Syllabus/Schedule - CSU540 Computer Graphics - Spring 2005

Professor Futrelle

Access the various official NU Calendars here. Access a handy non-NU calendar for the year 2005 here.

As of March 12th, the schedule is essentially complete

Week 1. January 7th (only)

Broad overview of computer graphics and this course.

Week 2. January 11th and 14th

Lengthy discussions of geometry and linear algebra

Ran a number of the Java graphics examples.

Week 3. January 18th and 21st

Finished discussions of geometry and linear algebra

Week 4. January 25th and 28th

Jan 25th: Went over API and code for geometry classes and small demo developed by Prof. Futrelle.

Jan 27th Brief review for Tuesday's quiz, Feb 1st.

Reading: Here is quite an eclectic list of material to read from the textbook, most quite short. This is intended to give you an overview of the various concepts involved in constructing and rendering realistic scenes. Future readings and lectures will cover more standard material in a systematic manner as well as covering some of the topics in this list in more detail. But to get started on realism, read: Chap 5, but skip sections 5.5 and 5.9. Sections 9.1.1, 10.1, 10.4, 10.5.1, Chap. 11 up to but not including 11.2.2, then 11.3 to end of chapter, study color plates after pg. 424, Chap. 12 through sec. 12.5., Chap. 13 through 13.1.1, secs. 13.1.3 and 13.1.4, sec. 13.2 and especially, all of sec. 13.4 to pg. 465. Skim Chap. 14 through sec. 14.1.6.
The above material will be discussed.

Week 5. February 1st and 4th

Feb 1st: Quiz #1 on vectors and transforms. This will be quite similar to the homework due Friday. First programming assignment will be described, in relation to the readings from last week. Assignment will be due the 11th (details TBA).
Continued discussion of the previous long list of short readings about realism.

Feb 4th: Planning for your project will be discussed.
Read ahead for next Tuesday's class: Chapter 3, through pg. 93. Then Sec. 3.9 through middle of pg. 107, then sec. 3.11.1, focusing on the figures, not the code.
Introductory lecture on Chapter 3.

Week 6. February 8th and 11th

Feb. 8th: Basic algorithms, Chapter 3. More material discussed, more details.
Reread the earlier material listed for Chapters 11 and 14 to be ready for Friday's lecture.

Feb. 11th: First programming assignment due, TBA.
Introductory lecture on color (Chap. 11) and illumination, Chap. 14.

Week 7. February 15th and 18th

Feb 15th: Finish discussions on color (Chap. 11) and illumination, Chap. 14.

Feb 18th - Review for next Tuesday's Midterm Exam. Will cover geometry and transforms, plus material from Chapter 3. Further details TBA.

Week 8. February 22nd and 25th

February 22nd: Midterm Exam.

SPRING BREAK WEEK. Sat February 26th through Sun March 6th

Week 9. March 8th and 11th

March 8th: Went over Midterm; described ray tracing.
March 11th: Discussed illumination, Sec. 14.1 through 14.1.6.
Discussed project focus as assembling interesting scenes to ray trace.

Week 10. March 15th and 18th

March 15th: Go over Prof. Futrelle's ray trace to triangle code. Then review modeling and your required project milestones.
March 18th: Shading models, all of Sec. 14.2.

Week 11. March 22nd and 25th

March 22nd: Hierarchical modeling. Simple and complex. Skim Chap. 7 through Sec. 7.6.
March 25th: Bézier curves, Sec. 9.2.3 (but not code).

Week 12. March 29th and April 1st

March 29th: Advanced topics: Perspective and transparency.
April 1st: Review for Quiz #2. Plus: Efficiency in ray tracing.

Week 13. April 5th and 8th

April 5th: Quiz #2 on shading and Bézier curves.
Selected examples from the book GPU Gems (2004).
April 8th: More examples from the book GPU Gems (2004).

Week 14. April 12th (last class)

Review for Final Exam.

Final Exam. Tuesday April 19th at 8am

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