comp 175 - fundamentals of computer graphics

Fall 2008
Lectures: T 6:00-7:15 - Halligan Hall 111A
Lectures/Labs: Th 6:00-7:15 - Halligan Hall 122

Instructor: Alexandre R.J. François
Office: Halligan Hall E011
Office hours: TBA

TA:
Office:
Office hours:

course description

content

This course explores the fundamentals of computer graphics, including representing digital images, 2D rasterization and anti-aliasing, 3D rendering via ray casting, ray tracing and radiosity, viewing transformations, 3D shape representation, and an introduction to modeling and computer animation. Assignments and projects require a good working knowledge of the C programming language. (From Tufts CS course description)

Prerequisites: Comp 15, Math 13, and Math 46 or consent of instructor.

No required textbook, see resources section for some recommended textbooks and other useful material.

assignments

Programming assignments are posted on Thursdays, due the following Thursday by 11:59pm using Provide. The written part is due in class on Thursday.
Programming language: C/C++
Grading: approximately 40% for working code, 40% for quality of the resulting images, 20% for quality of documentation.

exams

There will be one midterm and one final exam (unless the final is replaced with a project...).

project

Maybe (TBA)

grading

collaboration and academic integrity

Do:
Ask questions of the Professor and TA
Talk to other students about ideas and approaches
Get ideas from books and online sources
Always cite the source of the ideas you use in your assignments

Do not:
Share code with other students
Use ideas or code from other sources without referencing them

Presenting someone else's ideas or work as your own is a violation of academic integrity, is absolutely unacceptable, and may result in severe disciplinary action for all parties involved. See the Academic Integrity booklet from the Dean of Students' office.

acknowledgements

This course makes extensive use of material developed (and graciously provided) by Sarah Frisken.

fall 2008 schedule (under construction)

Always in motion is the future. -- Yoda

1 - Tuesday September 2:
Welcome, course overview

2 - Thursday September 4:
Introduction, images, displays, color
Slides: [pdf]
Assignment: Assignment 1

3 - Tuesday September 9:
2D drawing, midpoint algorithms

4 - Thursday September 11:
Filling polygons

5 - Tuesday September 16:
Edge list array algorithm

September 16:
Last day for AS&E students to add classes

6 - Thursday September 18:
Filling and texturing triangles

7 - Tuesday September 23:
Anti-aliasing, sampling theory

8 - Thursday September 25:
Points, vectors and matrices

9 - Tuesday September 30:
2D and 3D transforms

10 - Thursday October 2:
3D triangle models, orthographic projection

11 - Tuesday October 7:
Perspective transformation

October 7:
Last day for AS&E students (except first-year undergraduates) to drop courses without record of enrollment
Last day for all undergraduates (including first-years) to select pass/fail option

12 - Thursday October 9:
Full 3D pipeline, lighting, shading, texturing

13 - Tuesday October 14:
Review

14 - Thursday October 16:
Midterm

October 14:
Last Date for AS&E students to make up incomplete grades from Spring 2008

15 - Tuesday October 21:
Ray casting geometry, ray-object intersections, spatial data structures

16 - Thursday October 23:
Illumination, shadows, reflection, refraction

17 - Tuesday October 28:
Advanced ray tracing: Jittered super-sampling, texture mapping

18 - Thursday October 30:
Accelerating ray tracing, introduction to radiosity and photon mapping

19 - Tuesday November 4:
Bezier curves

20 - Thursday November 6:
Curved surfaces

21 - Tuesday November 11:
Veteran's Day - no class

November 12:
Last date for undergraduate first years to drop courses without record of enrollment

22 - Thursday November 13:
Subdivision surfaces and factorized subdivision surfaces

23 - Tuesday November 18:
Implicit surfaces

24 - Thursday November 20:
Volume rendering

25 - Tuesday November 25:
Animation

26 - Thursday November 27:
Thanksgiving - no class

27 - Tuesday December 2:
Simulation

28 - Thursday December 4:
Review

December 8:
Classes end
Last day for AS&E undergraduates to withdraw from courses and receive a grade of W

Final exam

notes

Lecture 1: Introduction, images, displays, color [pdf]

assignments

Assignment 1: Creating and displaying 2D images [html]

resources

recommended books

programming

arjf © 2008