The first still is a picture of a room where texture mapping is abundantly used. Color textures are most common (e.g. the walls, the vase, the paintings, the sphere's base, and the central floor), and include procedural textures, scanned textures and mixed textures (procedural noise applied to scanned texture, e.g. the Taj Mahal mausoleum painting on the far wall). Chrome mapping is also used, e.g. to simulate a reflective sphere at the bottom center of the picture. Finally, bump mapping was used for the base of every art piece (including the sphere's base) to simulate a rugged surface.
The second still is a rendering of a class-provided model of a vase. The highlights of this still are the shadow cast by the vase's lip on the body of the vase and the procedural color texture applied on the vase. A yellow point light was placed at the top right corner to make the vase surface look warmer and a directional weak blue light was pointed at the base to make the base a cool shiny surface. Without the lighting effects, the scene would look dull and unrealistic.
The third still is a rendering of the class-provided model of the space shuttle against the background of the texture-mapped globe. The authors are not responsible for the missing triangle on the shuttle's payload bay door (but they are responsible for the z-buffer and color aliasing).