CSE 373, Spring 2008 Belaid Moa Email : Belaid.Moa@qu.qa Phone: 556-1852

1. Introduction to Computer Graphics“Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.” Thomas Alva Edison CSE 373, Spring 2008 Belaid Moa Email : Belaid.Moa@qu.edu.qa Phone: 556-1852 Office : CSE 115

2. Agenda • First things first • How to study • My philosophy of teaching • Course Description, objectives, and tools • Course materials • Your feedback • Your Participation • More on Computer Graphics tools

3. First things First: How to Study • There are no such things as • “I am stupid. I can never understand this material” • “The others are smarter than me. I am just a loser.” • “My capacity is limited, and my brain can’t handle it.” • Everyone of us is capable of achieving anything given • Enthusiasm • Perseverance, especially in CG • Patience, especially in CG • Time organization • Suitable style of learning

4. First things First: How to Study • The killer of them all: Procrastination • Excuses for not studying and doing your homework: • “I can’t study now because I have to get a haircut.” • “I can’t do the project because I have other projects.” • “I can’t review the CS373 lectures because I have to review only for this coming exam.” • “It is Okay to leave things until the day of exam.” • The cure: • “Do not leave the work of today until tomorrow for tomorrow has its own work.” • Reward yourself: “After I am done with this, I should get a nice haircut.” • Start with things that you feel good at.

5. First things First: How to Study • How to be a good student • People think and learn differently: • Eyes: Visual learner • Ears: Auditory learner • Order: sequential learner • Images: global learner • Doing: kinesthetic learner • Find your own style of learning • Write sequential notes • Use mind-map technique • Draw images • Explain loudly the lecture to yourself • The read the lecture while walking • Write and run the code to see how things work

6. How to be a good student • Find your optimal style of learning • Do not miss a single lecture • Be active during the lecture: • Write notes • Ask questions • Study your notes • Just after the lecture • At least three times during the week of the lecture • Once after two weeks • Once after three weeks and so on • Organize your time • Do not over-study for a course at the expense of the other courses • Try to give each course an amount of time every day • Do not leave the review and the project until one day before the deadline • Do not procrastinate! • Use office hours as much as possible • Take time to sharpen your axe

7. My philosophy of teaching • Teach by following different styles: • Images and mind-maps • Analogies • Hands-on things • Asking questions: why, how, what, when, who • The theory behind things to achieve deep understanding of things • Be close to my students • Any student who does his best (see the previous slide) will pass

8. Course Description and objectives • Computer graphics is used in diverse applications: • Medical Imaging • Scientific Visualization of Complex data • Special effects in movies • Games • The main objective of this course is to introduce the programming principles of computer graphics, • Mathematical and theoretical foundations • Fundamental data-structures and algorithms for rendering and modeling. • Pipeline rendering and ray tracing • Game designing and programming • Software for Computer graphics: • OpenGL with C++ • OpenGL with Java • Java 3D and VRML • DirectX with C# • Pov-Ray • Lightwave

9. Beauty of Computer Graphics • Demo using POV-Ray • Demo using Lightwave • Demo using VRML

10. Course materials • Computer Graphics using OpenGL, F.S. Hill and S.M. Keelly (required textbook) • Interaction Computer Graphics A Top-Down Approach with OpenGL, E. Angel • OpenGL : A Primer, E. Angle • http://fly.cc.fer.hr/~unreal/theredbook/ • http://nehe.gamedev.net/ • Foundations of 3D Graphics Programming, J.X. Chen and E.J. Wegman • Course Webpage: everything will be available in here: http://faculty.qu.edu.qa/belaid.moa/

11. Your feedback • Teaching/learning is interactive • two-way communications • Let me know • what you think about lectures, projects, labs, exams, topics, … • What you want to know or probe further • You can reach me • in class, during office hours, by email/phone

12. Your participation

13. Project • The theory and practice projects were combined to produce only one project • Each project is composed of at most two students • In the case of two students, both of them are responsible for implementing and understanding the code. • The project has three milestones: • Shapes and colors • Texture and light • Animation and interaction

14. More on Computer Graphics tools • The students can choose any subset from the following tools: • OpenGL with C++ • JOGL (OpenGL with Java) • DirectX with C# or VB • POV-Ray • Java3D or VRML • In the lab, however, the instructor will only use OpenGL with a very small subset of C++