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ECS 279 COMPUTER ANIMATION (4) III

Lecture: 3 hours

Laboratory: 3 hours

Prerequisite: Course 175 or 177 or 178

Grading: Letter; homework (30%), quizzes (10%), final project (35%), examination (25%)

Catalog Description:
Control of camera and object motion necessary to produce computer animation, modeling of articulated objects made from jointed segments, and of deformable objects. Students will complete a final animation project.

Goals:
Understand the basic techniques and algorithms used in commercial computer animation systems, and be able to design and render a computer animation sequence.

Expanded Course Description:

  1. History and applications of computer animation
    A short history of the development of computer animation, and its current applications in visualization, training simulation, advertising, video games, and film entertainment.
  2. Computer aids to traditional animation
    Steps in cell animation production. Tint-fill algorithms. In-betweening of curves. Digital compositing.
  3. Splines and interpolation
    Review of cubic spline curves. Arc-length parametrization. Smooth acceleration and deceleration. Interpolation of rotations using quaternions.
  4. Animating articulated 3D models
    Hierarchical and articulated models. Forward and inverse kinematics. Gait cycles for legged characters.
  5. Deformable objects
    Objects from multiple deforming polynomial surface patches. Metaball objects. 2D image morphing. 3D volume morphing.
  6. Procedural animation
    Particle systems. Fourier synthesis of fractals, water waves, clouds, turbulence, and flames.
  7. Dynamics
    Rigid body dynamics. Articulated model dynamics. Collision detection. Dynamics of elastic and deformable objects.
  8. Lighting, shading, and anti-aliasing
    Lighting design and specification. Surface shading. The RenderMan shading system. Anti-aliasing. Motion-blur and depth-of-field effects. Distributed ray tracing.
Textbook:
R. Parent, Computer Animation: Algorithms and Techniques, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2001, ISBN 1-55860-579-7

Computer Usage:
Students will use a commercial computer animation package (currently Maya from Alias) to practice basic animation skills, and then complete an original animation.

Engineering Design Statement:
Students will design and implement a short animation sequence for their final projects, which will be judged on their artistic design as well as on their technical execution.

ABET Category Content:
Engineering Science: 2 units
Engineering Design: 1 unit

Instructors: N. Max, B. Hamann, K. Joy, K-L. Ma

Prepared By: N. Max (February 2005)

Overlap Statement: There is no significant overlap with other courses.

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