Book excerpt: This book is a comprehensive introduction to visual computing, dealing with the modeling and synthesis of visual data by means of computers. What sets this book apart from other computer graphics texts is the integrated coverage of computer graphics and visualization topics, including important techniques such as subdivision and multi-resolution modeling, scene graphs, shadow generation, ambient occlusion, and scalar and vector data visualization. Students and practitioners will benefit from the comprehensive coverage of the principles that are the basic tools of their trade, from fundamental computer graphics and classic visualization techniques to advanced topics.