CS 424: Fundamentals of Computer Graphics
Term Project
It's time to begin working on your term project for this course.
You must selet a topic, and get my approval for it, no later than
November 5. Before that date, you should meet with me to discuss
your ideas for the the project, and you should make sure that
I approve the topic that you select. On November 5, you should turn
in a statement of your topic in writing. During the last
week of classes, you will do a 15-minute presentation to the class
about your project. You can choose one of four project types:
- A research paper, at least 10 pages long. The paper should be on some topic related
to computer graphics or its applications. You should do a substantial amount of research,
with bibliography and references. Most of the research should not be from Wikipedia,
blogs, or similar sources. You will probably do presentation of your findings.
- An exploration of some graphics technology that we have not covered in class,
plus a shorter paper or web site about the technology and your work. The length of
the paper will depend on how much other work you do. You will present
your findings, including an explanation and demonstration of your work.
- A significant 3D graphics programming project using OpenGL 1.0, Three.js, or WebGL.
You will demonstrate the program and discuss the programming, including the structure
of the program and interesting techniques that you use.
- A reasonably large-scale Blender project, using more than just the basic techniques
covered in class. You will show the images and animations that you produce, and you will
demonstrate and explain some of the techniques that you used. A web site about the project
would be a good idea.
The term project counts for 20% of your grade for the course. That will include
about 5% for the presentation and 15% for the project itself. Attendance at
all presentations is required. You will lose points on your project grade if
you miss any of the presentations during the last week of classes.
It is possible that the final exam will include some questions based on the
presentations.
Project Ideas
Here are some starting points for thinking about your project, if you want to do something
of type 1 or 2. You are certainly not limited to these
ideas. We should not have people working on identical or closely related topics,
unless they can coordinate to produce complementary papers.
- A research paper on ray-tracing and/or on global illumination algorithms such as radiosity,
ambient occlusion, or photon mapping.
- A short paper on POV-Ray or some other ray-tracing program, plus some work done with that program.
- A research paper on use of computer graphics in movies.
- A research paper on color vision and color models.
- A research paper on graphics and animation file formats.
- A short paper and some examples of SVG (Simple Vector Graphics) and how it can be used on web pages.
- A research paper on GPGPU (general-purpose computing on graphics hardware), or a short paper
plus some work with OpenCL or CUDA.
- A research paper on 3D Printing Technology, or possibly write a short paper and find
some way to actually print some models that you make in Blender.
- A short paper about OpenGL on smartphones, with a demo app for iPhone or Android
(or possible a more interesting app without a paper).
- A short paper and demo on some advanced aspect of Blender, such as the physics engine,
character animation, or more advanced modeling/rendering techniques.
- A short paper and demo of the new CSS3 transforms, including 3D transforms (for web pages).
Timeline
- October 16. The assignment is handed out in class.
- October 17 to November 1. Meet with me to discuss possible topics for your project.
- November 5. Statement of final project topic is due.
- November 11 to November 22. Meet with me at least once to demonstrate progress on the project.
- November 25. Projects should be completed at least to the point that you can do a presentation. We will
make a schedule of presentations for the following week.
- December 2, 3, 4, and 6 . Class and lab in the final week are devoted to presentations of projects.
- December 10. Final exam, 7:00 PM.
- December 11. Final deadline for completed projects: Noon on Tuesday, December 11.