CSE 557: Computer Graphics

Winter Quarter 1997

Designing your own project

Overview:

In order to give you the freedom to work on the projects that interest and excite you most, we propose that you (in groups of two, three, or possibly four) design and carry out an exciting project over the course of the quarter. The project can be deep or broad in scope. It can be composed of a set of small unrelated projects, or it can focus on only one thing.

During the first couple of weeks of the quarter, you should be thinking about what you'd like the project to be. By Wednesday, January 22 you should submit a proposal to us. The proposal should consist of a description of the components of the project, the number of points you think you should get for each of these components, and a set of milestones consisting of specific dates by which those components will be completed. (These due dates must be adhered to as strictly as any other due dates in the class.)

We will suggest revisions of your proposal to you on Monday, January 27. The idea is that through a process of negotiation, you and the course staff can come to an agreement on the final version of the project and allocation of points to it. It is quite possible, for example, that we will feel that your proposal is too ambitious!

A final version of the project proposal will be due on Wednesday, January 29 . All members of the course staff, the professors, TA and the shepherds, will be available to advise you during all phases of the process. When the final proposal is submitted, your group will be assigned a shepherd who will stay in close touch with you for the rest of the quarter and advise you on all aspects of the project.

We expect that this structure will help you to do some really wonderful projects this term!!!

Points and Example Projects:

We imagine that your final project will be worth between 200 and 1000 points, where 200 corresponds to a small project, 400 corresponds to a medium project and 800 or above corresponds to a large project. As a rough guideline, figure 10-20 points for each "person-hour" spent on the project.

The project can be just about anything, as long as it's related to computer graphics. For example, if you are ambitious, you can try to undertake a research project. You can implement a known idea or technique such as something published in a Siggraph paper, or described in a computer graphics book. You can do a written report on some topic in computer graphics. You can construct a tool for teaching some aspect of computer graphics (e.g., an illustrative Java applet, a novel written description of some material, etc.). You can create a computer animation. You can organize field trips or design a set of extracurricular enrichment activities for the class. The sky's the limit.

Here are some examples of project ideas, mostly of the "implement something published in Siggraph" variety. (But, of course, there's no need to limit yourselves to projects of this variety.) We'd be happy to tell you more or point you in the right direction to learn more about any of these (or to help you come up with additional project ideas). Obviously, any size project can be carved out of any of them.

Example projects:
- Sketch Lite -- take sketches input by a user (e.g., with a mouse) and construct geometric models from them (and render images of those models).
- Texture Synthesis -- take an image and produce an arbitrary amount of texture from it.
- Scratch Removal -- remove noise from images (using a combination of frequency and spatial methods.)
- L Systems -- iterate a set of rules in a grammar to create an interesting structure, e.g., trees, plants.
- Lumigraph -- construct new views of images from a set of given views of images.
- Water Simulation (e.g., using the foster metaxis water equations which are optimized for efficiency and aesthetics.)
- Color correction -- match a set of desired colors on different devices, e.g., for t-shirt transfer or overhead transparencies.
- Constructive Solid Geometry -- implement one of the CSG algorithms. (CSG is used to produce complicated models as boolean set operations on simpler models.)
- Animation -- use existing production tools to create a simple animation or implement your own animation tool.
- Morphing -- implement a different morphing algorithm (thin plate, Schwartz-Christoffel, view morphing, 3D morphing)
- Visualization of anything (algorithms, math, scientific data).
- Java Applet to teach a graphics concept.
- Hair.
- Corrosion -- use physically-based simulation to compute how surfaces weather over time.
- Artifical Life -- e.g., implement a jello cube learning to move (jello physics is simple) or simple 2D creature/pattern evolution.
- Reaction-diffusion -- implement these simple equations to get interesting patterns.