| Time |
Monday / Wednesday 5:00 - 6:15 |
| Place |
OLS 009 |
| Instructor |
David Brogan (Olsson Room 217), dbrogan@cs.virginia.edu
|
| Office Hours: |
Feel free to visit when I'm in my office.. If you want to be certain to reach me, please schedule
an appointment with me via email.
|
| Office Phone: |
982-2211 |
|
| Assistant |
| Julian Dymacek (Olsson Room 233), jmd7b@cs.virginia.edu |
|
| Web Page |
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~gfx/Courses/2003/Animation.fall.03 |
Course
Objectives |
This course introduces both fundamental and advanced
computer animation techniques. The course will follow both lecture and
seminar formats, requiring students to prepare paper presentations and lead
discussions. Such traditional animation topics as keyframing, procedural
algorithms, camera control, and scene composition will be discussed. The
course will also introduce modern research techniques covering dynamic
simulation, motion capture, and feedback control algorithms. These topics
will help prepare students for careers as technical directors in the
computer animation industry and will assist students pursuing research
careers. A detailed list of topics is included below. The student
will be taught the fundamental parts of each technique and will further
learn about the application of the technique through recent research papers.
An emphasis will be placed on the analysis of techniques (numerical
integration, inverse kinematics, optimization), synthesis of new techniques
(construct hybrid techniques for motion synthesis, use human perception to
motivate motion synthesis, develop novel physically simulated group
behaviors), and evaluation of high-order questions relating to animation
(what does it mean to look "good enough," synthesizing motion from scratch
vs. using databases of captured motions, art vs. science in computer
graphics). |
| Prerequisites |
- Introduction to Computer Graphics - CS 445
- Course material requires familiarity with multivariate calculus,
differential equations, probability, and linear algebra
|
| Textbook |
None required. I've used Computer Animation by Rick Parent in
the past, but I'm using more research papers this year (make sure you have
a way to print papers if you aren't comfortable reading online). |
| Assignments |
Approximately five programming assignments:
- Spacetime constraints
- Inverse kinematics
- Motion capture reuse/retargetting
- Rigid-body dynamical simulator
- High-level control systems
Approximately four written homework assignments that will emphasize the
fundamentals (physical simulation, least squares, optimization) |
Class
Participation |
On days when research papers are presented, I will ask all
students in the class to submit three questions regarding each paper.
These questions will be used in class to motivate discussion. The
questions will be handed in before class and will be graded on a simple
scale: bad, good, great. Submission of questions can be skipped for
excused absences. |
| Tests |
One final |
| Grading |
Assignments (50%) Homework (20%) Final (30%) |
| Late Days |
Students have five late days that they can use in any way during the
semester. Each late day extends the due date by 24 hours. Use your late
days wisely; you will not be granted additional late days without a
written note from the Dean's office. |
| Honor Code |
The honor code applies to all work turned in for this course. In
particular, all code and documentation should be entirely your own work.
You may consult with other students about high-level design strategies
related to programming assignments, but you many not copy code or use the
structure or organization of another students program. Said another way,
you may talk with one another about your programs, but you cannot ever
look at another student's code nor let another student look at your own
code. Each assignment will include a specific Honor Code Guideline
referring to the use of online materials. |
Detailed
Topics (authors of related papers in parens) |
- Traditional techniques
- keyframing (Shoemake)
- orientation representations (quaternion, Euler)
- curve representations
- interpolation (computing arclength, Gaussian Quadrature, SLERP)
- Fitting curves to data - least squares
- Multilink Systems
- degrees of freedom (DOFs)
- controlled vs. free DOFs
- hierarchical systems
- kinematics (Zhao&Badler)
- joint types
- DH / Screw notations
- Optimization
- simulated annealing (Numerical Recipes in C)
- simplex
- spacetime constraints (Witkin & Kass, Gleicher)
- genetic algorithms (Sims)
- neural networks (Grzeszczuk)
- Human Motion
- motion capture
- retargetting (Gleicher, J. Lee, Z. Popovic, Arikan)
- blending (Rose)
- abstraction (Unuma)
- walking
- biomechanics (McMahon, Ruina)
- gait generation (Metaxas, van de Panne, Hodgins)
- Physical Simulation
- rigid body
- Featherstone's method
- constraint satisfaction
- integration
- simplification (Chenney, Lin, Popovic)
- perception (O'Sullivan, Proffitt)
- Autonomous agents
- behaviors (Thalmann, Badler, Blumberg)
- group behaviors (Reynolds, Brogan, Helbing)
|
Detailed
Schedule |
|
Date |
Topic |
Reading |
Slides |
| Week
1 |
Aug 27 |
Introduction |
|
PowerPoint |
| Week
2 |
Sept 1 |
Principles of Animation
J. Lasseter, O. Johnston |
Pixar: Geri's Game, For the Birds |
PowerPoint |
| |
Sept 3 |
Principles of Animation |
Pixar: The Adventures of Andre and Wally B., Luxo Jr., Red's Dream,
Tin Toy, Knickknack (Available at UVa Library: VHS12712 and at
Pixar.com) Motion
capture: volleyball spike, walk,
football,
baseball 1, 2, 3
Physical Simulation: Natural Motion |
PowerPoint |
| Week
3 |
Sept 8 |
Rigid Body Simulation |
Hecker
Article 1
Hecker
Article 2 |
PowerPoint |
 |
Sept 10 |
Rigid Body Simulation
Numerical Integration |
Hecker
Article 3
Hecker
Article 4
Assignment 1 Out |
PowerPoint |
| Week
4 |
Sept 15 |
Simulation Research Papers |
Mirtich, Timewarp
rigid body simulation, Siggraph 2000 |
PowerPoint |
|
Sept 17 |
Simulation Research Papers |
Out of Town
Video of "Making of" clips |
|
| Week
5 |
Sept 22 |
Simulation Research Papers |
Chenney and Forsyth,
Sampling plausible solutions to multi-body constraint problems,
Siggraph 2000 |
PowerPoint |
| |
Sept 24 |
Research Papers |
Hodgins et al., Judgments of
human motion with different geometric models |
PowerPoint |
| Week
6 |
Sept 29 |
Kinematics |
Assignment 1 (Due 5:00)
Movie: Endgame
|
PowerPoint
PDF (pages 1-15) |
|
Oct 1 |
Kinematics |
Excerpt from Computer
Animation by Rick Parent, 2002. Links to sections from Numerical
Recipes in C (2.3,
2.5,
2.6) |
|
| Week
7 |
Oct 6 |
Optimization |
Paper:
Automatic
joint parameter estimation from magnetic motion capture data, J.
O' Brien, B. Bodenheimer, G. J. Brostow, and J. Hodgins, Graphics
Interface 2000 |
PowerPoint Joint
Estimation Movie |
|
Oct 8 |
Optimization |
Paper:
Through-the-lens
camera control, M. Gleicher and A. Witkin, 1992.
Assignment 2 Out |
PowerPoint |
| Week
8 |
Oct 13 |
Reading Day |
|
|
| |
Oct 15 |
Automatically Generated Animation |
F. Luo:
Spacetime constraints, A. Witkin and M. Kass, 1988. |
PowerPoint |
| Week
9 |
Oct 20 |
Automatically Generated Animation
Automatic Simplification
|
S.
Waziruddin:
Evolved virtual creatures, K. Sims, 1994.
[project,
movie]
J. Carnahan:
Neuroanimator, R. Grzeszczuk et al.
SIGGRAPH '98.
[project]
Homework 1 Out |
PowerPoint
PDF
|
|
Oct 22 |
Simplification |
D. Brogan:
Dynamics Modeling
and Culling," S. Chenney, J. Ichnowski and D. Forsyth.
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 1999.
[project]
Assignment 2 Due (5:00) |
PowerPoint |
| Week
10 |
Oct 27 |
Motion Reuse |
C. Haden: Physically based motion transformation, Z. Popovic and A.
Witkin. SIGGRAPH '99.[project]
L. Hamilton:
Video textures, Schodl et al.
SIGGRAPH '00 [project]
Homework 1
Due (5:00) |
PowerPoint
PowerPoint |
|
Oct 29 |
Motion Reuse |
D. Del Vecchio:
Retargeting motion to new characters, M. Gleicher.
SIGGRAPH '98
[project]
P. Harton:
Motion graphs,
L. Kovar. SIGGRAPH '02
|
PowerPoint
PowerPoint |
| Week
11 |
Nov 3 |
Motion Reuse |
N. Hoobler:
Interactive
control of avatars animated with human motion data, J. Lee et al.
SIGGRAPH '02
|
PowerPoint |
| |
Nov 5 |
|
Discussion
Assignment 3 Out |
|
| Week
12 |
Nov 10 |
|
Review |
PowerPoint |
| |
Nov 12 |
Biomechanics |
"How to get a playground swing going" J. Walker, Scientific
American, March 1989. "The stability of the bicycle" D. Jones,
Physics Today, April, 1970.
Walking papers from Nature
Assignment 3 Due (5:00)
Assignment 4 Out |
|
| Week
13 |
Nov 17 |
Path Planning |
R. Uy:
Toward more realistic path finding, M. Pinter. Gamasutra,
March 14, 2001.
S. Allen:
Reactive pedestrian path following from examples, R. Metoyer and J.
Hodgins. Computer Animation and Synthetic Agents '03. [movies] |
PowerPoint
PowerPoint |
|
Nov 19 |
Group Behaviors |
B. Light:
Reinforcement learning
for 3 vs. 2 keepaway. P. Stone, R. Sutton, and S. Singh. K. Neal:
Multi-level direction of autonomous characters for real-time
virtual environments, B. Blumberg and T. Galyean
Assignment 4 Due (Thursday at 5:00) |
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
|
| Week
14 |
Nov 24 |
Group Behaviors |
S. Grosvenor:
Flocks, herds, and schools, C. Reynolds.
SIGGRAPH '87. [project,
demo]
T. Ize:
Simulating Dynamical Features of Escape Panic, D. Helbing, I.
Farkas, and T. Vicsek. Nature, September 28, 2000. D.
Helbing, Self-organisation
phenomena in pedestrian crowds in
Self-Organization of Complex Structures: From Individual to
Collective Dynamics, 569-577. |
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PowerPoint |
| |
Nov 26 |
Thanksgiving |
|
|
| Week
15 |
Dec 1 |
Perception |
B. Cummings: The perception of walking
speed, T. Banton, J. Stefanucci, F. Durgin, A. Fass, and D. Proffitt,
(in preparation). Available via email from Brogan.
J. Peirson:
Does the quality of computer graphics matter when judging distances in
visually immersive environments. W. Thompson, P. Willemsen,
J. Loomis, A. Beall. Presence (to appear). [presentation] |
PowerPoint
PowerPoint |
| |
Dec 3 |
Review |
|
PowerPoint |
|
Week 16 |
|
Final Examination |
Pick up the final exam finalExam.doc.
Apologies to non-msft users... Acrobat Distiller kept barfing on the
file. |
|
|
|
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