CS 527: Computer Animation, Spring 2008

Andy Johnson

Electronic Visualization Laboratory
2032 Engineering Research Facility (ERF) and 918 SEO

phone (EVL)  (312) 996-3002   email: aej at evl.uic.edu
fax   (EVL)  (312) 413-7585   WWW  : http://www.evl.uic.edu/aej

26919 Lecture - Tuesday / Thursday from 3:30 pm to 4:45 pm in 2068 ERF (EVL)

office hours: 4:45 - 6:00 after class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and by appointment

TEXTBOOK:

Computer Animation: Algorithms and Techniques by Richard Parent Morgan Kaufmann, ISBN: 1558605797 $70 at amazon.com

SCHEDULE OF TOPICS TO BE COVERED:

PREREQUISITES:

You should have passed CS 488 (Computer Graphics I) or have equivalent knowledge to take CS 527. That means you should understand how 3D graphics are generated and be able to program interactive 3D applications.

Standard departmental disclaimer: If you do not have the prerequisites for this course make sure that you drop this course right away. The department will verify the prerequisites for all students registered in this course during the first few weeks of the term and if you do not have the prerequisites, you will be notified and dropped from the course after the normal drop/add period. By that time, you will not be able to enroll in any new course.

OVERVIEW:

From the course guide: Theoretical and practical aspects of computer animation and computer-assisted animation in two and three dimensions and in black and white or full color.

ATTENDANCE:

Attendance is very important, but not mandatory. Part of your grade will be based on your in-class participation (i.e. asking good questions and making good comments) so please take that into account.

I will be putting all of my class notes on the web. These notes should not be considered 'official' until the day of class. If I make any major changes to a page afterwards, then I will announce it in class but note that at the bottom of each page is a modification date so you should be able to tell when the notes were last modified. I try to ensure that the notes on the web accurately reflect the lecture, but its what is discussed in class 'that counts', not whats written in the notes.

ASSIGNMENTS:

• Each student will present one paper and one 'dissection' of some current computer graphics during the term.
• Each student will do three projects during the term.

More on the paper presentations

• There will be 2 paper presentations per day. The paper presentations will be done individually, be 25 minutes long, and are expected to be be professional - you don't need to dress up, but the A/V should be good, it must be rehearsed, and the audience should learn from the presentation.
• See the link on the course web site for a set of html files on how to give good presentations, so you know what I mean by a 'good' presentation.
• Whatever you do, please don't read the paper to your audience.
• Have a few slides at the beginning of your talk to give the background of the authors of the paper so we know about their past work and their research interests.
  
• Be sure to have a backup plan in case the technology fails. I will never intentionally take away technology, but as in real life, technology fails, so be prepared.
• Assume an additional 10 minutes of questions at the end.
• Paper presentation slots will be randomly assigned, you may trade slots with other students as you wish as long as both agree to the trade and you notify Andy about it at least a week in advance.
• You can find papers on the web or in print. The textbook may give you some ideas. Preference will be given to recent papers from SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications. As soon as you find a paper you like, you should email Andy so he can agree to it before the appropriate deadline. If two people ask to present the same paper then the first person who's email arrives to Andy wins.
• You must make the paper available to the entire class at least one week before your presentation, either by you giving out printed copies, or by sending around a publically available URL where the complete paper can be found on the web.
• Everyone in the class is expected to read the papers before coming to class so we can have a good discussion on the material (and you can gain class participation points for making good comments or asking good questions.)

More on the dissections

• Each student will choose a 1 minute segment of modern computer animation to disect what worked and what did not work in that segment, and how to improve what did not work based on what we have discussed in class.
  
• These presentations will be 10 minutes long and must include viewing the segment being dissected.
  

More on the projects

• There will be three projects in the class. At the end of each project there will be a presentation with time for questions where class participatin points can be obtained. The projects will focus on three different ways to create motion.
  
• project 1 - will involve using blender to create a keyframe animation
  
• project 2 - will involve writing flocking code to simulate the motion of a group of herd of creatures
  
• project 3 - will involve using our Vicon system to do motion capture and then using that data to animate a group of characters.
  

EXAMINATIONS:

Most likely the final exam will involve another short project, or writing a tutorial based on your work in class, rather than a typical written final exam. The final exam time will be used to present what was created for that project / tutorial.

GRADES:

The final grade will be calculated as follows	%	Letter grades will be assigned as follows
Projects (20% each)	60%	A: 87% - 100%
Paper and Disection Presentations	30%	B: 75% - 86%
In class participation	10%	C: 62% - 74%
		D: 50% - 61%
TOTAL	100%	E: 00% - 49%

Note: that you must get a passing (D or better) grade on _all_ projects and final to get a passing grade in the course.

Also note: I only give Incompletes for serious hospitalization issues which come up suddenly near the end of the term.

Also also note: I have no qualms about giving Ds or Es in a graduate level course, though the majority of the grades have tended to be As and Bs. I also have no qualms about failing graduate students for cheating.

last modified 4/27/08