CS 488/688: Introduction to Computer Graphics
Winter 2022
Welcome to the home page for CS488/688, the introductory computer graphics course in the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. This course focuses on 3D graphics, although it does discuss some aspects of user interface design.
Course logistics for Winter 2022
- Instructor
- Gladimir V. G. Baranoski
gvgbaran@uwaterloo.ca
Office hours: Virtual office hours to be held on Fridays at 5PM ET. - Teaching Assistants
- Xiang Fang
x2fang@uwaterloo.ca
Office hours: Virtual office hours to be held on Mondays at 3PM ET. - Spencer Van Leeuwen
srvanlee@uwaterloo.ca
Office hours: Virtual office hours to be held on Wednesdays at 2PM ET. - Virtual Office Hours
- For the Winter 2022 term, office hours will be provided virtually by the course staff.
- Lab
- The Undergraduate Graphics Lab will be unavailable at the beginning of the Winter 2022 term.
- Course Outline
- The course outline contains general information about the course, including the marking scheme.
- CS 488/688 Course Notes
- Available as a downloadable PDF.
- Required Reading Materials
- Every week, the instructor will release required reading materials equivalent to the contents covered in two traditional lectures in previous terms. The contents equivalent to one lecture will be released on Mondays, and the contents equivalent to another lecture will be released on Wednesdays. These materials will be released in the password protected course Lessons website whose access credentials will be provided in an announcement on Learn.
- Getting help
- We are using Piazza for questions and discussions of assignment-related material. You should have been signed up at the start of the term. If you have enrolled late in the course, you will need to contact the course staff for access to our Piazza forum. Any lecture-related questions will be addressed in the instructor's office hours.
Winter 2022 Assignments
- Please read our additional notes regarding assignment completion and submission. These notes may help you avoid losing marks unnecessarily.
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Assignment 0: Warmup
Due Thursday, January 20 at 8:00 AM ET -
Assignment 1: OpenGL
Due Thursday, February 3 at 8:00 AM ET -
Assignment 2: Pipeline
Due Thursday, February 17 at 8:00 AM ET -
Assignment 3: Puppet
Due Thursday, March 10 at 8:00 AM ET -
Assignment 4: Trace
Due Thursday, March 24 at 8:00 AM ET -
Assignment 5: Animation
Due Monday, April 4 at 8:00 AM ET
For Winter 2022, alternative specifications are provided for A5.
Example animations from previous students are provided here. The credentials for the lessons website are required to access the examples.
The declaration statement for A5 can be found here.
Winter 2022 Quizzes
- Quizzes may be accessed via Learn during the availability periods specified below. Guidelines for taking the quizzes will be released in the password protected course Lessons website whose access credentials will be provided via Learn.
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Quiz 0
Wednesday, January 26 (10 AM - 6 PM ET) -
Quiz 1
Wednesday, February 9 (10 AM - 6 PM ET) -
Quiz 2
Wednesday, March 2 (10 AM - 6 PM ET) -
Quiz 3
Wednesday, March 16 (10 AM - 6 PM ET) -
Quiz 4
Wednesday, March 30 (10 AM - 6 PM ET)
Winter 2022 Examination Integrity Statements
- During the Winter 2022 term, students will be required to submit two integrity statements for the examination component of the course: one for the quizzes and one for the final assessment. Guidelines for the submission of these integrity statements will be released in the password protected course Lessons website whose access credentials will be provided via Learn.
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Quizzes Integrity Statment
Due Wednesday, January 26 at 10:00 AM ET
Note: As stated in the course outline, students that do not submit a valid integrity statement by the specified deadline will lose 50% of the total marks obtained in all their quizzes. Moreover, without the submission of the aforementioned quizzes integrity statement, students will not be allowed to access the quizzes. -
Final Assessment Integrity Statement
Final Assessment Guidelines, including the integrity statement deadline, will be announced via Learn on Tuesday, April 5.
Additional Resources
- The website open.gl is a great starting point for programming in modern OpenGL, featuring a sequence of well written tutorials.
- See also the longer sequence of tutorials at learnopengl.com, which go into more detail about specific topics.
- Song Ho Ahn also has a number of useful tutorials that explain concepts in 3D computer graphics, especially as related to the OpenGL graphics pipeline.
- Visit docs.gl for the best OpenGL API reference.
- You might also want to look at Terence's OpenGL tutorial slides.