COS 526 - Advanced Computer Graphics

Fall 2004

Final Project

A final project, completed individually or in groups of 2, is required for the course. You have two options:

1. Extend your path tracer to simulate more complex effects, such as refraction, atmospheric scattering, complex BRDFs, texture maps, bump maps, etc. Pick a real-world object, and use your system to produce a rendering or short animation that is as photorealistic as possible. See this page for inspiration. Note that most of your effort should be spent on modeling optical phenomena, not on geometric modeling. If you prefer, you may focus on generating an "artistic", nonphotorealistic result instead.
2. Implement your groundbreaking, earthshattering, SIGGRAPH-audience-aweing research ideas on any aspect of modeling, rendering, or animation. You should approach this systematically: formulate your goals, find out what previous work has been done in related areas, implement your new solutions, and evaluate their effectiveness.

What you have to do:

1. On Wednesday, Dec. 10, you will give a short (5-10 minute) presentation on your proposed project. Describe your goals, and give a short summary of the techniques you will implement.
2. On Monday, Jan. 12, you will give a (15 minute) presentation about your results. Describe your techniques, show off your pictures, bask in the admiration of your fellow students, etc.
3. On Tuesday, Jan. 13 (Dean's date), you will turn in a short (3-5 page) writeup about your work, together with your code and any images or animations you produced.

Your grade will be based on "technical merit", but there will be an informal art contest, where "artistic impression" will also be taken into account.