Papers

Any of the papers from: Seminal Graphics
Survey of Texture Mapping
A Characterization of Ten Hidden-Surface Algorithms
The Aliasing Problem in Computer Generated Images
An Efficient Representation for Irradiance Environment maps
Elastically Deformable Models The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cited this paper as a "milestone in computer graphics".
A Parallel Algorithm for Polygon Rasterization
A System for Computer Generated Movies. E. Catmull. ACM '72 Proceedings of the ACM annual conference.
Interactive skeleton techniques for enhancing motion dynamics in key frame animation (The most famous film from this effort, The Hunger, is online)