactive Curves and Surfaces: A Multimedia Tutorial on CAGD (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Peter Chambers (Author) "Computer-aided geometric design (CAGD) is a new field that initially developed to bring the advantages of computers to industries such as automotive aerospace shipbuilding..." (more)
Key Phrases: blossom values, affine distance, knot sequence, Continuity Courtesy of Parametric Technology Corp, Evaluating Surface Characteristics, Hermite Interpolation (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

The growing importance of animation and 3D design has caused computer aided geometric design (CAGD) to be of interest to a wide audience of programmers and designers.

This interactive software-book tutorial teaches a strong foundation of CAGD concepts and discusses the growing number of applications in such areas as geological modeling, molecular modeling, commercial advertising, and animation. Using interactive examples and animations to illustrate the mathematical concepts, this hands-on multimedia tutorial enables users without a substantial mathematical background to quickly gain intuition about CAGD.

Interactive Curves and Surfaces guides you in:
* Learning the uses of CAGD as it is applied in computer graphics and engineering.
* Creating curved lines and surfaces using Bezier curves, B-Splines, and parametric surface patches.
* Understanding the mathematical tools behind the generation of these objects, and the development of computer-based CAGD algorithms.
* Experimenting with powerful interactive test benches to explore the behavior and characteristics of the most popular CAGD curves.

Application oriented readers will find this animated tutorial presentation more accessible than the standard formal texts on the subject. -- Book Description

Product Description

The growing importance of animation and 3D design has caused computer-aided geometric design (CAGD) to be of interest to a wide audience of programmers and designers.

This interactive software/book tutorial teaches fundamental CAGD concepts and discusses the growing number of applications in such areas as geological modeling, molecular modeling, commercial advertising, and animation. Using interactive examples and animations to illustrate the mathematical concepts, this hands-on multimedia tutorial enables users without a substantial mathematical background to quickly gain intuition about CAGD.

Interactive Curves and Surfaces guides you in
* Learning the uses of CAGD as it is applied in computer graphics and engineering.
* Creating curved lines and surfaces using Bezier curves, B-Splines, and parametric surface patches.
* Understanding the mathematical tools behind the generation of these objects, and the development of computer-based CAGD algorithms.
* Experimenting with powerful interactive test benches to explore the behavior and characteristics of the most popular CAGD curves.

Application oriented readers will find this animated tutorial presentation more accessible than the standard formal texts on the subject.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition (August 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558604057
• ISBN-13: 978-1558604056
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,202,351 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars easier than a book to some of you, December 18, 2004

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

For those without a strong mathematical background, the software presented here can be useful in developing a good qualitative understanding of curves and surfaces. The interactive nature of the software lets you develop an intuition about such ideas as the parametric curve and surface, basis functions and Bezier curves.

Some readers will take to this much more easily than a conventional text. The coverage of the common ideas for constructing such items, in computer graphics can be very useful in dealing with more advanced graphics packages that assume this prior knowledge.