A long, long time ago (1996) in a town far, far away (Ballarat) I created a tool, CGrUB, to help students learn computer graphics programming in C. It starts at the basics (lines, shapes) and moves through some funky stuff (antialiasing, lighting, splines) to 3D stuff (bouncing balls and random fractals). It’s also free, though it never got the publicity it deserved and remains little known. It was created in Apple Media Tool (unusual in itself) but Director would have been a pain for this project.

Full code is provided for the code examples, along with starter code if you’d like to fill in the blanks as a learning exercise. No idea if you’ll be able to compile the code with any current IDE, but you’ll be able to study the pseudocode in the general learning environment, and see the existing programs in action. Let me know what you think through email to cgrub [at] funwithstuff.com.

If you want to get started you’ll need a Mac and QuickDraw 3D in the classic environment. The PC version is available on request, but I’ll see if anyone’s listening for now. Download CGrUB here.