Assignment Group 5 - Texture
The fifth topic is about appearance in 3D, but it is mainly about texture - how we add more visual interest to our objects by changing how we “color” our objects (not by making the objects themselves more complex).
Here again, there is all the interesting stuff that makes it work, and then there’s the practical aspects of using a high-level API and graphics hardware (that takes care of the details for us). The focus in the workbooks is on using the ideas. We’ll dig deeper into how things work as well.
Key Deadline: Content Survey 5: 3D Texture and Appearance (due Mon, Mar 10) (note this is for Tuesday’s class)
Key Deadline: Workbook Drafts 5: 3D Texture and Appearance (due Wed, Mar 12) (note this is for Thursday’s class)
The two workbooks for this week (Workbook 8 and Workbook 9 - (links on Canvas) cover Texturing, and touch on some other topics (like Mesh Representations).
The workbooks ask you to practice making stuff to use the various concepts. There is little about deeper understanding of what is going on underneath. We’ll use lectures and class time to see what is happening under the hood.
The book readings are from FCG (fundamentals of computer graphics) and RTR (real time rendering). A typo (hopefully fixed) might refer you to FCG for the RTR readings. The FCG Chapter will give you the basic theory. The RTR chapter (particularly on Texture) will give you the basic theory in depth (with nice examples) - and then zillions of fancy things people used to make games better. The first parts of RTR are great to learn from - but then it gets into more details.
As an honors student you should read Chapter 6 of RTR up to (and including) Section 6.2.2. The rest of 6.2 (6.2.3-6.2.6) are specialized topics. 6.2.3 (procedural shading) is something we’ll come back to later. 6.7 will give you the details on “bump” mapping (in case you ever need to implement it). The other sections of Chapter 6 are mainly interesting to see how people used texture tricks to make cool looking stuff in games.
The Lectures on these topics have some history - as recent years re-used some of the older lectures (which is why they are broken into smaller chunks, and have weird numbering). Watch the videos from Week 8 and Week 9 of 2023
The last of those videos [Thu 4/6] Drawing in 3D begins the next topic - but it may be really useful to understand what is going on when we draw triangles, and why things are the ways they are.
In terms of what you need to “do” for the workbooks (the workbook drafts)… As always, readings, watching videos, and understanding is top. But in terms of what to turn in…
- 08-02-01 - make objects to make sure you can make meshes - you can make nicer objects later, make simple ones here.
- 08-05 - You should (at least) make a dice or a domino. It’s good practice to make both.
- 08-06 - Make two different kinds of buildings (you can make fancier things in the portfolio… or you can make fancy things now and use them in the portfolio)
- 08-07 - Making a vehicle is optional - but a good idea, since you’ll want it for the portfolio
- 09-01 - Make an object where you create your own “real” texture (as a photograph). This is a useful exercise to see how textures work (or not)
- 09-02 and 09-03 - these are optional, but good to experiment with them. You’ll need to show these things in the portfolio.
- 09-04 - you will need to do the main part of this assignment for 09-05, it’s a good warmup, but is otherwise optional
- 09-05 - you need to make a shiny object (with a skybox so it looks right)
- 09-06 and 09-07 - these are “figure out how THREE does this” exercises - you’ll want to be sure you can do them