Rating: 
Summary: Finally... a timeless graphics book
Review: Just when I was beginning to think that all books on this subject were watered down milk, I found this truly meaty book. Most importantly, the authors have managed to present complex concepts in a straight forward, non-assuming manner. As other reviewers have stated, the book is not filled with source code snippets. I see this as a good for both beginners and experts alike. It is all too easy for beginners to take example code as "gospel" without understanding the underlying principals. Experts are usually more than a little annoyed by someone else's interpretive code because they have to wade through it to get to the underlying principals. The book's pseudo code is clear and concise. This book is brain candy to someone interested in the subject. Encore!
Rating:
Summary: Hardcore
Review: Let me reiterate what a few others have said: "This book is for thinking and researching." "This is not a book that you can read while sipping a glass of wine..." "the bible of computer graphics" This is not a book that you will end up copying source code out of(a good thing). This book was my first step into the hardcore graphics world, and it was great. I don't think that more source code would enhance this book at all, mabye even the opposite. Source code is not what this book is about. If you are planning on implementing some of these algorithms, you must know how to code well, period. This is not a "here's how to code in C" manual, it's a "these are the principles of Computer Graphics." It's everything it claims to be. I particurally like the excercises at the end of every chapter. Although I don't do them all, it gives me a guide to practice what I learned. The math in this book is not as hard as some make it out to be. It is Matrix/Vector algrebra and some calc. A glossary would have been a nice touch, as some of the vocabulary can be overwhelming at times, especially the acronyms. "Recommended for the hardcore programming freaks." Hope the authors (I'm going to give credit to more than Foley) plan to write again.
Rating:
Summary: A classic - but not a good starting book.
Review: Most people don't think of technical computer books as potential "classics", but this is one. I would not recommend this to beginners, but if you already know computer graphics, you should have this book. If you can, take a class where the instructor is using this book to teach. You will not regret it. Since it is, in essence, a teaching book, you will NOT find compelte solutions to graphics problems. The authors leave it up to the reader to implement everything in C, and to complete the algorithms. As a basic example, you will not find a complete integer line drawing algorithm in this book. The reader is only given a formula on how to draw lines from point A to a point B East-North-East of point A. You have to figure out how to do the rest. That is why this book is NOT for the beginner, unless you have an experienced teacher guiding you through it.
Rating:
Summary: It's a excellent book period.
Review: Ok lets see, we have one person complaining that its to hard becuase you must concentrate, another saying its to mathematical. Well I hate to say it, BUT THAT IS THE POINT of this. Computer graphics isn't like 1+1=2. More along the lines of 4(4(3/4 - 1/2)*4)= X. This book presents everything perfectly. A great recommendaiton for anyone 'who wants to learn it' but if your thinking of just a simple, 21 days or don't have time/concentration, don't get this book. I recommend looking into 'other' subjects.
Rating: 
Summary: Once the standard text, now badly out of date
Review: Once upon a time any student interested in computer graphics was referred straight to this book, and indeed what you've got here is an amazing smorgasbord of nearly every technique that was state of the art several years ago. Unfortunately the times have moved on and Foley et al. have not quite been able to keep up with them; entire chapters are still devoted to PHIGS, while modern methods of rotation such as quaternions are covered in only the most cursory way. Another problem is the book's extremely terse, high-level approach to many important concepts; often a mathematical approach or an algorithm will be mentioned as a solution to a given problem (quadtrees, let's say), but once you try to take that knowledge from the chalkboard to the compiler, you begin to realize that there are some important pieces missing. Of course, no one expects a text like this to be a cookbook of code snippets, but as a primary textbook for an applications programmer this falls short. The tiny print and unhelpful illustrations don't improve matters much for pedagogy. So, even though this is the Classic Textbook, I've found myself better served by a combination of other, more recent books -- Alan Watt's text on graphics in combination with Eric Lengyel's on 3D Mathematics, specifically. They won't cover *everything* there is to know, but they'll do a better job of getting you started than Foley, and the stuff they don't address can be found in other books or SIGGRAPH papers.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Thanks to the authors it isn't a cookbook, it is a Computer Graphics book with math basis and a great introduction to the subject. This book is for thinking and researching. Good Job.
Rating:
Summary: Definately THE Computer Graphics Programming book!
Review: The book is definately the BEST around on the topic. It covers almost every aspect of Computer Graphics Programming. Has a real useful 3D Vector Primer and the whole book can be read and understood by beginners up to advanced programmers. Definately a MUST HAVE.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a poorly organized book that is difficult to read.
Review: The first problem with this book is that it covers too many topics, many of which are trivial and unimportant such as the coverage of 2D graphics. The result is a massive 1100 page book that's difficult to read but doesn't explain anything in great detail. Second, the pseudocode presented in the book is virtually useless. You'll have to write all your programs from scratch. Finally, many people may not care but I don't like books with fine print and tissue thin paper. This is not a book that you can read while sipping a glass of wine - this is a book that demands massive concentration. Although computer graphics can be math intensive, it is not nuclear physics and should be relatively easy to grasp, but you wouldn't know from reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Best computer graphics book *ever* !!!
Review: The most comprehensive guide to advanced computer graphics I have ever read. I can still come back to it and learn something new(I've owned it for over a year now).
Rating:
Summary: If you're only going to get _one_ graphics book...
Review: then let this be the one. This book is considered to be the "Bible" of computer graphics. It also contains _a lot_ of references, so you can use it as a springboard to other sources, as well. I think this book is to computer graphics, what Bjarne Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language" is to C++.
| 
