by Mike Gleicher on April 27, 2013
Wow. The second to last week.
Projects are in full swing. Please don’t forget the Project 2 Checkpoint Due on the 28th!
- Monday April 29th – We’ll take about deformation-based skinning with coordinate approaches. The reading is fairly light. But there is a Moodle Post.
- Wednesday, May 1 – The reading is about faces. And there is a Moodle post about faces. However, in the lecture, I’m going to spend a little bit of time talking about how to give a talk. Then Tomislav is going to demonstrate by giving a talk (a practice for his talk at Eurographics the following week). It’s not totally superfluous: the talk is about an aspect of facial animation. You can read the paper if you’re curious.
- Friday, May 3 – The last of our “no lecture Fridays.” There will be a project checkpoint due. Basically, for us to agree on what you are going to hand in for the final project. Details will be announced sometime closer to the date.
And a reminder. If you want to talk about your project, or anything else animation related, feel free to either come to office hours (11am Tuesday) or send me email to set up an alternate time.
by Mike Gleicher on April 25, 2013
For this week’s checkpoint (scheduled for Friday 4/26), the project milestones web page says “Signs of Life Checkpoint”. The actual deadline is extended a little (see below).
There are a few things that page says, but I will change it a bit:
- It says I will meet with each group. This is optional. If you (either individually, or as a group) would like to meet to discuss your project, send me email and we’ll set a time (either late friday morning or early afternoon). Remember, I am happy to talk to people about projects: if you want help, advice, a pat on the back, … let me know and I’ll make time to meet with you.
- It says that if you are making a film, you need to have a story board (and maybe some initial pre-vis). Also, you should describe your asset needs, and how you expect to fill them (if you need models, music, …). I will want this from both of the movie groups.
- It says that “For your technical components, you should have some initial demo to show that things are coming together.” Since we’re not doing in-person demos, I’ll take a written description, and preferably a picture.
- I’ve also said that I would like an updated plan. I really do want this – even if (or especially if) you didn’t turn in a plan initially.
So…
For each movie group (you only need to do this once – ONE person sends me email, but make sure that all project partners are CC’ed): send me an email with:
- A synopsis of the movie a 1-2 paragraph description (what it looks like, what happens, …)
- A story board showing each shot, with an idea of the major items and movements in each shot. Sketchy is fine.
- An asset list of all the major objects (models, pre-recorded movements, music, …) that you will need, and where you expect to get them from.
- (preferably – but optional) an example rendered frame, showing what things will look like. (or what they won’t look like – with an explanation of what will be fixed)
- A list of the technical components and how they will fit into the film
For each person (even if you are part of a movie group and did the stuff above), please put the following things in the Moodle Handin. You should be able to upload multiple files, but I would actually prefer that you try to put pictures in your document. It’s OK to have all of these in 1 PDF, or have separate pieces.
- A one sentence statement of what your project is. (the technical project, if its part of a movie)
- A paragraph or so describing what you have done so far.
- A list of the papers you’ve read so far.With each, give an assessment as to whether or not its helping you with the project.
- A description of “if I were to see a demo, what would I see.” Please be honest, but also what’s behind the scenes. “You’d see see a screenful of compiler errors, but the code should be a complete implementation of Igarashi As-Rigid-As-Possible Manipulation. I had phase 1 working nicely before I broke things by adding step 2.” If possible, give me a picture or two.
- I’d like to take your project plan from 2 weeks ago and update it. Some of that is redundant with things above. But make sure you have answers to the following things. If possible, please highlight what’s different.
- Expected Result
- Success Criteria
- Foreseeable risks (hopefully, this list will be shorter)
- Evaluation Criteria
- Plan (but this is only the last 4/26-5/10 parts – you can skip the first parts)
Hopefully this is about a 2 page PDF (including pictures).
When is it due?
Because I was late in giving you the instructions, I am going to let you have until Sunday, April 28th at 5pm to turn this stuff in.
by Mike Gleicher on April 19, 2013
Wow, week 13 of 15 – we’re almost done.
This week, you’ll be in the thick of your projects. But, we’ll talk about some new topics and have some readings.
- Monday, April 22nd – We’ll finish our discussion of film techniques. I want you to read something on the perception of film, and how I’ve made use of film knowledge to build systems (Reading 19). I would prefer if you did the reading before class, but you can make the Moodle posting by the end of the day.
- Wednesday, April 24th – We’ll talk about 2D deformations. Reading 20 will ask you to read about (and write a Moodle posting) about one of my favorites. But I’ll talk about others in class.
- Friday, April 26th – No Lecture. Project Checkpoint. Details coming soon, but I am going to ask for a bit more details this week. You will be asked to re-evaluate your plan. (you will have to turn in a revised planning document)
by Mike Gleicher on April 19, 2013
Today (Friday, April 19th) there is a project checkpoint. Send me email and tell me what your progress is.
There will a reading for Monday that sortof goes along with the film discussion. And a reading for Wednesday that will be more technical (and relate to the film discussion in a non-obvious way). Details later today.
by Mike Gleicher on April 14, 2013
2 astute students noticed that they were incorrectly marked for the motion graphs readings. It turns out that no one got credit for it (whoops).
However…
- I kindof factored this in already. I trust the moodle counting about 90%. I expect the counts to be +/- 1. So, I plan on just giving everyone an extra point or two.
- One or two doesn’t make a difference. You can see the general trend. If you did things most of the time, then it’s easy to say “OK, that one you missed, probably an accounting error”
- In the event that during grading there is some hard cutoff, I promise to examine boundary cases carefully.
by Mike Gleicher on April 13, 2013
Now Project 2 is really underway. But that doesn’t mean that class content ends. Although, we’ll slow it down a little bit so you can stay focused on Projects.
We’ll stop having Friday lectures. On Friday 5/10, we’ll do project demos. But no Friday lecture on 4/19, 4/25, or 5/3. We may have project meetings.
For readings this week, I am not giving you any. However: you need to do some of your project readings. For both Monday and Wednesday you need to read a paper related to your project. (remember, reading and summarizing papers is part of your project). Read a paper for class each day. Don’t be surprised if I ask you in class what paper you read.
For lectures this week…
- Monday, April 15th – I’ll talk about more physics stuff (including constraints and reduced coordinates). And maybe Kalmann filters if we have time. Remember, that your project 1 plan is due. Also, be sure to read a paper for your project before class.
- Wednesday, April 17th – I’ll talk about some topic that you don’t need to do a reading for. Maybe filmmaking. And don’t forget to read a project related paper.
- Friday, April 19th – No class. For the project “checkpoint” I want everyone to send me an email saying what they’ve done for their project.
I will be available during office hours (11am Tuesday), or on Thursday and Friday (by appointment – send me email) if you want to talk about projects.