CS 395T - Advanced Image Synthesis

Final Project

Proposal Due: November 1, 2011
Demos Due: December 1, 2011, in class
Write-up Due: December 9, 11:59 pm, 2011

Your final project is to produce a realistic image of a real object or scene. The scene or object should be challenging enough to require you to design and implement an advanced rendering algorithm. The final project is your chance to investigate an area that interests you in more depth, and to showcase your creativity. To get an idea of what is expectated, check out the images produced by similar classes at Stanford.

Think about the following when choosing a project:

Possible Projects:

Here are some examples of challenging projects:

Resources

Your main task should be to implement cool rendering algorithms, rather than spending all of your time modeling a complex scene. However, you do need to provide pbrt with a scene to render! Check the RenderMan resources page for info about the RIB file format. You can convert this file form to a pbrt scene file using the utility rib2pbrt. Unfortunately the Blue Moon tools listed there are no longer available.

Project Proposal

As a first step you should write a one page project proposal. Make it a web page and email me the URL. See due dates at top of this page.

The proposal should contain a picture of a real object or scene that you intend to reproduce. I suggest that you first pick something that you would like to simulate, and then investigate what techniques need to be used. A real object that you can carry around with you is best, but a good photograph or painting is almost as good.

The proposal should state the goal of your project, motivate why it is interesting, identify the key technical challenges you will face, and outline briefly your approach. If you are implementing an algorithm described in a particular paper, provide the reference to the paper. If you plan on collaborating with others, briefly describe how each person's piece relates to the others.

I will provide feedback as to whether I think your idea is reasonable, and also try to offer some technical guidance, e.g. papers you might be interested in reading.

Turning it in

When you are finished with your project you should email me the URL of a web page containg: the source for your system, any test scenes and images that you have created, your original project proposal, and an updated version that reads as a two to three page project summary, more or less of the same format as the project proposal, but with a brief results section and any conclusions or comments you have based on your experience.

Grading

The final project will count 1/2 (or more, if based on my judgement, the project is truly outstanding) towards your final grade in the course. I will consider strongly the novelty of the idea (if it's never been done before, you get lots of credit), your technical skill in implementing the idea, and the quality of the pictures you produce. Mega-lines of code does not make a project good.