COMP 764B - Computer
Graphics and Animation
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Last
updated: 19 February 2008 Overview - Prerequisites - Objectives - Format - Evaluation - Project - Materials General Information
NOTE: This is an initial course outline and it will change during the term. Please refer to the latest version at the link above. Additional course materials (internal access only) Schedule
OverviewRecent
advances in
computer graphics and animation are permitting new levels of realism
and interactivity with benefits to a variety of applications such as
video games, movies, and training simulations. The goal of this
course is to expose students to a sample of these new and advanced
techniques and to help each student develop an understanding of the
state of the art in computer animation research. The format of the
course will be seminar style with in class student presentations and
discussions of important and recent publications. Example
topics may include motion capture processing, animating humans and
animals, character skinning, acoustics, rigid body dynamics, deformable
objects, collision detection and response, physically based methods,
and more. The course will also involve a final project.
PrerequisitesThis
course is intended
for graduate students in Computer Science or Electrical and Computer
Engineering. It is also open to other students with
permission of the instructor. Students
taking this course will ideally have taken an introductory computer
graphics course, and and have good knowledge of linear algebra,
calculus, for working through papers. Strong
programming skills will also be helpful in completing the course
project.
Objectives The
objective of this course is to have students develop an understanding
of the state of the art in computer graphics and animation.
This will be achieved by reading, analyzing, and discussing
the new ideas and advanced techniques presented in recent publications.
At the end of the term, students will have a good idea of the current
important challenges in computer animation research. Students may also
be able to reuse general methods
and techniques covered during the term in their
own research. Finally, a general
objective is for students to gain experience in reading and presenting
research articles, which should be of benefit when they carry out their
thesis research.
Course Format and EvaluationThe class will
be taught in a seminar-style format. The first weeks be lectures
presented by the
instructor to review background material, but most classes will consist
of student presentations and
a group discussion. You
should find your own papers to read
and present, but a
summary of papers in different areas will be provided in class to help
those who are looking for a place to start. You
will be expected to present one time during the
term, and you will need to provide a list of a few papers that
interest you
for the second week of class. The selected papers will be grouped
into different themes, and if there are overlaps you may be
asked to choose an alternative paper.
Presentations will be approximately 15 to 20 minutes in length. You are also expected to read the papers for each class, and must be ready to discuss ideas in the paper. Discussion will clarify questions such as the real contributions and impact of the paper, the relationship does it has to other papers and current practices, the limitations of the method and how it could be improved, etc. In addition to the one presentation that is expected, you write a short survey on a area of interest to you. Alternatively, you can present a second time as an alternative. There are three components to the grading scheme.
Academic Integrity McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures. See www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information, as well as www.mcgill.ca/integrity/studentguide, the Student Guide to Avoid Plagiarism. Final projectEach
student will complete a final project of their choosing, either alone
or in a group. A
project should be an implementation of the key
parts of one one of the papers discussed in class. If possible,
students should also try to incorporate
something new or novel in their projects. This could be a small
extension of a method, an analysis, an evaluation, or some additional
feature. A brief one page proposal proposal will be
submitted for approval. A final report along with source
code, videos, images and any other relevant material will be due at the
end of the term. The report should be brief but thorough and
should highlight what you learned, what was easier than expected, what
was harder, and what you wish you knew before starting. More details
will be provided in class and on this web page later in the term.
Course MaterialsAll
the articles and papers needed for readings and
presentations in this course should be available online. Use Tim
Rowley's site, Google
scholar, Citeseer, the
ACM digital library, or look for the paper directly on the web page of
one of the authors. If you are using an Internet connection at home,
you may need
to use a McGill
library VPN connection to access some resources.
Note
that videos of some SIGGRAPH presentations in recent years can be found
online in the ACM Digital Library. Many are good
examples to emulate, though class presentations may want to focus on
different aspects.
Some advice for giving good presentations will be provided in class,
while lots of additional advice
for giving a good presentation can be found on the web.
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