CS 294-13: Advanced Computer Graphics

This course is intended to provide a graduate-level introduction to modern computer graphics. We will cover some of the basic background of 3D computer graphics in the areas of geometry, physical simulation and rendering. The course is intended to bring incoming graduate students or advanced undergraduates up to the research frontier, and prepare them for further work in the field. As such, at least half the material in the course will go over topics of current research interest, such as the physical simulation and coupling of solids and fluids, and precomputation-based methods for real-time rendering.

CS 294 is intended for incoming graduate students interested in pursuing graphics research (or at least learning about the state of the art in computer graphics). It is the entry-level course for these students, and is generally mandatory for PhD students interested in pursuing research in computer graphics. We also welcome advanced undergraduates, who are interested in pursuing research or industry careers in the field. An obvious prerequisite is to have taken CS 184 (or the equivalent at another university) and have enjoyed/done well in it. Beyond this, strong interest in computer graphics and/or related fields is required, and we encourage those students to enrol. Students who are interested but concerned about the level and prerequisites should contact the instructors.

Topics

Topics to be covered include, but are not limited to

• Introduction to Basic Ray Tracing and BRDFs
• Global Illumination and Monte Carlo Rendering
• Recent Developments in Fast Offline Rendering
• Image-Based and Real-Time Rendering
• Data-Driven Methods
• Signal-processing and low-dimensional and data-sparse methods
• Imaging and Computational Photography
• Basic Geometric Concepts
• Meshes and Subdivision Surfaces
• Finite Elements and Numerical Integration for Animation
• Fluid Simulation and Reduced Order Models
• Inverse Kinematics
• Rigid Body Dynamics

Resources

There are no books specifically required for this course. Much of the material comes from more recent work, embodied as papers or other such material. Chapters of books may be referenced as reading material and will generally be handed out in class. Papers will be linked, and can be downloaded from the website or the ACM digital library. The primary material will be these handouts and the lecture slides.