| Instructors: | Yin Yang and Cem Yuksel |
|---|---|
| Time: | Tuesday & Thursday @ 3:40pm - 5:00pm |
| Location: | WEB L104 |
| Contact: | yin.yang@utah.edu |
| TAs: |
Ziheng Liu Office Hour: Monday 3 to 4pm @ MEB 3335 Haoyang Shi Office Hour: Wednesday 3 to 4pm @ MEB 3335 Zhou Zhang |
Overview
This course teaches the fundamental computational techniques in computer graphics. It is a project-based course in which students learn about and implement various methods in modeling, animation, and rendering techniques. The course covers a range of topics in computer graphics, instead of providing a deep and highly detailed analysis of a particular topic. For a more comprehensive overview of individual topics, please refer to the Other computer graphics courses at the University of Utah.
The canvas page for the course will be primarily used for quizzes, project submissions, announcements, and online discussions (piazza).
Course Objectives
The main objective of this course is to introduce students the fundamental concepts in computer graphics via hands-on coding experience, including a range of computer graphics techniques and algorithms covering 2D graphics, 3D graphics, and computer animation. This course focuses on key algorithmic techniques and mathematical foundations, not on specific tools. More specifically, the course covers the necessary math background, raster image formats, affine transformations, rendering algorithms, data structures for 2D and 3D curves, surfaces, and volumes, textures and texture mapping, shading and reflection models, animation and physics-based simulation.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will be familiar with the fundamental algorithms and data structures used in computer graphics. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
Textbook
Steve Marschner & Peter Shirley, Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, 4th edition.
This textbook is not required, but strongly recommended, as it will serve as the main source of information for most topics covered in this course. The lectures will follow the book, but will not present all information in the book. The students are expected to read the related chapters of the book after each lecture.
Lectures
This course will use the flipped classroom model. All lectures of this course will be presented as pre-recorded online videos. The classroom meetings will be reserved for discussions on the topics presented in the related lecture videos. Students are expected to watch the related lecture video before class time. See the following schedule for details.
| Week | Date | Topic | Textbook | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aug 22 | Introduction | Chapter 1 | |
| Aug 24 | Math Background | Chapter 2 | ||
| 2 | Aug 29 | Raster Images (Part 1) | Chapter 3 | |
| Aug 31 | Raster Images (Part 2) | Chapter 3 | ||
| 3 | Sep 5 | 2D Transformations | Chapter 6 | Project 1 deadline - Compositing Images |
| Sep 7 | 3D Transformations | Chapter 7 | ||
| 4 | Sep 12 | GPU Pipeline | Chapter 17 | Project 2 deadline - Transformations |
| Sep 14 | WebGL | Chapter 17 | See square.html, an example WebGL application. | |
| 5 | Sep 19 | Curves (Part 1) | Chapter 15 | |
| Sep 21 | Curves (Part 2) | Chapter 15 | ||
| 6 | Sep 26 | Surfaces | Chapter 12 | Project 3 deadline - Curves |
| Sep 28 | Triangular Meshes | Chapter 12 | ||
| 7 | Oct 3 | Q&A | — | |
| Oct 5 | Midterm Exam | — | Exam time: 3:40 - 5:00 pm (same as class time) | |
| 8 | Oct 10 | — Fall Break — | — | |
| Oct 12 | — Fall Break — | — | ||
| 9 | Oct 17 | Textures | Chapter 11 | |
| Oct 19 | Textures on the GPU | Chapter 11 | ||
| 10 | Oct 24 | Shading | Chapter 10 | Project 4 deadline - Triangular Meshes |
| Oct 26 | Shading Transformations | Chapter 10 | ||
| 11 | Oct 31 | The Rendering Equation | Chapter 24 | |
| Nov 2 | Rendering Algorithms | Chapter 4 | ||
| 12 | Nov 7 | Ray Tracing | Chapter 4 | Project 5 deadline - Shading |
| Nov 9 | Shadows and Reflections | Chapter 4 | ||
| 13 | Nov 14 | Sampling | Chapter 14 | |
| Nov 16 | Signal Processing | Chapter 9 | ||
| 14 | Nov 21 | Computer Animation | Chapter 16 | Project 6 deadline - Ray Tracing |
| Nov 23 | — Thanksgiving Break — | — | ||
| 15 | Nov 28 | Physics-Based Animation | Chapter 16 | |
| Nov 30 | Simulation in Graphics | Chapter 16 | ||
| 16 | Dec 5 | Q&A | — | Project 7 deadline - Animation |
| Dec 7 | Final Exam | — | Exam time: 3:40 - 5:00 pm (same as class time) |
Projects
We will use JavaScript and WebGL for implementing the projects.
All projects are individual projects. Group projects are not permitted. Therefore, each student must write their own code. Collaboration between students is encouraged, but code sharing is not permitted. External libraries and source code can be used only for additional functionalities that are not core parts of the projects, and they should be clearly indicated in comments within the source code.
Failure to follow these rules may lead to a failing grade. Academic misconduct will not be tolerated. See the Academic Misconduct Policy of the School of Computing for details.
Deadlines and Late Submissions: The deadline for each project is at noon (12:01 PM) on the date indicated on the schedule (see above). Late submissions suffer a 5% penalty and an additional 5% penalty is applied every day at noon (12:01 PM). To accommodate for special circumstances, the first 10 late penalties of each student will be omitted.
Resubmissions: Students can submit the same project multiple times (i.e. resubmissions). The first submission must be before the project deadline and must present a clear attempt to complete the project; otherwise, late penalties apply (please see above). Subsequent resubmissions can be used for fixing bugs or incorrectly implemented parts of the projects. No late penalty is applied to resubmissions. Only the first submission date/time is used for evaluating late penalties, provided that it shows a clear attempt. Project submissions (and resubmissions) close 10 days after the project deadline.
Project submissions are handled through canvas.
Quizzes and Exams
Online quizzes will be administered on canvas. Each quiz will be about the topic covered in the corresponding lecture or lectures. Top 20 quiz scores of each student will be used for grading.
There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. See the schedule above for the dates and times. Depending on public health related concerns, the midterm exam and/or the final exam might be canceled. If an exam is canceled, the grading scheme (see below) will be adjusted accordingly by increasing the percentages of the other components.
Students who cannot attend an exam due to health issues or similar emergencies must contact the instructor prior to the exam. In cases approved by the instructor, a make-up exam can be administered or the missed exam score can be assigned using the exam score of the other exam or the total project scores. This decision will be made by the instructor on a case-by-case basis.
Grading
| Projects 1-2 | 5 points |
|---|---|
| Projects 3-7 | 10 points |
| Quizzes | 10 points |
| Midterm Exam | 10 points |
| Final Exam | 20 points |
| TOTAL | 100 points |
Safe Classroom Environment
In this class, derogatory comments based on race, ethnicity, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, (dis)ability status, age, citizenship, or nationality will not be tolerated, nor is it permissible to state one's opinion in a manner that silences the voices of others. Further, egregious disrespect, including, but not limited to, racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, etc. will not be tolerated.