Alan

Hogan
at
Putting 3D In Perspective
ASU
PROJECTIONS, CLIPPING PLANES, AND CALCULUS
This project was done for MAT 267: Calculus III for Engineers with Naala
Brewer as part of a Footnote 18 contract for honors credit with Barrett, the
Honors College at ASU, in Fall 2007.

Published: December 11, 2007 8pm

Introduction
According to question prompt, 3D computer graphics can
be rendered by representing objects in XYZ space and
introducing a rectangular viewing plane or screen, a
camera point, and four triangular clipping planes
running from the edges of the screen to the camera. (See
Figure 1.) Only objects within the resulting pyramid will be
shown by projecting them onto the screen for a 2D
representation of what the camera sees; the rest will be
clipped.

Setup
Before tackling any problems, Figure 1 was constructed.
The camera C was located at (1000, 0, 0) and the four
points of the rectangle representing the viewing plane are
located at (0, 400, 0) and (0, 400, 600). We shall refer
to these four points as P, Q, R, and S clockwise from topright, as labeled in Figure 1.

Questions
1. The first question is, If a line L passes through the
points (230, 285, 102) and (860, 105, 264), at
would points will L be clipped by the clipping planes?

Figure 1: The colored plane represents the viewing

screen. The volume of the pyramid is the viewable
area.

First we take the two points and describe L as a parametric vector function:
L = <230 + 630t, 285 + 390t, 102 + 162t>
Then generate equations for the left and right clipping planes so we can solve for their intersection
with L (if these do not intersect L properly then we will try the top and bottom planes). We find the
normal vector to the right clipping plane, nright, by crossing the vectors of the lines CP and CQ. So:
<1000, 400, 0> <1000, 400, 600> = nright = <240000, 600000, 0>.
The normal vector for the left clipping plane could be found in the same way, or by simply negating
the y component of nright, so:
nleft = <240000, 600000, 0>.
Coupling these normal vectors with the point they have in common, the camera point C, yields
equations for the (infinite) planes containing the triangular (bounded) clipping planes. The right
clipping planes equation is:
240000(x 1000) + 600000(y) + 0(z) = 0
or simplified,
240000(x 1000) + 600000(y) = 0
And similarly the left clipping plane is:
240000(x 1000) 600000(y) = 0
Then we want to find the points of intersection between these planes and our line L. We will call these
points P0 and P1, and they are the endpoints for our clipped line. To find them, we plug the values for
x, y, and z from the parametric equation of L into the equations of our clipping planes. First the right
side:
240000(230 + 630t 1000) + 600000(285 + 390t) = 0
5520 + 15120t 24000 17100 + 23400t = 0
38520t = 35580
t = 0.9236760125
which needs plugged back into L:
<230 + 630(0.9236760125), 285 + 390(0.9236760125), 102 + 162(0.9236760125)>
P0 = (811.9159, 75.2336, 251.6355)
Similarly we solve for the intersection of L and the left clipping plane:

AlanHogan.com

240000(230 + 630t 1000) 600000(285 + 390t) = 0

5520 + 15120t 24000 + 17100 23400t = 0
8280t = 1380
t = 1/6 = 0.1666667
which needs plugged back into L:
<230 + 630(1/6), 285 + 390(1/6), 102 + 162(1/6)>
P1 = (125, 350, 75)
At this point we do not know for sure that these are the best answers. We have only assumed the line
intersects with the left and right clipping planes before the top and/or bottom. We will check this
assumption by attempting to project the clipped line onto the screen.
2. The second question asks, If the clipped line segment is projected on the screen window, identify the
resulting line segment.
This can be set up as a ratio, based on the xcoordinate.
(Distance from camera for x)/1000
= Fraction of distance from camera for x = (Distance from origin for y or z)/(Projected distance from
origin for y or z)
Solving for the projected distance:
(Projected y or z) = (Distance in y or z from origin) / (Fraction of distance in x from C)
For P0, the x coordinate is 0.8119159 of the way to the camera (where 0.0 would be on the screen).
Then it is (1-0.8119159)=0.1880841 of the way from the camera to the screen (where 1.0 would be
on the screen). Thus we set the x coordinate to 0 and divide the y and z coordinates in P0 by
0.1880841 to place all three coordinates on the screen, yielding:
P0 = (0, 75.2336/0.1880841, 251.6355/0.1880841)
P0 = (0, 400.0, 1337.888)
As you can see, the y component is at 400, or the edge of the screen. This indicates we did a good
job finding where L intersected with the right clipping plane. However, since the z component is too
large, we know we should have solved for its intersection with the top clipping plane instead. We will
correct this error momentarily.
For P1, the x coordinate is 0.125 of the way to the camera (where 0.0 would be on the screen). Then
it is (1-0.125)=0.875 of the way from the camera to the screen (where 1.0 would be on the screen).
Thus we set the x coordinate to 0 and divide the y and z coordinates in P1 by 0.875 to place all three
coordinates on the screen, yielding:
P1 = (0, 350/0.875, 75/0.875)
P1 = (0, 400, 85.7143)
As you can see, the y component is at 400, or the left edge of the screen, indicating we did a good
job finding where L intersected with the right clipping plane. Since the z component is in the range of
the screen, then this is indeed a proper endpoint for the projected line.
Alright, so our initial answers for P0 and P0 were incorrect. We could re-solve from the beginning,
following the same procedures outlined above with the top clipping plane instead of the right one. Or,
we could just look at the yz plane, our projected line, our screen, and see where the projected line
hits the top of the screen to get the real endpoint P0 of the projected line. Here we will opt for the full
re-solving method.
The top clipping plane should have the normal vector ntop = CP CS, or:
<1000, 400, 600> <1000, 400, 600> = ntop = <480000, 0, 800000>.
The top clipping planes equation can then be created from C and ntop:
480000(x 1000) + 0(y) + 800000(z) = 0
or simplified,
480000(x 1000) + 800000(z) = 0
Then of course we plug in L again to solve for our new, improved P0.
480000(230 + 630t 1000) + 800000(102 + 162t) = 0
43200t = 28800
t = 2/3 = 0.6666667
which needs plugged back into L:
<230 + 630(2/3), 285 + 390(2/3), 102 + 162(2/3)>
P0 = (650, 25, 210)
Finally we take our new P0 and solve for the projected endpoint P0.
The x coordinate is 0.65 of the way to the camera (where 0.0 would be on the screen). Then it is (10.65)=0.35 of the way from the camera to the screen (where 1.0 would be on the screen). Thus we
set the x coordinate to 0 and divide the y and z coordinates in P0 by 0.35 to place all three
coordinates on the screen, yielding:

P0 = (0, 25/0.35, 210/0.35)

P0 = (0, 71.4286, 600)
As you can see, the z coordinate is 600, or at the top of the screen, and the y component is now in
range (between 400 and 400). This indicates we finally did a good job finding the other intersection
of L and the clipping planes.
So now our final answers for problems 1) and 2)
are:
1) Clipped L runs from (650, 25, 210) to
(125, 350, 75)
2) The projected line runs from (0, 71.4286, 600) to
(0, 400, 85.7143).
3. The third question asks us to verify these numbers
by drawing them and connecting their endpoints with
sight lines. Figure 2 shows this by placing the
endpoints of our clipped line and our projected lines
on the graph and drawing lines through them from
the camera.
4. There is a fourth question which introduces a
rectangle and asks us which portion of L would be
obscured by it. While we will not answer this
question, we will go over how to solve it:
i. Find the equation of the rectangles plane.
ii. Find the intersection of the plane and the
rectangle, as we did with the clipping planes
earlier.
iii. Determine which portion of the line (split at the
intersection with the rectangle) is behind the
rectangle; that is, further from the camera. Call
this segment h.

Figure 2: Green lines are used to place the orange

endpoints of the orange lines. The line on the
screen is the projected line based on the clipped
line (which is the one closer to the camera). The
purple lines are sight lines connecting the
endpoints to each other and camera, showing the
projection is correct.

iv. Calculate the bounds of the rectangle as projected onto the screen.
v. Draw the projected line as before, except where h is inside the projected area of the rectangle,
do not draw it.
Alan J. Hogan.

Contact me with any questions or corrections.

Note that this website is that of a student and is not an official ASU production.