Milestones of computer animation*
1982 |
 |
Tron
The first movie that mixes CGI and live actors.
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1986 |
 |
Luxo Jr.
The first film by Pixar.
|
1993 |
 |
Jurassic Park
The first movie to feature realistic acting CGI.
|
1995 |
 |
Toy Story
The first full-length 3D animation movie.
|
1997 |
 |
Geri's game
features the use of subdivision surfaces.
|
1999 |
 |
Star Wars I
has the first full-featured CGI character for the entire movie.
|
2001 |
 |
Final Fantasy
The first full-length animation to attempt realistic people.
|
2001 |
 |
Shrek
The first winner of Oscar best animated movie.
|
2002 |
 |
Bunny
The first animation film to use radiosity.
|
2002 |
 |
LOTR 2
has the first realistic acting CGI character for the entire movie.
|
* This list is solely based on my personal view.
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Course overview
Photorealistic rendering, synthesizing realistic images which are
indistinguishable from real photographs, has long been a holy grail
for computer graphics.
Although global shading models, such as ray tracing, have been developed
for quite a while, animation industry basically still used local shading
models.
However, owe to recent developments of ray tracing, many animation studios
started to re-architect their own renderers using ray tracing.
Such renderers have been used for the production of many animations
and effects films, such as "Monsters University" and "The Hobbit".
This course will cover the fundamentals of the ray tracing algorithm
behind these renderers based on PBRT, a book and a ray tracer that is
designed for education purpose and won an Oscar Sci-Tech award in 2014.
Meeting time:
2:20pm-5:10pm every Thursday
Classroom:
CSIE Room 101
Instructor:
Yung-Yu Chuang
u
Teaching assistant:
Hsueh-I Chen
Office hour: 5:20-6:20pm Wednesday, room 527
TA Office hours:
1:20-1:40pm Thursday Room 506
1:40-2:20pm Thursday Room 101
Mailing list:
Subscribe via
this website.
Reference books:
We will basically follow the book,
Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation.
In addition, we will use readings
from books, journals and proceedings.
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Principles of Digital Image Synthesis, Andrew Galssner, Morgan Kaufmann.
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An Introduction to Ray Tracing, Andrew Galssner, Morgan Kaufmann.
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Radiosity and Realistic Image Synthesis, Michael Cohen and John Wallace, Academic Press.
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Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping, Henrik Wann Jensen, AK Peters.
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Advanced Global Illumination, Philip Dutre, Kavita Bala and Phillips Bekaert, AK Peters.
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Realistic Ray Tracing, Peter Shirley and Keith Morley, AK Peters.
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GPU Gems, Randima Fernando, Addison Wesley.
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GPU Gems II, Matt Pharr and Randima Fernando, Addison Wesley.
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Grading: (subject to change)
- programming assignments X 3 (60%)
- class participation (5%)
- final project (35%)
Syllabus (topics we might cover):
- Geometry, transforms and shapes
- Color and radiometry
- Ray tracing: basic algorithm
- Ray tracing: acceleration
- Cameras
- Sampling and reconstruction
- Lights
- Materials: BRDF
- Materials: texture
- Volume
- Light transport and the rendering equation
- Monte Carlo method
- Photon mapping
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