Mammoth undertakings

I have now written about a month of posts on computer graphics programming for non-programmers. And it feels as though I’ve scribbled enough on these particular cave walls — for now.

I will very likely take up the torch again. But if I do, I think I’ll head off into a different direction, and try to illuminate some other unexplored passageways.

Speaking of caves, one of the wondrous things about computer graphics is that it’s like that old Denisovan parable about the woolly mammoth: If you stand too close to the mammoth, it is difficult to see it clearly.

What you can glimpse from that viewpoint looks a lot like disparate parts from different animals. Yet once you step back, you begin to realize how all those various parts fit together, and the combination is rather elegant.

Computer graphics is like that: It’s a great big beautiful woolly mammoth of seemingly disparate parts. But if you take a few steps back within the cave and lift your torch high enough, all of those parts mesh together to form something completely glorious and beautiful.

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