CSC4841/6841 Computer Animation Administrative Issues & Course Overview Ying Zhu

Office Hours & Contact Information ●Office Hours –Tuesdays 2:30pm – 4:30pm –Or by appointment ●Office: 34 Peachtree Street (One Park Tower building) room1441 ●Phone: (404) ●

Syllabus ● 6841/csc _syllabus.htmhttp:// 6841/csc _syllabus.htm

Correspondence ●By default, I will send announcements/notice to your GSU account. ●If you prefer a different account, please let me know. ●When sending me , please make sure to include “Computer Animation”, “4841”, or “6841” in the subject line.

Software ●Blender – –A free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems. –No programming is required (but scripting is supported)

Computers ●You need a relatively powerful computer –Preferably a desktop computer –Most laptops should be fine, although sometimes inconvenient –Netbooks are not powerful enough ●Hardware requirements –Powerful CPU for fast rendering and video editing –Large memory (at least 1GB) –Sufficient disk space (for storing videos) –Decent graphics card

Computers ●The course materials are developed primarily for PCs –Mac computers are fine, but there may be minor issues ●I expect you to use your own computers for content development ●The computer in the Digital Aquarium ( have Blenders installed ●If possible, bring your laptops to the lectures and follow my demonstrations

Computers ●How do I know if my computer is adequate? –Download Blender from –Download the test suite from p p –If you can open and render most of the examples in that package, then you are fine.

Textbook ●Blender User’s Manual – ●I will add additional links to various Blender tutorials on my course web site.

Reference books Blender books – books/ books/ Introducing Character Animation with Blender, by Tony Mullen, Sybex, 2007 – uctCd ,navId ,descCd- description.html uctCd ,navId ,descCd- description.html

Grading ●For all students: –Homework Assignments: 40% –Team Projects: 60% ●For CSC6840 students –An extra term project

Grading ●The grading scale is as follows: –A: 90+ –B: –C: –D: 60 – 69 –F: < 60

Projects & Homework Assignments ●Team project –The goal: produce a short (2 - 4 minutes long) 3D animation film or a commercial –1 to 4 people per team ●Teamwork is strongly encouraged ●3 to 4 homework assignments –Individual efforts

Lecture Notes ●Lecture notes will be posted on course web site before each class. ● 6841/home.htmhttp:// 6841/home.htm

Graduate Teaching Assistant ●Mr. Saurav Karmakar

Classroom Etiquette ●Please refrain from talking to each other during the lecture –But do ask questions ●Please silence your cell phone while in class ●Please do not take or make phone calls in class

Expected Outcome ●Basic understanding of 3D computer graphics concepts and theories ●Basic 3D modeling and animation techniques ●Learn to use a 3D modeling and animation tool ●Learn state of the art in 3D computer graphics

About this course ●Generally considered a difficult course by students in my previous classes ●Why? –3D computer graphics has a steep learning curve –It’s time consuming to create 3D content –Blender is a complicated tool –Students need to spend a lot of time outside of class to learn Blender and

What I expect you to do ●Read the syllabus ●Get to know your classmates ●Test your computer for compatibility with Blender ●Ask questions

Any questions?

What is Computer Graphics? The word “Computer Graphics” means different things to different people. We will focus on 3D computer graphics: – How to create and store geometry objects (Modeling) – How to manipulate geometry objects (Animation) – How to generate and display images of geometry objects (Rendering) Images courtesy Discreet Lord of the Rings

Major Fields ●Modeling –How to create and store geometry objects ●Animation –How to manipulate geometry objects ●Rendering –How to generate and display images of geometry objects

General Goals of CG ●Modeling & rendering: create photo-realistic images –Is it real or is it CG? ●Animation: create visually realistic simulation ●Towards true real-time performance –60 frames per second –Flexible user interaction ●Use CG techniques to advance other research fields –Scientific visualization and engineering simulation

Major Applications ●Entertainment –3D games –Feature films, TV series & commercials ●Training and education –E.g. flight simulator, military training ●Scientific and information visualization –E.g. bioinformatic visualization, data visualization

Blender ●We will be using Blender as a teaching and learning tool throughout the semester ●Blender is a free open-source software for modeling, animation, and rendering –The rendering part is normally done through a third party package ●Download this tool and start learning it as soon as you can –

Next Lecture ●Overview of 3D graphics