Advanced Topics in Computer Graphics and Animation

Catalog description

The goal of the course is to review state-of-the art research in the fields of computer graphics and animation as well as provide students with working knowledge of how to convert theory to practice by developing an associated graphics/animation authoring tool. The course is comprised of primers, lectures, student presentations and the authoring tool group project. Each student will be responsible for presenting one primer and at least two SIGGRAPH papers to the class. Working in teams of two, students will design and develop an authoring tool that that facilitates the creation of a new type of user interaction, animation/simulation capability or 3D graphics special effect. Research papers published in the SigGraph Conference proceedings will provide the basis for the features/functionality/special effects that can be selected for implementation in the authoring tool. Each group will analyze the need and user requirements for the tool they plan to develop, prepare a formal software design document, construct a project work plan, develop the authoring tool functionality and user interface, test the design and demonstratthe authoring of associated content. A plug-in to standard authoring tools such as Maya or Houdini must also be developed to enable importing of appropriate assets and/or exporting of results.