Computer Graphics Students Demo Final Projects
Students expressed creativity and ingenuity in the design of interactive computer graphic scenes
Combining art, science, engineering, and the psychology of human perception and interaction, computer graphics involves the creation and manipulation of visual content used in applications ranging from animation to architecture, biomedical imaging to video games, computational photography to virtual reality.
In computer graphics, rasterization is the process of projecting 3D shapes onto the 2D plane displayed on your screen. The 3D shapes, made up of folded triangles called a mesh, appear smoother and more detailed based on the number of triangles and corresponding vertices that map a point in 3D space.
To meet the project’s technical parameters, CS 351 students were required to incorporate two models, an animation, user interaction functionality, a lighting element that mimics the behavior of the sun or modulates color tones, and one additional feature. Beyond that, students were free to experiment with form and express their creativity and ingenuity.
“I have been truly delighted with the amount of creativity and ownership that the students have shown,” said Geisler, assistant professor of instruction in computer science at the McCormick School of Engineering. “I am so impressed with how much thought and personality was put into projects this quarter.”
Shreya Sridhar drew inspiration from the Disney movie Tangled. Her animated magic flower only appears in the center of the scene when you move close to it. If you're too far away, it becomes invisible, representing the lore that the magic flower should only be found by those who know where to look for it.
Sridhar, a fourth-year student pursuing a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science, appreciated CS 351 as a creative outlet at the intersection of art and computer science. Classmate Anthony Milas shared her sentiment.
“My favorite part of this project is how creative we could be, and the end result became something of an art piece,” said Milas, a third-year student double majoring in computer science and theatre.
Milas built “Robot in Paradise,” a robot with movable arms and a rotating propeller standing near a forest of trees and rocks. By adjusting the program’s “camera angle,” the user can control the graphic’s field-of-view and perspective. Milas programmed the ability to adjust the color of the light from natural to hues of blue and purple.
“This project pushed my technical skills, as everything you see on screen is made from scratch,” Milas said. “It may just look like a few rocks and trees and a robot, but to get to that point, I had to implement the correct linear algebra calculations that would project a simulated 3D environment onto a 2D screen.”
Intro to Computer Graphics students explore topics including linear algebra geometry, 3D camera motion, model and mesh construction, mathematical 3D animation, and rasterized lighting techniques. Geisler aims to help students become comfortable with the technical and conceptual details of manipulating low-level graphics systems.
“I want students to walk away from this class feeling that they could build their own animation, rendering system, or game engine from scratch using WebGL/OpenGL, or would at least know where to start,” Geisler said.