Writing mental ray(R) Shaders

The word "render" isn''t unique to the vocabulary of computer graphics. We can talk about a "watercolor rendering," a "musical rendering" or a "poetic rendering." In each of these, there is a transformation from one domain to another: from the landscape before the painter to color on paper, from musical notation to sound, from the associations in a poet''s mind to a book of poetry. Figure 1.1: Cza...