APO - Spring'09 - Semester Project

The semester project consists of a research and programming project that should be worked on during the whole duration of the course. This more or less corresponds to a 1.5 months period. To do the semester projects students have to form teams of 2 people (teams of 1 or 3 people can also be accepted, but please, consult me first). Each team chooses/designs one project to work on. The project topic is up to the team, it can be anything you like. The only constraint on the project is that is has to have something to do with animation of deformable objects. Of course, it has to be approved by me ...

A few ideas ...

If you don't have an idea on your own (namely, an interesting problem to solve), you can do one of the following things:
* Identify an area of animation you like, a technique you have seen during the course, a paper you think is interesting. The project can then be to implement this particular technique and extend it to achieve some particular goal.
* Implement an existing algorithm on the GPU (if you have some knowledge on GPU programming a priori 'cause this won't be covered by the course). Extend and modify the existing algorithm to achieve better results or better performances.
* Implement an existing algorithm under the form of a Maya plugins (can be 3ds of course). Extend and modify the existing algorithm to make it Maya compatible and usable in the software.
* I will also accept more artistic contributions in the form of a short animation movie. Note that the objects or characters used have to be modeled by you, the story has to be yours as well. Aim for a movie roughly between 1 and 5 minutes length. Try to use a maximum of cutting-edge and different techniques. Implement fancy plugins or MEL scripts. Examples of last year's projects can be found on the APO'08 webpage.

Project Proposal - Deadline 1st of April 2009

The project proposal has to be written in English and should not exceed 2 pages (the shorter, the clearer, the better !). You should send those proposals (.pdf preferred) by email. The proposal should include:
* A title clearly expressing the content of the project
* The names and emails of all participants
* A brief introduction to the area of the project
* Specific goals (must include all deliverables)
* Approaches and algorithms to be used
* Resources to be used (data, programming tools or applications).
* A plan how to achieve the goals and evaluate the project results.
* Work distribution among the students on the team and a rough timetable.

Project Realisation - Roughly from 1st of April until the 15th of May 2009

You are free to use whatever developing environment you feel comfortable with. However, here is a list of nice pieces of software you may want to use:
* Maya (for artistic projects or plugins writing)
* C/C++ with OpenGL or Java Applets
* Qt (www.trolltech.com) for interfaces
* libQGLViewer if you need a trackball (lib is here)

Project Report - Deadline 1st of June 2009 (actas de Mayo) -- 1st of July 2009 (actas de Junio) DEADLINES WILL NOT BE EXTENDED !!!

The report should be written in English language, like a scientific publication (take any SIGGRAPH paper to have a reference).

Formatting guidelines

The report should be no longer than 8 pages in two-column format. You can find Word and Latex templates on the ACM template webpage.

Report Contents

1. Abstract
2. General introduction to the area and description of the problems addressed (experimented with or solved)
3. Description of related previous work and motivation of you approach (why is it interesting ?, how is it different from previous work ? )
4. Descriptions of the approaches and algorithms used to solve the problems (this is the most important part of the report)
5. Descriptions of the software applications used or the programs implemented or results (depending of what you think is necessary to detail). If you tried some technique and it did not work, show the results and explain why it did not work.
6. Conclusion and Future Work

Note that if your final project is a movie and you did not solve a special problem, section 3 does not need to describe any previous work.

The report should be handed to me together with one or more images or videos (if applicable, but remember this is an animation course), and an executable of your program (or source code with instructions on how to compile it).

Project Presentation - During the summer 2009

If you are interested, we can arrange an extra session for you to present your projects in front of the class.

Grading

The project grading will be based on the project results and on the completeness (see the requirements), comprehensibility and quality of presentation of the project reports. All students on one project team will get the same grade. This grade will account for 50% of the total grade for BLOQUE 2 of the APO course.

Grading of the class

Theory 50%: 10% Quizzes, 10% Homework, 30% Final exam
Poject 50%: 5% Proposal, 10% Report, 35% Results
The final exam in June replaces the entire theory grade.