Technically, Data Structures and some familiarity with linear algebra.

There will be 2 exams, counting for 30% of your grade.

• There will be an on-class midterm exam. 
• There will be a final exam at the last class. 
• Exams are difficult to reschedule, and arrangements must be made ahead of time. Please contact me at the beginning of the semester if you foresee there being a problem.

• Projects (15, 12.5, 12.5, 20% each): 60%
• Midterm: 10%
• Final: 10%
• Notes, Homework, and Participation: 10%

• Project 1: An Image Editing Program
• Project 2: Maze Visibility and Rendering Graphics
• Project 3: A (Tiny) Amusement Park
• Project 4: Trains and Roller Coasters

Homework is written questions. Late assignments may be handed in. The TA may accept them at his/her discretion. In particular, the TA will not accept assignments turned in after the assignment has been graded (which may be soon after the due date), and will not be accepted after the answers are posted. Late assignments will be noted and will be penalized. It is better to turn in a late assignment than to not turn in anything.

A portion of the exam may be taken from the written assignments. The problems may not be exactly the same (e.g. some of the numbers may be changed).

Assignments:

• Assignment1 Solution

Tentative Syllabus

• Introduction
  • Administrative matters
  • What's computer graphics
  • Light and the human visual system
  • Color
• Image Algorithms and 2D Special Effects
  • Images, quantization and sampling
  • Image manipulations
  • Flood fill, dithering
  • Point processing (contrast enhancement, compositing)
  • Filtering
• Raster graphics
• Coordinate systems and transformations
  • Homogeneous vector and matrix notation
  • 2D/3D transformations
  • Chaining transformations
  • Nonlinear transformations (free form deformation)
• The graphics pipeline and toolkits
  • Graphics programming and OpenGL
  • Event-drivenprogramming
• 3D Viewing and Projection:
  • Perspective projection
  • Viewing coordinate systemsand view volumes
  • Clipping
• Hidden surface removal
  • Introduction to Visibility
• Rendering
  • Line and polygon scan conversion
  • Painter's algorithm
  • Z-buffer algorithm
  • Local shading models
    • Illumination and reflection
    • Gouraud & Phong shading
  • Texture mapping
• Modeling Hierarchies
  • What hierarchies are and why we use them
  • Matrix stack primitives
  • Hierarchy algorithms
  • Modeling examples
  • Getting the right "control knob"
  • Hierarchies w/nonlinear transformations
  • Interface and implementation issues
• Geometric Modeling
  • Modeling with polygons
  • Spline curves: natrual, hermite, bezier, etc.
  • Recursive subdivision, forward differencing
  • Bicubic surfaces
  • Solid primitives, sweeps, B-reps
  • Implicit surfaces, quadrics, blobs
  • Booleans, CSG
  • Fractals
• Raytracing
  • Ray-surface intersection testing
  • Ray casting
  • Shadows and Transparency
  • Recursive ray tracing
  • Spatial data structures for optimization
• Global shading
• Animation
  • Traditional cel animation
  • Keyframes: state space points and trajectories
  • Inbetweening: linear interpolation
  • Interpolating splines, slow in and out, etc.
  • Procedural animation
  • Inverse Kinematics
  • Dynamics and control
  • Interface and implementation issues
• Other topics