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Computer Graphics: The Medium of Tomorrow

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Most people will agree that anything that is conveyed using pictures and sound gets greater attention than if told otherwise. This is exactly what computer graphics banks on.

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Computer graphics is often inappropriately associated with only entertainment. They can be used in several areas,

like games, virtual rides, broadcast, business software, e-commerce, advertising, Web design and engineering, corporate communications, insurance and

investi- gation, medicine and other sciences. This list will get longer as time goes by. 

In the entertainment arena, graphics are employed in special effects, like creating 2D and 3D animations for films, good examples being movies like Jurassic Park, Independence Day, Titanic, and Toy Story. A 12 minutes special-effects feature in the movie Titanic cost around $12 million, but the revenue and critical accolades that the movie earned justify this cost. Graphics have helped a lot in bringing down the production costs in movie-making since producers no longer have to take the entire crew to a foreign locale for shoots. With the use of special effects we are now seeing in movies what we might have otherwise discarded as impossible.

A large number of advertisements on television, and games and virtual rides, too, employ computer graphics. Learning, too, is now much easier with the help of interactive CDs brought in with the use of multimedia and visuals. 

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Computer graphics can add value to business software for banking, insurance, and healthcare by making them more understandable and user friendly. Using graphics in these software packages is, however, not very prevalent. In corporate presentations, computer animation can help in the explanation, visualization, and transfer of information or data.

Another area where the role of graphics is yet to be exploited is e-commerce. One reason for the slowdown of e-commerce is that online buyers are not interested in just knowing the list of products available for sale. They look for a virtual walk through the store to have a look at the choice offered to them and then buy. This is where computer graphics come in.

With broadband, Internet users will be able to download and view large amount of audio and video content through the Web. This throws open opportunities for employing computer graphics in making websites more interactive and interesting. Website developers are realizing the importance of animated images in differentiating their site from the rest. Graphics are used in the design process to create, model, and render designs in the finished forms that can also be integrated into simulated or real-life settings. 

At a time when one who doesn’t differentiate his offerings loses out to the competition, computer graphics will be a means of differentiation. 

K Srinivasan is director and COO of Pentamedia Graphics

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