Assignment Group 4 - 3D!

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This fourth topic week gets us to 3D! The workbooks focus on 3D programming - using the basic mechanisms to make stuff. The readings talk about what is going on “underneath the hood”. It is hard to make the connections: the high-level APIs we use hide the details. However, it is worth it to spend the effort to learn the underlying math.

Key Deadline: Content Survey 4: 3D Basics (due Wed, Feb 26) (note this is for Thursday’s class)
Key Deadline: Workbook Drafts 4: 3D Basics and Transformations (due Mon, Mar 03) (note this is for Tuesday’s class)

Workbooks and Books

The two workbooks for this week (Workbook 6 and Workbook 7 - (links on Canvas) cover the basics of 3D programming.

These workbooks are a little “bigger” than most. And I understand they come right after the portfolio (I did warn you…). To make up for this, I am shifting everying back 1 class period (so the content survey is due on Tuesday and the workbook draft is due on Thursday).

Remember: for your workbook draft, we are going to check that you tried the programming exercises enough to be ready for class.

For WB6: the main thing is to become familiar with the graphics concepts and how they are implemented in the Three.JS API. Try the exercises - we expect basic things working, you can make fancy stuff later.

For WB7: the main thing is to understand rotations and hierarchy in 3D, and to see the class framework code. Again, there are multiple exercises (things to make) in the workbook: focus on making basic things, you can make fancier ones for the portfolio.

With both… there is both “learning the THREE API” and learning the underlying math. For the math, we rely on the textbook (available on Canvas). The textbook gives you the pieces, the lecture (videos) and class will hopefully help you make the connections between the math and what is happening.

Our focus is on using the 3D graphics “machinery” - make stuff using the high level API (in THREE for now). The math (like the viewing matrices and lighting models) are already implemented for you (they are in most APIs). We’ll find ways to expose these details later, so try to get the main ideas.

You may want to look at some of the resources for learning the THREE APIs (some of these explain the connection to the underlying math).

Assignment

The workbooks are Workbooks 6 and 7 (links on Canvas).

The required readings are chapters (6,7,12) from Foundations of Computer Graphics (FCG) - which is available on Canvas. There are optional readings (both about the API and some more of the math details of transformations).

The required “viewing” (lecture recordings from 2023) are:

This is 3 weeks of lectures (for 2 weeks of workbooks) - there is some redundancy in the lectures (they spanned spring break and the exam). In 2022 There were the same lectures - and then there were “extra videos” (on topics like understanding perspective and projection, asynchronous programming, lighting, and animation in THREE) - they are in 2022 Week 8 (3/13 - 3/20) Videos

For class, you’ll fill out the content survey Content Survey 4: 3D Basics (due Wed, Feb 26) before class, so we can have a sense of how we should spend out class time.

As far as what to do with the workbooks for Workbook Drafts 4: 3D Basics and Transformations (due Mon, Mar 03) (remember, you turn this in by pushing to GitHub).

  • Do the small exercises in WB6 (6-4-3 (stacking cubes), 6-5-3 (add lights), 6-6-1 (materials for spheres))
  • You do need to make a snowman (6-8-1) - it’s a rite of passage for CS559
  • Make at least 1 object in the museum - it doesn’t need to be fancy (you can do fancy stuff for the portfolio)
  • You do need to make an articulated aircraft (propeller plane, helicopter, quadcopter, …) - or some flying articulated figure (7-6-1), and a radar dish that tracks it (or something that shows you can use the lookat functionality). Again, the point is to show you understand the concepts (hierarchy, lookat, …) - you can make fancy stuff for the portfolio. (we won’t complain if you make fancy stuff now).
  • For the park (7-8), at least make the carousel - it’s good practice for thinking about hierarchical animation, and getting used to the framework.
  • For the construction equipment (7-9) make something articulated that uses the framework sliders. Again, the point is to see how the framework works - you can make cooler stuff for the portfolio.