(Tiger) Xiaohu Guo
Office: ECSS 3.703
Phone: 972-883-4723
Email: xguo at utdallas.edu
Office hours: M/W 3:00pm - 4:30pm

Formal prerequisite for this course is Computer Graphics (either undergraduate or graduate level). You should have familiarity with basic calculus, linear algebra and geometry, and good working knowledge of graphical programming (such as OpenGL, DirectX, or Java3D).

This graduate class focuses on the both theoretical foundations and programming techniques involved in computer animation. Algorithms and approaches for both character animation and physically based animation will be covered. Particular subjects may include skeletons, skinning, keyframing, facial animation, inverse kinematics, locomotion, motion capture, video game animation, particle systems, rigid bodies, clothing, hair, and other techniques.

There will be No Midterm Exams and No Final Exams! The final grade will be based on programming assignments, project proposals, demos, presentations, and reports. Each student is required to complete three assignments and a final project. The programming assignments and projects can be implemented in any of your prefered programming environment (e.g. Windows, C++, OpenGL). All the assignments and projects are mandatory. The final grade will be composed of the following two parts:

1. Programming Assignments: 45%
   - Assignment 1 (15%)
   - Assignment 2 (15%)
   - Assignment 3 (15%)
2. Final Project: 55%
   - Project proposal (5%)
   - Midterm demo with preliminary results (10%)
   - Final demo and presentation (10%)
   - Submission of a working system, software codes, project report (30%)

• Study a set of relevant papers throughout the semester.
• Submit your own one-page course project proposal.
• Implement basic functionalities and user interface before the mid-term check point.
• Class presenation and final project demonstration (at the end of the semester).
• Submit the final report and source codes (at the end of the semester).

I expect the students to come to class, read and study the materials and textbook. Download and print available materials from WebCT prior to coming to class. The class schedule specifies the chapters to read for each topic covered. Primary material of this course will come from the required textbook. In addition, material from recent articles or relevant reference books will be presented. Numerous slides and video clips on graphics will be shown. Students are advised to attend the class and follow the lecture notes closely. It is the student’s responsibility to check what we covered in class and the announcements during class if he or she did not attend.

• Running OpenGL/GLUT with Visual Studio 6.0
• Running OpenGL/GLUT with Visual Studio .NET
• Running OpenGL/GLUT with Visual Studio 2005
• System Instructions for GLUT
• User Interface Packages: GLUI, FLTK.

• OpenGL Programming Guide (The Red Book)
• OpenGL Reference Manual (The Blue Book)
• OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT) API Reference

Copying source code from another student in this class or obtaining a solution from some other source will lead to an automatic failure for this course and to a disciplinary action. Allowing another student to copy one's work will be treated as an act of academic dishonesty, leading to the same penalty as copying. You should learn how to protect your data. Failure to do so is also unprofessional and it may expose you to the danger that someone will copy your homework and will submit it as his or her own (see above). In this case, you may be given a score of 0 for the assignment or project in question (and the other party will get a failure).

• Important: The dates in this schedule may change due to the class level. If the class needs more time and examples to understand a concept I will modify the schedule. If the class is ready to skip a chapter or go faster I will modify the schedule. Therefore, it is the student's responsibility to check what we covered in class and the changes in the schedule announced during class.