Scanline rendering is a common method used in computer graphics to render 3D scenes. It works by breaking scenes down into individual geometric primitives and drawing them one scanline at a time from top to bottom. A Z-buffer tracks which parts of the scene are closest to the camera to remove hidden areas as primitives are rendered. Individual polygons are rasterized into micropolygons and each pixel is colored correctly based on attributes like normal, depth and texture coordinates compared to the existing Z-buffer value.