focuses on algorithms, not hardware or animation
Shirley's book could be compared to the classic graphics text by Foley and van Dam. Shirley focuses more on the key algorithms for graphics. Whereas Foley also goes into describing some of the hardware. Shirley also stays away from some low level methods, that were first devised when the first raster and vector displays were coming on the market. For example, there's nothing here about Bresenham's algorithm, for drawing a circle without recourse to trig functions. The latter exact a heavy time penalty when the CPU is slow.
Other reviewers have remarked that the book really doesn't have good coverage of animation. Correct. Though Shirley might argue that the book's title does say "Fundamentals". Animation methods can be considered as an overlayer on the book's scope. For example, consider physics-based animation. Where you model the behaviour of an object by physical laws. The book just has a brief mention. But this type of behaviour is primarily about the physical response of an object. Displaying that response is secondary, and already covered by the methods of the book.
Not much to say
This book was sufficient enough for the class I used it for. It has very few errata compared to most text books.
Good book, but beware the reflection algorithm
All and all I've been very pleased with this book, however, do not trust the reflection algorithm in the ray tracer chapter. It should be a minus, not a plus.
Helpful: errata page
Though this text provides the reader with a thorough treatment of the basic and advanced topics of today's graphics algorithms and techniques, some errors pop up here and there which might be problematic when trying to program according to the book, or trying out the execution of an algorithm. An errata page has been provided by the writer which might be useful to readers of this text; it can be found at http://www.cs.utah.edu/~shirley/fcg/errata
I hope this helps some people out. I, for one, started sweating when it seemed like I did not understand BSP trees anymore; it took me a couple of minutes to see that a couple of lines were inverted in the accompanying code. However, this book is interesting, fun to read, and useful. I recommend it to anyone who already has a basic understanding of Computer-Graphics-Without-An-API.
One of CG API-independent Books
I use this book as a textbook for 3D Computer Graphics course. Before using this book, I've used Donald Hearns' and Jim Foley's. Compare to those two, I think this book cover the basic material without even touching API. This is what I like about this book.
On every chapter, there is an FAQ about materials covered. It also has an exercises for us to do, unfortunately no answers. It could also be very helpful, if there are Internet links on each chapter for us to ponder or if we would want to go detail into each chapter.
Sadly, this book doen't cover much about animation, which is one of the topic I'm focusing on. It also contains many errors, both in the formula and in the text.
