Computer Graphics Educational Materials (CGEMS) [2004 - 2011]
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Item X3D: Extensible 3D Graphics for Web Authors(The Eurographics Association, 2-8-2008) Brutzman, Don; -X3D is the ISO-standard scene-graph language for interactive 3D graphics on the Web. A new course is available for teaching the fundamentals of 3D graphics using Extensible 3D (X3D). Resources include a detailed textbook, an authoring tool, hundreds of example scenes, and detailed slidesets covering each chapter. The published book is commercially available, while all other course-module resources are provided online free under an open-source license. Numerous other commercial and open resources are available for X3D, which also serves as an interchange format. The supported course has been taught for many years, successfully introducing masters' students to the principles and techniques of 3D graphics without requiring programming experience. This course and module appears to be ready for undergraduate use. Expressing 3D within the domain of Extensible Markup Language (XML) for the Web is novel and has the potential to open up computer graphics to many new practitioners. This combined resource is intended broadly support computer graphics education and skills for web authors.Item Marching Square(The Eurographics Association, 6-8-2004) Hanisch, Frank; -This interactive CGEM illustrates the marching squares algorithm, a 2D isoline representation technique commonly used for contouring. Teachers may also use this CGEM to introduce the 3D marching cubes algorithm, which uses the same approach [1]. Users can directly manipulate two circle objects. The shape of the objects is considered unknown. After sampling the objects on a regular grid, the marching squares algorithm approximates the contour. Users may move the circles to adjacent locations to experience how we resolve ambiguous cases by an additional midpoint test.Item A Lab Exercise for Rasterizing Lines(The Eurographics Association, 7-1-2008) Stahl, David; -Rasterizing lines is one of many fundamental topics in an introductory graphics course, with Bresenham's Algorithm particularly well suited for student implementation. By having students complete carefully prepared scaffold code, understanding is reinforced by means of an exercise no more difficult than a short lab assignment. To accomplish this a particular code framework is imposed that allows an instructor to focus student effort on the algorithm while avoiding details of the visualization API.Item ShadowGui – An Interactive Shadow Tutorial(The Eurographics Association, 8-10-2007) Kuehl, Bjoern; Blom, Kristopher J.; Beckhaus, Steffi; -Today's mainstream computer graphics converges more and more to what was, in the past, possible only to do with expensive workstations. The addition of shaders to consumer graphic boards, which enable the usage of special effects like bump mapping and per pixel lighting, changed the look of today's computer graphics totally. One main effect, which makes the scene look more realistic, is shadows. It can help the viewer to understand the relative position of objects making the scene more believable. There are several common methods of making shadows, each of them having advantages and disadvantages. The two most popular methods are shadow mapping and stencil shadow volumes. In this tutorial, both shadow methods are explained two times. The first time, using only pure cpu-power, which makes the approaches slow, but they are easier to understand. Then, the tutorial explains how to use the power of today's graphic cards by outsourcing calculations to shaders. Because the shadow generation methods are implemented using OpenGL, previous knowledge about this graphics library is recommended, for example how to move objects by manipulating the glModelView matrix. However, all that must be known to calculate shadows will be explained in this tutorial.Item ShaderSchool – A tutorial for shader programming(The Eurographics Association, 9-7-2007) Reimers, Ulf; Beckhaus, Steffi; Thiesen, Malte; -We present a tool for in-class and self-study learning that provides a convenient introduction into GLSL shader programming. The tool presents shaders in an interactive manner, and can be present in-class in a group interactive manner or used as an individual tutorial. In ShaderSchool the materials are presented in sections with interactive assignments integrated into the tool, which help reinforce the students learning. It was created and applied successfully in an university computer graphics class. Additionally, the ShaderSchool tool is extensible to easily incorporate further lessons. 1 IntroductionItem Signal Convolution(The Eurographics Association, 9-7-2007) Hanisch, Frank; -This interactive teaching gem shows the convolution concept for continuous signals and discrete samples. Signals occurring frequently in computer graphics education are predefined; others can be drawn or integrated easily. We explain how the material can be used for in-class demonstration and for homework, and describe the experiences we made with two courses on image processing and introductionary computer graphics. Student reading is provided.Item A Knowledge Base for the Emerging Discipline of Computer Graphics(The Eurographics Association, 9-7-2007) Orr, Genevieve; Alley, Tony; Laxer, Cary; Geigel, Joe; Gold, Susan; -Computer Graphics is evolving as a discipline characterized by the fusion of artistic and technical theories and skills. The goal of the SIGGRAPH Curriculum Working Group has been to create a knowledge base that defines this discipline. This knowledge base is presented as a palette of subject areas and skills that forms the necessary educational framework for creation of undergraduate curricula that specialize in computer graphics. It facilitates the development of attributes that will create paths toward professional work, graduate studies, and lifelong skills-development and learning focused on computer graphics. The details provided here are principally oriented toward faculty members designing new computer graphics programs or those evolving existing ones. They also benefit students who wish to craft their own programs in computer graphics, as well as administrators and accreditors seeking guidance for framing and assessing these programs.Item A Lab Exercise for 2D Line Clipping(The Eurographics Association, 9-7-2007) Stahl, David; -Line clipping is a fundamental topic in an introductory graphics course. The simplicity and elegance of the classic Cohen-Sutherland 2D Line Clipping Algorithm makes it suitable for implementation by the student in a lab exercise. An understanding of the algorithm is reinforced by having students write actual code and see the results. A code framework is provided that allows an instructor to focus student effort on the algorithm while avoiding the details of the visualization API used to render the results.Item GLRex(The Eurographics Association, 10-8-2006) McDonald, Gerard; -I first taught computer graphics programming on PCs in the late 1980s. We produced images with a few platonic solids in 256 colors. Real-time animation was out of the question. I remember writing programs for my classes to do ray-tracing and hidden surface removal that ran at glacial speed. Despite all the shortcomings, the students enjoyed the classes and the images they could create, even though they were relatively simple. Computer graphics was still something of a novelty, and producing any image for the computer to display was exciting. By the mid-1990s things had changed quite a bit. High-end graphics libraries like OpenGL had become available for the PC. Combining them with improvements in hardware (more memory, faster processors, better video cards), it was now possible to do relatively sophisticated graphics even on low-end PCs. At the same time students' expectations were rising as computer graphics became more pervasive in our culture. They are accustomed to seeing very sophisticated computer imagery in the games they play and the movies they watch. Students expect to be able to create visually exciting projects. But beginning students often find their creativity limited by the tedium of building scenes directly in code. GLRex is an attempt to address this problem. GLRex is a simple modeler that provides the user with interactive assistance in creating code for complex images. The user can create scenes with spheres, boxes, cylinders, and cones, as well as NURB surfaces of revolution and extrusion. These scenes may then be exported as OpenGL-based C programs (or RenderMan RIB files) to be used as a basis for more complex projects.Item Computer Graphics: An Interactive Introduction with OpenGL(The Eurographics Association, 17-9-2009) Hunkins, Dalton; -Computer Graphics: An Interactive Introduction with OpenGL is a suite of examples and interactive tutorials. The software is created for the person who wants an introduction to computer graphics using the OpenGL API. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with programming in the C++ language; knowledge of OpenGL is not a pre-requisite. Also, the tutorials and examples may be used in conjunction with many of the mainstream books on computer graphics.Item A Self-Training Tool for Learning 3D Geometrical Transformations(The Eurographics Association, 17-9-2009) Ribelles, Jose; Lopez, Angeles; -This paper presents a self-training tool for learning 3D geometric transformations, i.e. translation, scaling and rotation. Our aim is to provide students with a tool they can use to practise these transformations by themselves so that they can understand and learn how to use them. Its main feature is to show an animation of the geometrical transformation applied on a geometric primitive. This animation helps to comprehend the transformation more easily, as the student sees how the primitive changes its size, position and orientation. Furthermore, the teacher can also use it as a teaching aid to explain and solve exercises in class. The geometric primitives as well as the transformation parameters used in this tool are those provided by the GLUT library and the OpenGL standard. Moreover, one of the results the tool can also provide is the C source code of the scene for OpenGL programming, which is very useful if the student needs to learn to program OpenGL transformations. Finally, this tool has been made available to our students for three academic years, and they found it very useful.Item Rotation About an Arbitrary Axis(The Eurographics Association, 18-7-2006) McDonald, John; -Rotation matrices are one of the first topics covered in introductory graphics courses, and yet the details of arbitrary rotation matrices often get swept under the rug due to their complexity. This CGEM presents a direct, constructive derivation of the ma-trix for a rotation about an arbitrary axis, enhanced with animations that help build in-tuition for the calculation. The details of this derivation can be described in an intuitive manner that builds on the procedure for calculating the matrices for rotations about the coordinate axes. This treatment is suitable for use as a handout for students to use as a supplement to the usual course text.Item Labs and Framework for 2D Content Manipulation(The Eurographics Association, 18-7-2006) Paquette, Eric; Barré-Brisebois, Colin; Barras, Jean-François; Bois, Frank Sébastien; Ghaouat, Mohammed El; -Creating and manipulating 2D content is important for computer scientists and requires knowledge in 2D Computer Graphics and Image Processing. A framework and five labs are proposed to help undergraduate students in Computer Science curricula to master the theory, algorithms, and data structures involved in 2D Computer Graphics and Image Processing. The labs provide a good coverage of topics, allow many alternatives, and can be easily reordered and selected to suit many types of courses. The framework has a working user interface to view and manipulate 2D content as well as adjust the parameters of the algorithms to implement. The framework also provides an architecture that hides most of the difficulties of the user interface and simplifies the implementation of the 2D content manipulation algorithms. Finally, code examples are provided to help the students in understanding how to use the framework to implement the labs.Item Teaching CGI Through Real Hands-On Experience(The Eurographics Association, 18-7-2008) Bernar, Carlos; Torrents, Joaquin; -Euroview Animation is developing a methodology for teaching CGI within the Department of Film, TV & Digital Media at the University of Navarra involving the participation of the students in actual production process. We base our educational methodology on the real hands-on experience: our students learn through their participation in the production of a real feature film. The production process of the film inspires and determines the learning process of our students. We consider that our project can be valuable for other educators in CGI because (1) our method has real consequences: our first feature film, Flying Heroes, will be in theaters in 2008, (2) as far as we know, this is the first of-its-kind experience with these requirements in a university and in the industry (3) this kind of project offers many possibilities of collaboration between universities.Item Realtime 3D Graphics Programming Using the Quake3 Engine(The Eurographics Association, 18-7-2008) Wagner, Daniel; Schmalstieg, Dieter; Kainz, Bernhard; -We present a lab assignment that accompanies a complete module called ''Real-time Graphics''. The students' task is to get familiar with content creation and programming a (previously) commercial 3D engine. In a first task, students have to create 3D content, which is integrated into the Quake3 engine. In a second task, the students have to implement a simple animation and finally add an impressive 3D graphics effect to the Quake3 engine. The lecture has been taught four times from 2004 to 2007. We present the assignment and report on experiences that we have gained.Item Survey of Industry Perspectives on 3D Computer Animation Education(The Eurographics Association, 22-10-2007) Flaxman, Tereza; -The paper summarizes the results of an online survey of 43 professionals working in the animation industry, including modelers, animators, technical directors, conceptual artists and lighting and texture artists. Respondents were asked to rate the appropriate level of emphasis of 14 topics commonly addressed in academic computer animation programs, ranging from fine arts skills to computer programming. Three relatively non-technical topics were top rated: fundamentals, preproduction and design/layout. There was substantial agreement in rankings among participants, even those with widely varying areas of professional interest. When asked about their own personal educational experiences 25% felt that they had been well prepared, 38% satisfactorily prepared and 37% underprepared.Item The Corkscrew: An Intermediate Polygon Modeling Tutorial using Autodesk Maya(The Eurographics Association, 23-3-2011) Foster, Shaun; Janowski, Robert; -This module is written as a supplement for instructors to learning 3D modeling using Autodesk Maya, however, it could be beneficial for any highly motivated student. If used by an instructor, you can use the first three parts as part of your instruction, then give part 4 (see below) and the tutorial video and files to the students.Item Parametric Polynomial Curves(The Eurographics Association, 25-1-2008) Stahl, David; -Spline curves and surface patches have an innate mathematical beauty and broad practical application in the field of computer graphics. Yet the subject proves difficult to convey to beginning graphics students averse to math and theory in general. The difficulty is mitigated by having students complete an implementation of carefully prepared scaffold code. A particular code framework allows focusing student effort on understanding the algorithm and the theory rather than the visualization details. In this manner understanding is developed and reinforced by means of an exercise no more difficult than a short lab assignment.