Offered: Spring Semester
[Course Link]
Official Course Description:
This course uses the technical foundations of knowledge attained in Graphics Programming I and expands these skills to include new techniques and technologies. Students get an introduction to advanced graphics topics including skeletal animation, ray tracing, lighting and surfaces. Projects are introduced to implement these important visual effects. The knowledge obtained will be assimilated and applied to a wide range of usages and application. Linear Algebra algorithms will be refreshed and/or introduced specific to the topic at hand.
Professor’s summary:
In this course, students explore the fundamental knowledge required to program 3D graphics. In the first half of the course, the fundamental math and GPU concepts utilized in 3D lighting and shading are introduced, explored, and implemented using OpenGL. In the second half of the course, advanced techniques including simple shadowing, skeletal animation, and vertex shaders are implemented in DirectX.
As a final project, students must research, implement, and present an advanced graphics technique.
Students should leave the course with a solid base in 3D graphics along with the knowledge and ability to dive deeper on their own.