Portfolio 2: Making 3D Stuff

in Assignments (list page)

Portfolio 2 will be a chance for you to do things you’ve already done, but better. In workbooks 6-9, you had to make various objects to try out concepts. In this portfolio, you need to make those same objects - it’s just a chance to make nicer versions of them.

Portfolio 2 is available on GitHub Classroom. You can get the empty “workbook” at: Canvas

The official due date is on Canvas: Portfolio 2: 3D Graphics (due Fri, Mar 21) (this is before Spring Break). You don’t turn things in on Canvas… you turn it in by pushing the “workbook” back to GitHub.

For Portfolio 2, we will tell you very specific things to do. These are things that were in the workbooks you’ve already seen (in fact, they are the things we explicitly asked you do do). In the previous assignments we said things like “you can make fancier things in the portfolio… or you can make fancy things now and use them in the portfolio”. We were serious.

If you’ve been keeping up with Assignment Group 4 - 3D! and Assignment Group 5 - Texture you have made initial versions of these things so you should have a good starting point.

This is much less open ended than the first portfolio: we are asking you to make specific things and put them on specific pages so we can check them. There is still ample room for creativity and excellence: you can make creative versions of the different objects you need to make, you can add extra flourishes to them, and you can make extra versions of them.

Portfolio 3 will be the opposite of this: no checklist and just a blank “world” to make what you want. The idea is to split these two different aspects into two separate assignments.

The Checklist

All of these things were requirements for prior Workbook Drafts. In some cases, we are asking you to put multiple pieces together.

Details will be on the portfolio pages themselves. The numbers here are the workbook pages where you have seen things.

  • Snowman (06-08-01)
  • Articulated Flying Thing with Radar Dish (07-06-01)
  • Graphics Park (Carousel and at least one other) (07-08-01)
  • Construction Equipment (07-09-01)
  • Buildings (08-06)
  • Vehicle (08-07) and Reflection (Environment Map w/SkyBox) (09-05)
  • Real Object (09-01)
  • Student’s Choice (anything else)

Portfolio 3

Portfolio 3 will be another opportunity to use these objects that you made… in Graphics Town. If you want to plan ahead, the assignment will basically be the same as the regular class Graphics Town. You can look at some old examples for inspirtation… (Graphics Town 2023 Gallery) (Graphics Town 2024 Gallery).

Update on Grading (added afterwards)

Portfolio 2 grading is based primarily on how well do you demonstrate that you can use the concepts to do the things we ask. Each page focused on some concepts (for example: the aircraft is to show 3D motion and articulation, the radar dish to show look at, …). Make sure that each page shows that you can apply the concepts to do what is asked.

We hope that you will show creativity and make cool things within the constraints of the assignments.

Meeting all the basic requirements will get you a decent grade. But we hope that you go beyond the minimums, and use this as an opportunity to explore the techniques you’ve learned, and to be creative.

When going beyond the minimums, prefer things that demonstrate the ideas of the requirements.

For example…

The buildings need to show that you can make geometry manually, and attach texture to it in a meaningful and useful way.

To demonstrate this “better” you can make more building types, or make fancier buildings, or use more texturing features (say, bump maps to make your stone walls like even better). Or switch textures to simulate turning on the lights inside the house. Or use parallax mapping so we see things looking through the windows (we haven’t talked about parallax mapping yet).

We are not going to object to gratuitous coolness. For example, if you realistically simulate the plants in the garden growing, we’ll probably find some way to reward you. But the spirit of the assignment is on exploring how to use  the concepts the assignment is trying to get at. I’d rather your focus on that for now.

You can use the concepts you learned beyond the place where they are asked for. For example, the initial assignments (e.g., snowman, aircraft) were before you learned about texture mapping - you could use texture mapping or an environment (or at least a skybox) to make them more interesting.

(I was going to say “demonstrating that you know the concepts” but I don’t want this to be about assessment.)

There is plenty of room in the assignment for creativity - not as much as other assignments, but sometimes being creative within constraints leads to surprising things.

If you make extra “stuff” you will have it for when we do graphics town (aka Portfolio 3).