Milestones of computer animation*
| 1982 |
 |
Tron
The first movie that mixes CGI and live actors.
|
| 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 has long been a holy grail for computer graphics, synthesizing realistic images indistinguishable from real photographs. Although global shading models, such as ray tracing, have been developed for quite a while, the animation industry still uses local shading models. However, due to recent developments in ray tracing, many animation studios started to re-architect their 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 designed for education purposes, and won an Oscar Sci-Tech award in 2014.
Meeting time:
2:20pm-5:10pm every Tuesday
Classroom:
CSIE Room 111
Instructor:
Yung-Yu Chuang
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.
 |
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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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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