CS838 - Topics in Computer Animation

Last modified: 20:40 Mar 3, 1999

Administrative Details:

Instructor

Michael Gleicher (gleicher@cs.wisc.edu)
Office Hours: Tuesday, 2:45-3:45, Thursday 11-12, or by appointment

Course Meetings

1-2:15 Tuesday/Thursday
1221 Comp Sci & Stats (note: this is a big room for a small class, so sit in front!)

Course Web Page:

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~cs838-3

Texts:

There is no required texts. Some of the papers you will be required to read will be placed in a reader, for sale at the DOIT store in the Comp Sci building. There are some optional texts. See the course books and readings pages for more info.

Course Requirements

Project

The major task in this course is to complete a project. This includes selecting a topic, submitting a proposal, doing the actual work, presenting the results, and creating an animation based on the project.
NEW: Instead of completing a project, you may instead chose to do a programming assignment and a "mini-project".

Assignments

There will be a small number of introductory assignments to complete, predominantly at the beginning of the course.

Readings

Readings will be assigned for each lecture. Papers will be available in the reader, or links to things on the web will be provided. Sometimes you will be asked to read things on the web, or in books that will be placed in reserve in the library.

Reviews / Discussion NEW

You will be required to lead the discussion on a topic that will be assigned to you. This work will be performed in pairs. Between the two of you, you must: write reviews of the assigned papers and auxillary papers (total of 4), and give a presentation on the topic.

Participation

I hate to say "class participation" is part of the grade, because it give images of me counting the number of questions that each student asks over the course of the class. However, you are expected to somehow provide me with the impression that you actually are learning the material of the class. I may resort to giving quizzes to better assess if people are learning from the readings.

Homeworks

For many of the lectures, I will suggest homework assignments. These are optional, but recommended. Generally, they will be excersizes to help you appreciate the concepts that you are reading about in papers or learning about in class.

Turning Things In

Everything that you turn in (assignments, paper reviews, project proposal, project writeup, animations) you will put on the web so that I (and the other students, and anyone else who wants to) can view it. The exact format of the web pages don't matter (there's no requirement that they be works of art, but I won't complain if it is).

You will be given a space in the course directory to put your hand-in web pages. In this directory, you should put an "index page" (called index.html) that contains pointers to everything else that you put in this directory. By the end of the course, this should contain links to everything in the course requirements.

Late Policy:

All assignments and projects are due by 5pm on the date specified. You will be given a "grace period" until the beginning of the next class after that date in which to complete the assignment. Assignments will not be accepted after that unless arrangements are made before the due date.

Grading

This course will be graded on an A-F scale.

If you choose to do a project, it will be the only thing in the course that will actually be graded on an A-F scale. If you choose the programming assignment option, both the programming assignment and the mini-project will be graded on an

Everything else will be marked as done or not done, and possibly noted as "done above and beyond the call of duty."

Your final grade will be determined by your project grade, adjusted by the other course requirements. To recieve an A, you must not only get an A on the project, but complete all the course requirements.