CS667: Physics Based Rendering—Spring 2006

Announcements

24 January Welcome to CS667!

About CS667

Professor:
Steve Marschner, srm@cs.cornell.edu
    Office hours: TBA

Admin:
Kelly Patwell, patwell@cs.cornell.edu

Time and place:
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:55–4:10, 368 Hollister

Overview

This class covers that part of computer graphics, and especially rendering, that is based on physical models of the real world. The main problem areas we will look at are light transport, light reflection, and dynamics. Light transport is the fundamental rendering problem of modeling how light flows around in an environment and determining the equilibrium state that becomes a rendered image. Light reflection forms the boundary conditions for light transport: the challenge is to build practical computer models for how light interacts with the surfaces in the environment. We will also look at more recent work on translucent materials that is beginning to blur the lines between the traditionally distinct problems of transport and reflection. The third problem area is dynamics: applications of physics to compute very realistic animations of physical objects. We will focus on mass-spring systems and rigid bodies.

Coursework

The coursework consists of:

I expect to have students with a variety of backgrounds, so there will be flexibility in the work, and grades will take each student's starting point into account. In particular, I no longer consider CS467 a prerequisite for this class; CS465 or another basic graphics class that covers ray tracing, or equivalent experience, should be sufficient. A certain level of mathematical sophistication, particularly in probability and multivariable calculus, will be needed to make it through the Monte Carlo rendering and the physics.

Steve Marschner (srm@cs.cornell.edu)