Autonomous Characters
Fall 2003
Tuesdays 3:00-5:50pm
Location: HIB335
Professor Bill Tomlinson
Email: wmt@uci.edu
Office: ICS 430A
Office Phone: (949) 824-9333
Office Hours: Thursdays 3-5pm. Please make appointment by email to confirm time and location (my office or HIB335).
This course is a hands-on introduction to the process of making real-time animated autonomous characters. Our goal is to build characters that are intelligent, complex, perceptive, expressive and social. The tools we will use to make these characters include computer programming, computer animation and concepts from the disciplines of autonomous agents, drama, human-computer interaction and film. In particular, we will focus on how to make these characters have some of the skills of human actors. This course will have a significant computer programming component, but is designed for students with no coding experience.
Date |
Topic |
Readings Due |
Assignments |
Sept 30 |
Introduction/ Animation |
|
|
Oct 2 |
Makeup class for Oct 7 – Coding/ Emotion |
Lasseter 87 (handout) Stein 03 Ch1 (link) |
|
Oct 7 |
No Class |
Picard 97 (handout) Wilson 99 (link) Stein 03 Ch 2 (link) |
Assignment 1 due (by email) |
Oct 14 |
Action Selection/Perception |
Burke 01 (link) Tomlinson 02 (link) Stein 03 Ch 3 (link) |
Assignment 2 due |
Oct 21 |
Attention/Sound |
Braitenberg 86 (handout) Acting reading (TBA) vectorpark (link) Stein 03 Ch 4 (link) |
Assignment 3 due |
Oct 28 |
Memory/Social (form teams, discuss needs for group project) |
Reeves 96 (handout) Bates 94 (handout) Stein 03 Ch 5 (link) |
Assignment 4 due |
Nov 4 |
Motor Control/Action Selection II |
Perlin 96 (link) Perlin Face Demo (link) Stein 03 Ch 6 (link) |
Final Project Part 1 due |
Nov 11 |
Cinematography/Interfaces |
Tomlinson 00 (link) Film pamphlet (handout) Stein 03 Ch 6 (link) |
Final Project Part 2 due |
Nov 18 |
Integration |
Reichardt 78 (handout) Stein 03 Ch 7 (link) |
Final Project Part 3 due |
Nov 25 |
Animation II |
Maestri 96 (handout) Stein 03 Ch 8 (link) |
|
Dec 2 |
Presentation of Final Project |
|
Final Project Part 4 Due |
Professor Tomlinson will bring the assignments and any handouts to class the week before they are due. In addition to doing the assignments, you are responsible for emailing a short paragraph about each reading to Professor Tomlinson BEFORE class that week. These summaries should demonstrate that you have understood the content of each reading.
Handouts:
Links:
Four Assignments @ 10% = 40%
One Final Project (four sub-parts) @ 40% = 40%
One paragraph description of each reading we do = 10% (total)
Class Participation = 10%
HIB 335
Hours: http://www.arts.uci.edu/admin/technology/facilities/artslab/schedule/fall03/hib335.html
May also work in the ArtsLab, Studio 4 Room 104
Hours:
http://www.arts.uci.edu/admin/technology/facilities/artslab/schedule/fall03/artslab.htm
When working on UCI systems, you are bound by the UCI Computer and Network Use Policy: http://www.policies.uci.edu/adm/pols/714-18.html
The code base, models, animations and other materials that we will be using in this course belong to MIT and to Bill Tomlinson, and may be used only for purposes of to this course. Please contact Professor Tomlinson if you have questions regarding these issues.
These are guidelines intended to help students plan their work in this course. However, the instructor reserves the right to make changes over the course of the quarter.