MONASH UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
HONOURS YEAR, COMPUTER SCIENCE

CSE450 : Procedural modelling, animation
& artificial life in computer graphics

Assignment Notes

Specifications:

Landscape has played an important part in Western Art over the last few centuries and in Eastern Art over many centuries prior. In Australia, our culture, both indiginous and colonial, has been inseparably linked to the unique landscape within which we find ourselves. The aim of this project is to produce your own animated Australian landscape image, influenced by the samples illustrated below.

Albert Namatjira The Finke River Gorge at entrance to Glen Helen c.1945-53 Watercolour & gouache over pencil on thick wove paper. Queensland Art Gallery	Arthur STREETON Near Heidelberg 1890 oil on canvas Felton Bequest, 1943. Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia	Tom ROBERTS Slumbering sea, Mentone 1887 oil on canvas. Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia	Alan DORIN The Grampians, 2005 Digital Photograph (Insert your own photograph here - see below)

Adapt the techniques discussed in lectures to model the landscape in one of the images above. If you have taken a photograph of the Australian landscape that you would like to use as a model, you may do so. Please show the image to the lecturer for his approval before proceeding.

You might consider using a fractal technique to model rocks and mountains, a graftal or L-system to model the trees, and a Cellular Automata model to animate ripples on the water. Perhaps particle systems or procedural texturing could be employed to generate grass and a simple noise pattern textured onto a sky-dome to make clouds or moving mist. The image you select will to some extent determine the most suitable modelling techniques. For the best effects, carefully choose your colours (sample them from your chosen image) and lighting (consider the time of day, position and effective colour of the sun, as well as the relative amounts of direct sunlight and ambient or diffused light).

All your code should be written in C or C++ and should run under a UNIX (or derivative) operating system. It should produce a numbered sequence of model files for rendering. Visualize your animated model by rendering the sequence of model files using a stand-alone free/share-ware renderer such as POV-Ray. (It is worth scanning the POV-Ray gallery and Hall-of-Fame for ideas on how to use the modelling primitives the software can handle to generate landscapes containing rocks, water, skies, light sources etc. Note that you will only be marked on phenomena that you have modelled yourself. For instance, if you use the POV-Ray noise generator as a texture, you will not receive marks as if you had implemented the noise generator yourself. You may still receive "bonus" marks for the final look of your images as indicated below.) Use a free/share-ware package to assemble your still frames into a Quicktime or AVI movie file. There is no need to make your animation images very large. As long as everything is clearly visualized small file sizes are welcome!

The marking guide below is not meant to be prescriptive. Choose the features of an image above that most interest you and model them as appropriate. You will need to research modelling techniques. This will involve reading papers and books, not just the WWW and the lecture notes. Prepare a bibliography document detailing the references you have consulted in the course of your research. Write a paragraph describing the contents of each reference you have consulted. The paragraph should be specific about what the reference contained that was of value (or not) for your assignment.

Marking breakdown:

Stationary features: rocks, mountains or eroded riverside	[30%]
Animated features: water, clouds, swaying trees etc.	[30%]
Extras: (be creative) flocking birds, swarming flies, chimney smoke, sea spray, lightning strikes	[30%]
Bibliography: should include annotations and evidence that you have visited a library	[10%]
Bonus: the best images may receive some bonus marks	up to 5

 

Submission Details:

The assignment is due at the time specified on the main page.

Submit all of the files specified below on a CD-ROM clearly labelled with your name and ID number. Submissions will be accepted at the General Office on the ground floor of building 75 only.

You will need to include the following in your submission:

• The complete source code required to create the program(s).
• Makefile's whose default targets build the executable.
• A movie file (or two separate movie files if you prefer) showing the animated landscape.
• A couple of still images that show off the details of your work.
  
  It is OK if the still images are taken from the animation, but you might like to render them at a larger size than your animation if you feel that the intricacies of your model are lost in the small animation frame sizes.

Documentation is important. Marks are allocated within each section for the research you have done. Documentation submitted should include:

• Information as to what was completed. (1 paragraph at the most!)
• The annotated bibliography (see above)
• Brief instructions on how to run the program
• Adequate comments in the source code

Each file of your source code must contain the follwing at the top:

 /* 
  * This software is the original work of <Your Full Name>. ID: <Your ID> 
  * This software is submitted in partial fulfillment of the 
  * requirements for the degree of <Your Degree>, 
  * Monash University
  */ 

You are encouraged to consult reference material as widely as possible, but remember the code you write MUST be your own work. Make sure you think about, and understand, the processes involved rather than blindly copying the work of others.

Please be realistic about what you can achieve given the time constraints. Students invariably spend far too much time on this assignment. As much fun as it is, any time above 50 hours would be better spent on other activities. (e.g. fishing in the Monash pond)

Late assignments will incur mark penalties according to the Fibonacci sequence multiplied by a lecturer-determined scaling factor (eg 0.5, 1 or 100). An assignment that is one day late will receive a one mark penalty multiplied by the scaling factor. Assignments two days late will receive a 2 mark penalty, three days late, 3 marks, each multiplied by the factor. The sequence is [1],1,2,3,5,8,13,21... (times the factor). This applies for all days including public holidays and weekends so please submit your assignments punctually!

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