This 3D Computer Animation course teaches the methods of animation and deformation of 3D shapes used in special effects, video games, and animated films, or more generally in animated and interactive virtual worlds.
Content
The course details procedural animation approaches as well as simulation methods for modeling physical phenomena. The course prepares students for a specialization in computer graphics, it prepares students to pursue technical development in R&D companies as well as research.
Applications illustrated in the assignments are mainly related to the field of entertainment (animated films, video games, virtual and/or augmented reality), or real-time simulation for modeling physical phenomena, but the underlying mechanisms can be applied in other disciplines (medical, biology, etc.).
Examples of topics discussed in the course and practical exercises: Implementing animation and interactive deformation of an articulated character, Modeling the deformation of a garment and managing collisions in real time, Simulating the surface of a moving fluid, etc.
Organization
The course is largely practice-oriented with lectures and TD/TP intermixed. The TD/TP are programming exercises in the machine room in C++ language, with OpenGL.
Syllabus:
- Procedural Animation
- Kinematics, keyframing
- Facial animation
- Articulated characters, Skinning
- Production Pipeline (cinéma, VFX)
- Physically-Based Simulation
- Simulation models (particles, rigid, continum)
- Elastic deformation, Cloth
- Fluids (grids and particles)
