Graphics Town Clarifications: Purpose, Task, and Success Criteria

This posting is a clarification and addendum to the Workbook 7 assignment. It does not change the assignment or add new requirements. If there is an unintended discrepency between this and the actual workbook, the workbook should be considered as the official text.

The goal of the posting is to clarify the purpose, requirements, and criteria for success of the Graphics Town assignment.

This note is an addendum to the Workbook 7 assignment. It does not replace the existing assignment pages. Its purpose is to make the assignment more transparent.

These clarifications are based on TILT principles. TILT stands for Transparency in Learning and Teaching. In practice, that means an assignment should make three things clear:

1. Purpose: why you are doing the work.
2. Task: what you are being asked to do.
3. Criteria for Success: how your work will be judged.

Graphics Town is intentionally broad and creative. This addendum is meant to clarify expectations without narrowing the assignment into a checklist.

Purpose

Graphics Town is meant to help you bring together ideas from the course into one coherent interactive 3D project.

In particular, this assignment is an opportunity to:

• combine techniques from earlier workbooks,
• build a scene that feels like a world rather than a disconnected set of objects,
• make objects behave in interesting ways,
• show technical understanding through design and implementation choices,
• and explain your own work clearly through documentation and video.

This is not just an exercise in adding more stuff to the starter scene. It is a chance to demonstrate that you can design, build, and explain a complete graphics project.

Task

Your task is to build your own Graphics Town by modifying the provided starter world.

At a high level, that means:

1. Create a scene that is visibly different from the sample.
2. Add student-created objects and arrange them into a coherent theme or idea.
3. Add behaviors so the world feels alive, with enough movement and more than one kind of motion.
4. Keep the framework UI working, including object selection, highlighting, and riding/following.
5. Document your work in the workbook form.
6. Submit the required materials correctly, including attribution and AI disclosure.

The assignment pages and hints still contain the detailed technical guidance. This page is only meant to clarify the overall assignment.

Criteria for Success

Your work will be judged using the course grading scheme:

• Insufficient
• Standard
• Advanced
• Creative

The assignment is evaluated holistically. There is not a strict point-counting rubric. However, the following guidance should help you understand what staff will be looking for.

What a Standard project should clearly show

A Standard project should clearly demonstrate all of the following:

• The scene is visibly different from the provided sample.
• The required UI still works correctly.
• At least one appropriate student-created object is highlighted and rideable/followable as required by the assignment.
• The world includes enough student-created objects and enough behavior to feel like an intentional, living scene rather than a few isolated additions.
• The project has a recognizable theme, setting, or organizing idea.
• The documentation is complete enough that staff can identify what you made and why it matters.

This is still a qualitative judgment, but the core idea is that a Standard project should feel complete, functional, and clearly student-authored.

What typically pushes work toward Advanced or Creative

Advanced or Creative work usually goes beyond basic completeness in one or more of these ways:

• more variety and depth in object design,
• more variety and sophistication in behaviors,
• stronger theme and coherence,
• stronger artistic presentation,
• stronger technical ambition and execution.

Not every strong project needs to excel in every category. A project may be stronger technically, artistically, or thematically. What matters is that the work clearly demonstrates substantial achievement.

Important note about “enough”

Because Graphics Town is intentionally broad, there is no single checklist that guarantees a specific grade level.

Two projects can both be successful in very different ways. One might stand out because of technically sophisticated behaviors. Another might stand out because it creates a particularly coherent and compelling world. Another might succeed through a balanced combination of solid modeling, animation, and presentation.

The staff will use the assignment categories to judge the overall strength of the project, supported by what you document.

Documentation Matters

You only get credit for work that the course staff can identify and understand.

That is why the workbook asks you to explain:

• your theme,
• your most interesting objects,
• your most interesting behaviors,
• your technically advanced work,
• and any shaders, AI use, or outside assets.

Good documentation helps us see the work you actually did. If something is not obvious from looking at the scene, explain it.

Video Clarification

The video policy for this assignment is:

• Video is required for consideration at the Advanced and Creative levels.
• A project can still earn Standard without video.
• The video is not graded for production quality.
• The purpose of the video is to help you explain your work and help the staff understand it.

If you want to be considered for Advanced or Creative, you should complete the video portion as described in the assignment.

Final Advice

If you are unsure where to focus, prioritize these questions:

1. Does my world feel clearly different from the starter scene?
2. Does it feel like a coherent world rather than a list of separate objects?
3. Is there enough meaningful movement to make it feel alive?
4. Can the staff easily find and understand my best work through the UI, documentation, and video?

If the answer to those questions is yes, you are likely focusing on the right things.