Digital Design of Nature: Computer Generated Plants and Organics(X.media.publishing)

What is computer graphics and what are the conceptual tasks of research in this area? To the average person the term still conveys more or less the design of - gos and the manipulation of pictures with the help of image-editing programs. However, during the past four decades, computer graphics has evolved into an innovative multifaceted ?eld of research and computing that affects many other sciences. In many areas and for many problems we can best convey an und- standing through images that trigger our sense with the highest capability: our eye. And, what is more, aside from algorithms, formulas, and tables, the c- puter graphics scientist often is able to create beauty. Though it is a beauty of its own, it often fascinates the viewer, especially when complex aesthetic images emerge from simple mathematical concepts. Also, there are only a few other areas that advance as dynamically as inf- matics and especially computer graphics. While CPU capacity still increases and is almost doubled every 18 months, the rendering speed and ef?ciency of graphics boards has increased even more during recent years. Today, images can be rendered in real time that some years ago still required several hours of computing. Parallel to the rapid improvement of computer hardware, many newalgorithms weredevelopedthattoday form the basis for some fundamental changes and achievements in graphics.

Table of Contents:
Computer-Generated Plants - Introduction.- Plants - Botanical Description.- Some Mathematics.- Plants as Mathematical Objects.- Procedural Modeling - Programming of Plants.- Rule-Based Modeling - Single Plants are 'Emerging'.- Rule-Based Object Production - Interactive Modeling.- Modeling Terrain - The Basis.- Modeling Vegetation - A Landscape Evolves.- Rendering - Creating 'Virtual Reality'.- Level-of-Detail - Fast Rendering of Images.- Landscape Sketches - Artistic Renditions.- Media Art - Growing Plants and Evolved Organics.- Practical Plant Modeling - Using Xfrog.- Glossary.- Figures.- Bibliography.- Index

About the Author :
Oliver Deussen graduated in 1996 at the Institut fur Betriebs- und Dialogsysteme at the University of Karlsruhe, from 1996 until 2000 he was assistent at the Institut fur Simulation und Graphik at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, from September 2000 until March 2003 he was professor for computer graphics and media design at Dresden University of Technology, since April 2003 he works at the University of Constance. Bernd Lintermann: born at 20. Feb. 1967 in Duesseldorf, Germany 1986: Student of Computer Scinece at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) with focus on computer graphics. 1996-2001: artist and scientist in residence at the ZKM Institut for Visual Media. Since 2002: Employee of the ZKM Institute for Visual Media.