Preliminary Announcement
CS838 - Topics in Computing:
Computer Animation

This course is intended to provide an overview of the field of computer animation, from a computer science perspective.The class will survey the range of tasks involved in creating an animated film, from conception to writing the final tape. Some selected "current topics" in the field will be discussed in greater depth.

The course will be hands on: not only will you have to implement computer animation techniques, but you will also use these techniques to create animation.

This course is not intended to teach you to become a computer animator. There are classes in the art department for that. However, you will have to do some of the artistic work for this class. That's part of the fun.

Instructor

Michael Gleicher
gleicher@cs.wisc.edu

Schedule

1:00-2:15 Tuesday/Thursday. The initial idea is to start each lecture by watching an animation to either motivate the topic du jour, or just to make things less boring.

Additional evening "movie nights" may be scheduled.

Goals

From this class, a student should:

Experience the pleasure and the pain of producing an animated film.

Understand the key technical issues in computer animation, and to see how these issues are being addressed in current tools.

Experience the current state of the art in animation tools, and to appreciate why it should get better.

Know the seminal works in the literature.

Be able to read and critically evaluate promising new techniques, and to be able to assess how they will impact animated results.

Prerequisites

Consent of the Instructor (please send me email if you are interested)

You must have taken some computer graphics class (such as CS638 from Perry Kivolowitz), and preferably had some experience with graphics programming. The prerequisites for computer graphics (data structures, linear algebra) are prerequisites too.

You should not be affraid of mathematics, and preferably have some experience with numerical programming. A math programming class would be useful.

You must be willing and able to learn to use interactive software packages.

While artistic talent is not a requirement, you must at least be willing to try.

You should be ready and willing to do a lot of programming. reading, and thinking.

Grading

The majority of the grade will come from the projects and assignments.

A small portion of the grade will be determined by class participation and quizzes.

Projects/Assignments

Projects will be a central focus of the course. For each project you will have to create an animation using the software that you write (with some help from commercial tools).

Each student will be required to complete 1 major project and a small number of assignments. Students will be required to propose projects on topics discussed in the course.

Students will be allowed (or even encouraged) to to work in small teams.

Readings

There will probably not be a required textbook.
There will definitely be papers to read.

Facilities

You can do your programming projects on whatever machine you want. Machines with graphics cards that run NT will be available.

To produce your animations, you will need to use some commercial tools, which we will provide. Most likely, these will only run on the NT machines.

NOTE: this is not a class in how to use commercial tools. You will be required to learn some about them and to integrate your programming assignments with them.

Similar Courses

The only course I know of that is like this one is Jessica Hodgins' Computer Animation course at Georgia Tech. That course's web page may give you some idea of what this course may be like.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 20-Jan-1999 17:41:47 CST


Instructor	Michael Gleicher gleicher@cs.wisc.edu
Schedule	1:00-2:15 Tuesday/Thursday. The initial idea is to start each lecture by watching an animation to either motivate the topic du jour, or just to make things less boring. Additional evening "movie nights" may be scheduled.
Goals	From this class, a student should: Experience the pleasure and the pain of producing an animated film. Understand the key technical issues in computer animation, and to see how these issues are being addressed in current tools. Experience the current state of the art in animation tools, and to appreciate why it should get better. Know the seminal works in the literature. Be able to read and critically evaluate promising new techniques, and to be able to assess how they will impact animated results.
Prerequisites	Consent of the Instructor (please send me email if you are interested) You must have taken some computer graphics class (such as CS638 from Perry Kivolowitz), and preferably had some experience with graphics programming. The prerequisites for computer graphics (data structures, linear algebra) are prerequisites too. You should not be affraid of mathematics, and preferably have some experience with numerical programming. A math programming class would be useful. You must be willing and able to learn to use interactive software packages. While artistic talent is not a requirement, you must at least be willing to try. You should be ready and willing to do a lot of programming. reading, and thinking.
Grading	The majority of the grade will come from the projects and assignments. A small portion of the grade will be determined by class participation and quizzes.
Projects/Assignments	Projects will be a central focus of the course. For each project you will have to create an animation using the software that you write (with some help from commercial tools). Each student will be required to complete 1 major project and a small number of assignments. Students will be required to propose projects on topics discussed in the course. Students will be allowed (or even encouraged) to to work in small teams.
Readings	There will probably not be a required textbook. There will definitely be papers to read.
Facilities	You can do your programming projects on whatever machine you want. Machines with graphics cards that run NT will be available. To produce your animations, you will need to use some commercial tools, which we will provide. Most likely, these will only run on the NT machines. NOTE: this is not a class in how to use commercial tools. You will be required to learn some about them and to integrate your programming assignments with them.
Similar Courses	The only course I know of that is like this one is Jessica Hodgins' Computer Animation course at Georgia Tech. That course's web page may give you some idea of what this course may be like.

Preliminary Announcement CS838 - Topics in Computing: Computer Animation

Preliminary Announcement
CS838 - Topics in Computing:
Computer Animation