CMSC 23700: Introduction to Computer Graphics
The course provides an introduction to computer graphics. The material covers fundamental concepts and techniques including: rasterization, sampling, image/signal processing basics, convolutions, coordinate spaces, transformations, camera viewing, 3D transformations, ray tracing, 3D processing, parameterization, animation/deformations, and more.
Logistics
- Canvas
- Course Meetings: Tuesday & Thursday, 3:30 - 4:50pm CST
- Course Communication: all outside-of-class-meeting course communication will occur on the UChicago Intro to Computer Graphics Slack
- Office hours:
- Richard 4-5 PM Monday (JCL 267)
- Will 230-330 PM Wednesday (JCL 236)
- Rana 3-4 PM Friday (JCL 369)
Grading
- 15% Assignment 1: Rasterization
- 15% Assignment 2: Camera Viewpoint Geometry
- 15% Assignment 3: Mesh Data Structures
- 15% Assignment 4: Skinning and Rigging
- 35% Final Project: Animation-Off
- 5% Class participation / attendance
Late assignments. Programming assignments will be penalized 0.007% per minute late (approximately 10% per day). After 3 days the assignment will no longer be accepted. Assignments are given in advance with enough notice, so please plan accordingly.
Academic Honesty. All assignments will be individual. Do not discuss or share your solutions/code with other students, don't post solutions online and do not copy from existing code bases online. This class adheres to the same policies outlined in CMSC 12100.
Course Schedule
| Week | Date | Topic | Materials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tues March 29 | Intro & Motivation | slides |
| Thurs March 31 | Triangles & Rasterization | slides | |
| 2 | Tues April 5 | Coordinate Spaces & Transformations | slides |
| Thurs April 7 | Rotations | slides | |
| 3 | Tues April 12 | 3D viewing and textures | slides |
| Thurs April 14 | Depth and transparency | slides | |
| 4 | Tues April 19 | Intro to geometry | slides |
| Thurs April 21 | Meshes | slides | |
| 5 | Tues April 26 | Geometry Processing | slides |
| Thurs April 28 | Geometric Queries | slides | |
| 6 | Tues May 3 | Mesh Parameterization | slides |
| Thurs May 5 | Intro to Animation and Keyframing | slides | |
| 7 | Tues May 10 | Heirachical Rigging | slides |
| Thurs May 12 | Skinning | slides | |
| 8 | Tues May 17 | My Research | -- |
| Thurs May 19 | Recitation / Lab [time to work on assignments & ask qs] | -- | |
| 9 | Tues May 24 | Recitation / Lab [time to work on assignments & ask qs] | -- |
| Thurs May 26 | Wrap-Up | slides | |
| Fri June 3 | Animation-Off! | see the winners! |
Useful Resources
There is no required textbook, though the following may provide good supplementary material:
- Fundamentals of Computer Graphics. Steve Marschner and Pete Shirley 2021
Instructional Team
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rana Hanocka | Will Gao | Richard Liu | Kate Hu |