CS 231
Current Topics in Computer Animation

Spring 09

TuTh 5:10 - 6:30
HMNSS 1401

Description
This survey and project class covers recent techniques used in technical computer animation research. The curriculum will include: character animation using motion capture, IK, and dynamic simulation; deformable systems and other natural phenomena; facial animation; high-level behavior control; creature evolution; and procedural techniques. Students will be required to propose and complete an animation-related project as well as make presentations about their and previous work. Programming experience in C or C++ is required. Prerequisites include Computer Graphics (CS 130) or professor permission.

The goals of this course are to provide a broad introduction to research questions in computer animation, familiarity with previous animation results, and experience in programming animation algorithms using standard software environments.

Instructor
Victor Zordan
vbz at cs.ucr.edu
337 EBU II
827-2557
Office Hours: Just drop by or send email to schedule an appointment.

General Information

This course will cover current techniques in computer animation. By the end of the course, you should be familar with:

The formal text for the class:

Computer Animation - Algorithms and Techniques by Rick Parent (recommended).
The textbook will be supplemented by handouts in class.

Syllabus

The tentative schedule appears below. This syllabus is subject to change throughout the quarter, please see the online syllabus for the most up-to-date version of the schedule.


Week of Tue Thur
March 31 Introduction
Course material
Brief history of animation
Lecture Notes 		Basics of Computer Animation
Lecture Notes
April 7 Inverse Kinematics
Lecture Notes 		Motion Capture Hardware
Hardware Technologies
Lecture Notes
April 14 Motion Capture I

Processing Motion Data
Lecture Notes 		Motion Capture II

Editing Motion Data
Lecture Notes
April 21 Procedural Animation
Lecture Notes 		Dynamics and simulation
Lecture Notes
April 28 Rigid-body simulation control
Lecture Notes 		Motion-capture driven simulation
Lecture Notes
May 5 Progress Reports (write-up)
 Paper Presentations
James' paper Abdullah's paper
May 12 Paper Presentations
Hoang's paper Giovanni's paper 		Paper Presentations
Xin's paper Muzo's paper
May 19 Paper Presentations
Stephen's paper Bilson's paper 		High Level Behaviors
Lecture Notes
May 26 Natural Phenomena I
Lecture Notes 		Facial Animation
Lecture Notes
Jun 2 Animation & real images
Match moving/compositing
Image morphing
Video textures and sprites
TBA
Exam Timeslot: Jun 8 7-10pm, Final presentation and Jun 10, report/program turn-in

Projects and Grading

Grades will be determined based on the following breakdown:

Programming project

  • Project proposal (10%)
  • Mid-term report (15%)
  • Final report/turn-in (30%)

    Presentation

  • Paper presentation (15%)*
  • Final presentation (15%)

    Class Participation (15%)**

    Students will complete a project of their own design. Written project proposals (2-3 pages) are due at the end of the second week of classes. A progress report (also 2-3 pages) is due mid-term. Exact dates are marked on the syllabus.

    A final presentation of the projects will be made during the exam period. A wrap-up report (4-6 pages) for the project will be due at the time of the final presentation as well as an electronic submission of the corresponding program source code (clearly documented). Grading will be based on the project (55%), class participation (15%), and paper/final presentations (30% = 2 x 15%).

    *Mid-quarter, the students will present a paper from the literature (usually related to the project) and a project update to the class. The slides for the paper presentation (in ppt, unless otherwise arranged) will be due one week before the presentation.

    **Class participation is determined based on class attendance, attention and participation in group discussion, and proper preparedness for the literature paper presentations lead by other class members. At the instructor's discretion, short in-class 'pop' quizzes may be administered to assess the preparedness of students for their peer's paper presentations. However, this is unlikely if the overall class participation remains at a satisfactory level.

    All projects may also include turned in animations, as movie (mpg) files and/or video.

    Some suggestions for projects

    Additional Information and Interesting Links

    Will add links online throughout the quarter.

    Siggraph paper http://www.cs.brown.edu/~tor/

    Search for many online papers here: http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cs

    Contact Information:

    Victor Zordan
    vbz at cs.ucr.edu
    Dept of Computer Science
    Bourns College of Engineering
    University of California, Riverside