CMPT 888 G400 - Special Topics in Computer Graphics, HCI, Vision and Visualization: Computer Animation

(Spring 2018)

Introduction

Examines current research topics in computer animation, including but not limited to motion capture and motion editing, fluid animation, facial and hair animation, crowd simulation, full-body character animation, and animation methods using deep learning. This is a project-based course that aims to provide strong foundation on advanced computer animation methods and prepare students for research in animation, graphics, vision, HCI, and robotics related topics.

Prerequisite

Computer Graphics, Linear Algebra, Numerical Analysis, Multivariable Calculus, Data Structures and Algorithms, Fundamental Physics.

Course Staff

Principal Instructor: KangKang Yin
Guest Instructor:

Resources

The movie and game industry has strong presence in Vancouver:
Electronic Arts Atmosphere Sony Imageworks

Publication venues for animation research:
Siggraph Eurographics SCA Motion in Games CHI Pacific Graphics I3D

Some cool confereces you wanna check out:
GDC GTC

Course Schedule (tentative, subject to changes, check regularly)

We have changed the class location and meeting time for the convenience of all registered students. The classes are held on Mondays/Fridays 1:30-2:45 at TASC1 8002 (the seminar room between computer vision and Gruvi lab). Office hours: Fridays 2:35-3:35pm in TASC1 8015..
This is a project-based course, and there is no exam.
Lecture notes will be available before classes. Please do not circulate the notes electronically, however, as I don't have time to contact the original authors for all the images and videos I use. We need to follow the fair use principles.
Evaluation and Grading: Class Participation: 10%; Paper Presentations: 40%; Project Proposal: 10%; Project Presentation: 10%; Final Project: 30%.

*Date*	*Topics*	*Assignments*	*Related Links*
Jan 3	Introduction to Computer Animation		Siggraph on YouTube Graphics Papers on the Web Graphics Gems
Jan 5	Traditional Animation and Interpolation		Principles of traditional animation The cartoon animation filter
Jan 8	3D Rotations		Practical parameterization of rotations Animating rotation with quaternion curves
Jan 12	Forward and Inverse Kinematics		Introduction to inverse kinematics Intuitive interactive human character posing FABRIK IKAN
Jan 15	Skeletal Animation and Motion Capture		CMUMocap SFUMocap
Jan 19	Physics-based Animation and Dynamics		Differential Equation Basics Particle System Dynamics Rigid Body Simulation I Rigid Body Simulation II Constrained Dynamics
Jan 22	Physics-based Character Animation and Control		Webots ODE PhysX Bullet DStar PhysBam Newton Animating human athletics LocoTest (paper and code)
Jan 26	Physics-based Character Animation and Control
Jan 29	Deformation and Soft Objects		Free-form deformation A survey of spatial deformation FEM
Feb 2	Facial Animation
Feb 5	Perception and Aesthetics
Feb 9	Fluid Animation / Project Discussion
Feb 12-16	reading break, no classes		Reinforcement Learning Deep Reinforcement Learning Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning The Theory of Everything deeplearning.net The DeepMind Control Suite and Package OpenAI Gym Roboschool
Feb 19	Paper Presentation/Discussion		Lin Yang Motion Graphs Motion Matching Anmol Sharma SIMBICON GENBICON
Feb 23	University closed due to heavy snow
Feb 26	Paper Presentation/Discussion		Axel Andersson SAMCON Improving SAMCON Peng Zhang Control Graphs Control Fragments Scheduling Using Deep Q-Learning
Mar 2	Paper Presentation/Discussion		Ravi Agrawal Deep Learning for Character Motion Synthesis PFNN for Character Control
Mar 5	Class Rescheduled
Mar 9	Project Proposal Presentation	Project Proposal Due	Everyone
Mar 12	Paper Presentation/Discussion		Peng Zhang
Mar 16	Paper Presentation/Discussion		Marshall Law DeepLoco Learning human behaviors by adversarial imitation
Mar 19	Paper Presentation/Discussion		Lin Yang Axel Andersson
Mar 23	Guest Lecture by Richard Zhang
Mar 26	Paper Presentation/Discussion		Anmol Sharma Ravi Agrawal
Mar 30	good friday, no class
Apr 2	easter monday, no class
Apr 6	No class; all project presentations merged to the last class
Apr 9	Project Presentaions	Project Due