Basic principles of two-dimensional graphics.- Drawing lines and curves.- Areas, text and colours.- Basic principles of three-dimensional graphics.- Modelling three-dimensional objects.- Visible surface determination.- Illumination and shading.- Special effects and virtual reality.

This book provides an introduction to the most important basic concepts of computer graphics. It couples the technical background and theory immediately with practical examples and applications. The reader can follow up the theory and then literally see the theory at work in numerous example programs. With only elementary knowledge of the programming language Java, the reader will be able to create his or her own images and animations immediately using Java 2D and Java 3D. A website for this book includes programs with source code, exercises with solutions and slides as teaching material.