ABSTRACT
Rendering is the name given to the process in three-dimensional graphics whereby a geometric description of an object is converted into a two-dimensional image-plane representation that looks real.
Three methods of rendering are now firmly established. The first and most common method is to use a simulation of light-object interaction in conjunction with polygon mesh objects; we have called this approach rendering polygon mesh objects. Although the light-object simulation is independent of the object representation, the combination of empirical light-object interaction and polygon mesh representation has emerged as the most popular rendering technique in computer graphics. Because of its ubiquity and importance, we shall devote most of this chapter to this approach.
