There Can Be (at least) Two Introductory Graphics Courses: Teaching Introduction to Non-Interactive Computer Graphics
Michael D. Shah · 2024
For decades many colleges and universities offering an introductory to computer graphics course have been teaching computer graphics through a single course focusing on real-time computer graphics. Many of these real-time or interactive computer graphics courses have a focus on graphics in the gaming domain, and also require students to be proficient in at least one instructor-selected language (e.g. C++, Java, JavaScript) through the schools introductory sequence. In this work, we describe motivations to a ’second’ alternative and complementary introductory graphics course focused on non-interactive computer graphics (i.e. rendering images for movies) that can be taken at nearly any point in the curriculum after the first programming course. We have observed that this additional course may better foster a more diverse pool of students to garner interest in computer graphics. This non-interactive graphics course is taught with a focus on rendering (using path tracing), uses free resources, and is programming language-agnostic.