The Book
Chapter 1 reviews the history of NPR, and offers an overview of its potential relevance today and in the future. It does show how many graphics applications were designed at first with the goal of photorealism in mind, and reveals that these goals receded during the 1990s to be progressively replaced by other less limited/limiting intentions. As the books states in the introduction, "One major direction in which attention has shifted is to view photorealism as just one of many rendition styles."

It defines some criteria by which to measure the worth of NPR, such as conveying meaning, clarifying the relationship between language and pictures and offering new products and services.

Much of this points to the fact that in the image-making "business," choice of what to show or not is of the essence, the work of a painter or illustrator is above all to "present" much more than it is to "represent." In this sense, I fully agree with the book when it posits that NPR is actually capable of reaching further than mere photorealism, even if (especially when) it is time to convey critical information, be it of a scientific or artistic nature.

Chapters 2 to 5 deal mostly with pixel manipulation and two-dimensional data structure, including natural media simulation. Those who, like me, spend much of their day in applications such as Studio Artist, Painter and Expression may be very surprised at the "under the hood" complexity of "simple" operations such as (for example) drawing a line with a Wacom tablet (I was).

This book made me much more appreciative of the work performed by the authors of my favorite digital tools, and that alone is worth the price of admission. It also showed me why there are some serious limitations to creative work inherent in the very ground on which these software packages are built, something I will try to address later in this review.

Chapter 6 talks about "2 1/2 D Data Structure," looking briefly at adding depth to objects portrayed in an image while remaining in two-dimensional data structures. This includes G-Buffers, Interactive Painting, 3D Parameters for 2D Dithering, and more.

Chapters 7 and 8 enter the exploration of three-dimensional information as encoded in geometric models for non-photorealistic computer graphics. This deals with the description of and operations for polygonal models, edge classification for NPR (here too a "point of view" is essential, and a classification of the relative importance of edges is paramount. The differentiation of this from that implies much subjective choice behind the programming of these operations).

Chapter 7 deals with computing intersections, determining global shape and much more. Lighting, lighting models and much more are at the core of chapter 8.

Chapter 9 enters the minefield of distorting images and models, one area that is loaded with meaning for animators and painters alike. It is fascinating reading, riddled with technical information, and shows how much all of this is based on the intentional organization of information, itself structured ("constituted") by our priorities.

Chapter 10 discusses a variety of applications of non-photorealistic computer graphics, such as Non-Photorealistic Animation, Architectural Illustrations, Rendering Plants, Illustrating Medical and Technical Texts and Tactile Rendering for Blind People. Much food for thought for animators in this one. "Non-Photorealistic Animation Based on Particle Systems" is one section (10.1.2) I am particularly interested in these days.

Chapter 11 offers the book's conclusion and presents "a conceptual framework for binding everything together." Topics are: Methodological Disclaimer, Mathematical Preliminaries: Equivalence Relations, Equivalence Classes, and Quotients, Physical Preliminaries: Communication via Light Rays, Neurobiological Context: Look-Ahead Sets and Look-Around Sets, A Model for Visual Communication, and finally, Summary and Practical Connection with NPR.