The week in 559: Week 13 (Nov 30-Dec4)

by Mike Gleicher on November 30, 2015

OK. This posting is being made a little late – Thanksgiving threw things off a little bit.

This week, we will:

We won’t have a Ray Tracing programming assignment – but you can expect Ray Tracing and Realistic Rendering questions on the exam.

Next week, we’ll learn a little about image processing. There will be an image processing programming assignment (the last of the programming assignments).

Reading 13: Ray-Tracing

by Mike Gleicher on November 25, 2015

If you haven’t done last week’s reading on Perception, you might want to do that first.

In class for the week of November 30-December 4th, we’ll be learning about photo-realistic (or at least high-quality) rendering. For the readings, we’ll be learning about one of the methods that is often used with high-quality rendering: Ray-Tracing. We’ll read about Ray Tracing since we have good readings for it in the textbook. But you should know that it is not the only way to produce high-quality image – in fact, it doesn’t necessarily produce better images than other methods. It just provides a useful building block for making good renderers.

There will be a quiz on Canvas [link]. But given that it’s Thanksgiving weekend, you’ll get some extra time to complete it (it is due Wednesday Dec 2nd). The Quiz will mainly ask about perception and color topics.

The readings:

Chapter 4 (canvas link) – Ray Tracing – from Foundations of Computer Graphics (Shirley et al) – This Chapter will not only present ray tracing, but review some of the things we used with primitive-based rendering as well (shading, perspective, …)

Chapter 13 (canvas link) – More Ray Tracing –  from Foundations of Computer Graphics (Shirley et al) – This Chapter will tell you about how we use ray tracing to get more shading effects (like reflections), as well as to introduce some of the advanced ray tracing topics (like distribution).

Both Chapters and available in Canvas.

Office Hours 11/25 and 12/2

by Mike Gleicher on November 23, 2015

On Wednesday 11/25, Prof. Sifakis will be covering the 11am office hour. Prof. Gleicher will be around in the afternoon (2:30-3:30 is the best time).

On Wednesday 12/2, neither Professor will hold office hours. The TA will hold his office hours at the regular time.

The Week in 559: Thanksgiving Edition (Nov 23-27)

by Mike Gleicher on November 22, 2015

Whoops – this update is going out a little late. While reading 12 (and quiz 12) are due tomorrow, it’s OK to “read behind” the lecture. The quiz is actually on last week’s reading so you can just do it now.

Last week, we wrapped up talking about curves and talked about surfaces in class. You also began the train project (hopefully completing Assignment 11).

This coming week is a short week – it’s Thanksgiving. We have only one lecture, and no programming assignment (but there is a quiz).

  • You should read Reading Assignment 12 (Perception). The Quiz will actually be about curves and surfaces (Assignment 12 Quiz). This is due on Monday 11/23, but since we forgot to send out this reminder, we’ll be a little lenient on this (but do it soon!). Since the quiz is about material you read over the past 2 weeks, you should be OK.
  • Lecture on Tuesday 11/24 will be about perception, but will focus on color. Unless you plan on doing a bunch of the optional readings, you’ll want to pay attention since color is important.
  • There is no programming assignment this week, but Programming Assignment 13 is do the following week. Make sure you have a running head start.

After Thanksgiving, we’ll switch gears a little bit and talk about photo-realistic rendering and ray tracing. And then image processing. And then the semester is over. Wow – it goes fast.

More Graphics

by Mike Gleicher on November 20, 2015

If you like computer graphics…

You might be wondering about what else you can do around the University to learn more.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any advanced graphics classes schedules in the short term. The Advanced Graphics class will not be offered again this year (it will probably be offered next Spring), the Data Visualization course won’t be offered until next year either. Even the VR class won’t happen until next year.

But, if you like doing graphics and want to do more, talk to either of the professors. There are lots of opportunities for projects and directed studies.

Reading 12: Perception

by Mike Gleicher on November 17, 2015

Due: Monday, 11/23. (we’ll talk about perception stuff in class)

Evaluation: There will be a quiz on canvas (coming soon). It will focus on material related to the previous reading (Reading 11 on Curves and Surfaces) – there may be some perception questions, but there will be more next week.

Readings: If you haven’t read the curves and surfaces reading, now might be a chance to “read behind” the lectures.

For perception, the required reading is Chapter 22 (Visual Perception) of Foundations of Computer Graphics (on canvas). This is a nice discussion of the topic overall, but it doesn’t say too much about color. In class, we’ll talk mainly about color.

Normally, we’d spend at least a week on color, but this year, we’ll rush through it. If you want to learn more about color, you can see the readings I gave last semester (in 638/838).

Pre-Class Help Session

by Mike Gleicher on November 17, 2015

We’ll do another pre-class help session on Thursday, 11/19 at 10:15am. Hopefully, everyone will have started with the train project, so that we’ll have plenty of questions. If no one has questions, then it will be short.

The week in 559: Week 11 (Nov 16-20)

by Mike Gleicher on November 13, 2015

The past week, we learned about curves and wrapped up Graphics Town. This coming week, we’ll make use of what we’ve learned about curves and move on to surfaces. You should have already started with the train project.

  • Monday, Nov 16: Reading 11 will make sure you’ve read about curves (and take a quiz on them) as well as to introduce you to Surfaces.
  • Tuesday, Nov 17: Lecture, we’ll move from curves to surfaces.
  • Thursday, Nov 19: 10:15am – we’ll have a “pre-class help session” to clarify questions on things and help people get started with the train code.
  • Thursday, Nov 19: 11am – Lecture on surfaces.
  • Thursday night – Programming Assignment 11 (trains getting started) is due. The bulk of the train project will happen in the next weeks – but it’s important to get started with the initial aspects.

Reading 11: Curves and Surfaces

by Mike Gleicher on November 13, 2015

Due: Monday, November 16 (for the quiz and curve readings, which were already assigned – the surfaces readings later in the week)

Evaluation: There is a quiz on the curve parts of the reading on Canvas. (Assignment 11:Curves). It will be made available soon (it isn’t as of Friday morning).

Readings:

By now you should have read the Curve readings (given last week):

Required: Chapter 15 of Foundations of Computer Graphics: is a thorough introduction to curves. It’s a little too focused on the derivations (which is the way that I used to teach it), but makes clear things like continuity conditions and piecewise representations. So read 15, 15.1 and 15.2. Look through 15.3 and 15.4 (since it will help you understand later stuff), and 15.5 (Cardinal cubics are really important – and will be the basis of an upcoming assignment). And 15.6.1 on Beziers is important. Don’t worry about B-Splines (15.6.2) – they are really important, but we won’t have time to cover them now.

Supplemental Readings: The following two resources provide different views of the same material, and might be helpful in understanding it.

Chapter 13 of Real Time Rendering: Section 13.1 contains a good introduction to parametric curves, especially Beziers. Don’t worry about Rational Beziers, drawing filled regions (13.1.1). 13.1.5 is something we won’t really cover in class, but is really useful in practice.

Chapter 20 of Hart’s Big Fun Graphics Book: is a nice treatment of the same topics. Again, stop when you get to B-Splines.

Surfaces Readings: These readings are intended to help you learn the next set of materials (to be discussed in class November 17/19). You will need them for the following week’s assignment (November 23rd)

FCG 2.5.8 “Parametric Surfaces”
https://wisc.instructure.com/files/28223/download?download_frd=1

Hart Chapter 21 (pretty good overall, includes generalized cylinders, extrusions, etc)
https://wisc.instructure.com/files/28285/download?download_frd=1

RTR 13.2 (focus on 13.2.1; other parts optional)
https://wisc.instructure.com/files/28295/download?download_frd=1

Some “Video Help Sessions”

by Mike Gleicher on November 12, 2015

Last year, I tried some experiments with doing video help sessions – short videos of me explaining topics that students had questions about. These are not well-produced videos – just a webcam pointed at my whiteboard. These may or may not be useful for you, but here they are:

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