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Lesson 6: Viewing &

Clipping

Shima Muhammad Qafor

UHD
College Of Science & Technology
Computer Science Department

Computer Graphics - Theory

 Outline
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 Coordinate systems
 World coordinate system.
 Normalized coordinate system.

 Device coordinate system.

 Viewing
 Clipping
 Point clipping.
 Line clipping.

 Polygon clipping.
 Coordinate Systems (1)
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 World coordinates (WCS): Any convenient Cartesian coordinate

system.
 we select a “window” of this world for viewing.
 Viewing coordinates: World coordinate positions are first
converted to viewing coordinates corresponding to the view we
want of a scene, based on the position and orientation.
 Viewing coordinates are how we wish to present the view on the
output device.
 Normalized coordinates are introduced to make viewing
process independent of any output device.
 Each coordinate value is in the range from −1 to 1 or in the range
from 0 to 1, depending on the system
 Clipping is usually and more efficiently done in these coordinates.
 Device coordinates (DCS): The coordinate systems for display
devices are generally called device coordinates.
 The Camera and the Scene
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 What does a camera do?

 Takes in a 3D scene

 Places (i.e., projects) the scene onto a 2D medium such as a roll

of film or a digital pixel array.
 Coordinate Systems (2)
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 Windowing & Clipping
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 A section of a two-dimensional scene that is selected for display is

called a “clipping window”
 The clipping window selects what we want to see.
 Viewport indicates where and in what size it is to be viewed on the output
device.
 The process for not showing the part of the drawing which one is not
interested is called “clipping”.

What do you want to see? Where do you want to see it?

 Viewing Transformation
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 The mapping of a WCS to DCS is called viewing transformation

 Normalization transformation
 Workstation transformation.

Normalization transformation Workstation transformation

 2D Clipping
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 The procedure that eliminates those portions of a picture

that are either inside or outside of a specified region of
space is referred to as a clipping algorithm or simply
clipping.
 Usually, clipping region is a rectangle in standard position, with the
rectangle edges parallel to the coordinate axis; although we could use any
shape for a clipping application.

before after
 Clipping Applications
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 The most common applications of clipping:

 Clipping is applied to extract a designated portion of a
scene (either two-dimensional or three-dimensional) for
display on an output device.
 Clipping methods are also used:
 to antialias object boundaries, to construct objects using solid-
modeling methods.
 to manage a multi-window environment, and
 to allow parts of a picture to be moved, copied, or erased in
drawing and painting programs.
 Primitive Clipping
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 Point Clipping
 Line Clipping
 Polygon Clipping
 Point Clipping
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 If the edges of clipping window are:

xwmin , xwmax , ywmin , ywmax 
 a point (x, y) is not clipped if:
xwmin  x  xwmax
ywmin  y  ywmax

otherwise it is clipped
 Line Clipping
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 Examine the end-points of each line to see if they

are inside the window or not:
Situation Solution Example

Both end-points inside the window Don’t clip

One end-point inside the window,

Must clip
one outside

Both end-points outside the

Don’t know!
window
 Line Clipping Algorithm:
Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (1)
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 Divide the plane into nine regions.

 Assign a unique 4-bit binary number to each region (outcode).
 Outcode region: each bit position is used to indicate whether the
point is inside or outside one of the clipping-window boundaries.

4 3 2 1 1001 1000 1010

y  ymax
top bottom right left
0000
0001 0010
Window
Region Code Legend y  ymin
0101 0100 0110
x  x min x  xmax
 Line Clipping Algorithm:
Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (2)
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 The logical AND operation of the endpoints determines if the line is completely
outside of the window:
 if the logical AND of the endpoint codes is not zero, the line can be rejected
(completely outside).
 if the logical AND operation is 0000, the line could not be reject

 The logical OR operation of the endpoints determines if the line is completely

inside of the window:
 if the logical OR of the endpoint codes is zero, the line can be accepted
(completely inside).
 if the logical OR operation would not be 0000 , the line can not be accepted
 Line Clipping Algorithm:
Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (3)
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J
B D
O1 = outcode (x1, y1) I
F
A C
O2 = outcode (x2, y2) E

AB O1 = O 2 = 0 Inside the window

CD O1 ≠ 0, O2 = 0 Partially inside the window. Find intersection point and repeat
(Or vice versa)
EF O1 & O2 ≠ 0 Outside the window
IJ O1 or O2 ≠ 0 Partially inside the window. Find intersection point and repeat
 Example 1: Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (1)
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0101
1010
 Example 1: Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (2)
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0101
0010
 Example 1: Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (3)
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0001
0010
 Example 1: Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (4)
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0001
0000
 Example 1: Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (5)
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0000
0000
 Example 2: Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (1)
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 Use the Cohen-Sutherland Clipping Algorithm to clip two of

the following lines against the clipping window’s boundaries:
 Example 2: Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping (2)
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Solution:
Line AB: outcode(A) & outcode(B) = 0001 & 0100 = 0000 Intersection point = A`
Line A`B: outcode(A’) & outcode(B) = 0000 & 0100 = 0000 Intersection point = B`
Line A`B`: outcode(A`) = outcode(B`) = 0000 A`B` is inside the clipping window
Line CD: outcode(C) & outcode(D) 1000 & 0100 = 0000 Intersection point = C`
Line C`D: outcode(C’) & outcode(D) = 0000 & 0100 = 0000 Intersection point = D`
Line C`D`: outcode(C`) = outcode(D`) = 0000 C`D` is inside the clipping window
Line EF: outcode(E) & outcode(F) 0010 & 0100 = 0000 Intersection point = E`
Line E`F: outcode(E’) & outcode(F) = 0110 & 0100 = 0100 E`F is outside the clipping window
 Cohen–Sutherland Line Clipping –
Calculating Line Intersection
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 Consider a line with the end-points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2).
 m is the slope of the line, and can be calculated as:
m = (y2 – y1) / (x2 – x1)

 Intersection points with the clipping boundaries are

calculated using the line-equation parameters:
 The intersection with vertical boundary (x = xwmin or x =
xwmax), the y coordinate can be calculated as:
y = y1 + m(x – x1)
 The intersection with a horizontal boundary (y = ywmin or y =
ywmax.), the x coordinate can be calculated as
x = x1 + (y – y1) / m
 Example 3:
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 The line is partially inside the window.

 Find m
m = 1/3
 The value of m is within the range from 0 to 1, the line segment intersects
with the boundary xwmax
 Solve y by substitute m in y = y1 + m ( x – x1)
x = xwmax = 5
y = 2 + 1/3 (5 – 4) = 2.33
 Intersection point at xwmax is (5, 2.33)
 Homework (1)
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1. Use Sutherland and Cohen out code Algorithm to clip

two lines P1 (40, 50), P2 (75, 45) and P3(70, 20),
P4(100,10) against a window A(50, 10), B(80, 10),
C(80, 40) and D(50, 40).

2. Clip the line P1(-3/2, 1/6) and P2(1/2, 3/2) against

window A(-1, -1), B(-1, 1), C(1, 1) and D(1, -1) using
Sutherland and Cohen Subdivision Algorithm
 Homework (2)
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 Polygon Clipping
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 Polygons are just composed of lines. Why do we need to

treat them differently?
 Need to keep track of what is inside
 A line clipper would often produce a disjoint set of lines

 how to form a closed boundary around the clipped fill area?

Polygon
Lines
 Sutherland-Hodgeman Polygon Clipping
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 Clip a polygon by processing the polygon boundary as

a whole against each window edge.
 Clip the entire polygon with one edge
 Clipthe output polygon against the next edge
 Repeat for all edges
 References
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 Hearn Baker Carithers, "Computer Graphics with OpenGL", 4th

Ed., Ch. 2, P. 30, and Ch. 6 P. 227.
 Edward Angel and Dave Shreiner, “Interactive computer
graphics: A Top-Down Approach With Shader-Based OpenGL”,
6th Ed., 2012, Ch.2, P. 73, Ch. 4 P. 195.
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