Computer Graphics (CS4300) 2011S: Lecture 0
Basic Parameters
- instructor: Marsette Vona vona@ccs.neu.edu
- lecture, office hours, TA info on website
- Text: Shirley and Marschner, 3rd Ed.
- Homeworks (62.5% of grade): 5 programming assignments, 1 writing assignment
- Presentation (2.5% of grade): short in-class presentation of one of your programs
- Participation (5% of grade): come to lecture, sit in front, ask questions
- Exams (30% of grade): two in-class exams
- material from lecture and text
- course website
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/course/cs4300- includes course outline, schedule, other useful information
- also defines course policies
- in particular, academic honesty
- most course materials, including reading and homework assignments, will be distributed only via the course website
- assignment 0, due weds, is to visit the course website and to send me an email
Very Brief History of Computer Graphics
- Ivan Sutherland. Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication system, PhD Thesis, MIT, 1963.
- video (4.3min) as described by Alan Kay (view on youtube)
- arguably the first interactive graphics program
- specially modified a TX–2 computer to operate in interactive (vs batch) mode, with vector CRT and light pen
- basic graphics features: vector line drawing, picking, dragging, navigating, object rotation and zoom
- advanced features: constraint solving (“non-procedural programming”)
- Dan Maas. Mars Exploration Rover mission animation. 2003.
- video (9min) (view on youtube), video narrative, making the video
- developed over 5 years (part time), Mass was undergrad at Cornell
- each frame in full res vid took 10–30min to render on a small cluster
- basic graphics features: polygon mesh models, lighting and surface shading, texture mapping, keyframe animation
- advanced features: compositing, physics simulation, camera shake, lens flare, depth of focus, …
Overview of the course
- four core areas of computer graphics
- modeling - describing both shape and appearance
- rendering - algorithms to generate images of models
- interaction - navigating, picking, manipulating
- animation - moving models
- broad coverage: we will try to hit “bread and butter” techniques
- things you will need to know in practice, whether working in research or industry
- lectures and readings will cover math and algorithms
- homeworks will require you to write graphics programs
- first half of the course (up to around spring break) will focus on 2D
- major project will be a 2D graphics application of your own design
- second half of the course will focus on 3D
Introductions
- instructor
- students
- name, interests in graphics or reasons for taking the course
Next Time
- vector algebra; modeling points and lines in 2D
- HW0 due
- Reading: 2.0, 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, “Implicit 2D lines” in 2.5.2