Applications of Computer Graphics: You must know
Applications of Computer Graphics covers wide spectrum. Computer graphics has its root almost everywhere. In this section, we will discuss a few applications which are used in day-to-day life.
Computer Aided Designing
One of the fundamental applications of computer graphics is the designing and modelling of objects, which is known as Computer-Aided Design (CAD). CAD methods are common in designing models of machines, buildings, crafts, computers, automobiles textiles, and many other products. CAD packages allow designers to make wireframes or solid models of components. Wireframe display gives flexibility to designers to quickly see the effects of changes in shapes and adjust them.
Software packages for CAD applications also provide the designer with a multi-window environment which can display different views of objects. Standard shapes for various logical circuits are also often supplied by the electronic circuit design packages. Animations are often used in CAD applications. Real-time wireframe display is useful for testing the performance of a vehicle or system. Also, wireframe displays allow the designer to see into the interior of the vehicle and to watch the behaviour of inner components during motion.
Virtual Reality
With the help of computer graphics, it is possible to simulate various virtual environments which look seamlessly similar to the real-world. Such environments help to train the person without providing them with physical resources. Doctors can be trained to operate on a patient without operating on the actual physical body. The pilot can be trained to fly the aircraft without physically sitting in the craft.
Presentation Graphics
Another major application of computer graphics is presentation graphics. It is used to produce diagrams, tables and charts for reports or presentations. Presentation graphics is commonly used to summarize research or survey data. 3D graphs are sometimes used to provide multi-angle analysis of statistical data. They provide a more intuitive and more attractive presentation of data relationships.
Computer Art
Computer graphics plays a major role in fine art and commercial art. Various computer methods, symbolic packages, software packages, CAD packages, etc. are used by the designer to generate computer art. Using such packages, the artist can easily design shapes and can add motion. Morphing is the common graphics processing method used in animation. It is a process of transforming one object into another. Morphing is being used in movies to transform one shape into others, e.g. human to tiger, car or any random shape etc.
Entertainment
Computer graphics are commonly used in film industries for making animation and cartoon movies, for providing special effects to the scene, television shows etc. Sometimes the character itself is displayed as a graphics object, and sometimes it is combined with the real scene and synthesized objects.
Education and Training
Another promising application area of computer graphics is education and training. Nowadays in the market, many educational toolkits are available for child education. They can learn through videos and animations. Thousands of simulation software are available to understand the behaviour of certain processes or environments or responses of the system. Training a person for vehicle driving using such simulators saves his time and effort.
Visualization
Data produced from many research applications is too big to analyze on paper. Representing data in the form of graphs, charts or in some other visual form may help to understand the results in a quick time. Colour coding can also provide a clue to understanding the data. For example, a plain satellite image may not be as useful as if it is segmented using different colors, green indicating forest region, blue indicating water region, black indicating mountains and roads, grey indicating soil etc
Graphical User Interface
The old computer systems were mostly command-based. The user had to write commands to perform any task. But with the introduction of computer graphics, things have changed. People get more interested in the graphical user interface. Nobody would like to remember or write commands. GUI provides an easy-to-use interface, with more accuracy and quick access time. GUI packages allow to design and interaction with multiple windows like menu-based selection, mouse and keyboard-driven commands, zooming of objects etc. simultaneously.
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