This is the most fun part of the course: making your own digital special effects video!
 
  Project Showcase

Previous Student Projects:
2004 Projects
2005 Projects
2007 Projects
2008 Projects

You will form project teams of 2 to 3 students each. This should be done as early as possible. After forming a project team, you will proppose a title and the storyline of the video. Then, you will work on the project and submit progress reports. Finally, you will produce a video of not more than 1 minute of the story with the specical effect that you've produced, and another video of not more than 3 minutes about how you create the special effect (i.e., "The Making Of ..." video).

Important Notes:
Your effect video should focus on one significant special effect.
     It should last no more than 1 minute.
Your effect video must include real-life scenes and/or objects. That is, it must not be entirely
    computer animation.
Computer animation, if any, must interact with real-life objects seamlessly and realistically.
Audio effects, music, dialog, etc. are not required, but you may include them to make the
    effect more captivating. Audio effects are not assessed.
Plan your live shooting session such that you can shoot for both the effect and "The Making
     Of ..." video at the same time. This will save you precious time.
"The Making Of ..." video should last no more than 3 minutes.
  Project Ideas:
A novel special effect that has not appeared anywhere.
A novel special effect that is produced with the help of algorithms that you develop.
    Bonus will be given to projects that involve the development of algorithms to create the effect.
Improvement of a special effect in a commercially produced video.

Caution:
Your video should not depict deliberate violence, sexual content, racist content,
     and other anti-social themes.

Project Outputs, Deadlines, and Grading Criteria:

Project proposal: 6th week

     Submit proposed project plan including

  • Title of effect video
  • Project team members
  • The Effect:
    • A 1-line description of the effect to be achieved.
      (You should focus on doing one significant effect instead of many mediocre effects.)
    • A short description of how you think the effect may be achieved.
  • The Story:
    • A short description of the plot or story line that makes the effect interesting and captivating.
    • A storyboard of the story line. The storyboard should include information about camera moves and shots.
  • Production Ideas:
    • A short description of how to achieve the effect and what techniques are needed to achieve the effect.
  • Roles of team members
  • Schedule
Project progress update 1: 8th week
     Submit progress update, including changes and update of project plan, what has been done,
     what are the difficulties remaining, how you plan to overcome the difficulties, etc.

     Include some images or videos of work done.

Project progress update 2: 11th week
     As for project progress update 1

Evaluation Criteria for Project Proposal and Project Progress Updates
  • Effective use of storyboard to plan the story and the special effect.
  • Feasibilitiy of the project plan.
  • Effectivemess of project execution.
Project Presentation and Demo: 13th week
      Novelty of Effect:
            Is the effect totally novel or commonplace in many movies?
             Alternatively, is your effect a significant improvement over a commercially produced
            effect?

      Technical Innovation:
             Creation of special effects by
             - innovative use of existing methods and software tools, or
             - development of new algorithms, or both.
             Teams that develop new algorithms will be awarded bonus points.

      Visual Realism:
             The special effect produced should look realistic and believable.
             (You should pay attention to physical details.)

      Artistic Creativity:
             Interesting story, plot, use of camera shots, etc. to enhance the special effects to
             capture the viewers' attention.

      Effectiveness of "The Making Of ..." video:
             How well does "The Making Of ..." video explain the main ideas behind the creation of
             your special effect?
  Project Grading Weightage (60% of final grade)

Project Proposal
3%
Progress Report 1
3%
Progress Report 2
3%
Novelty of Effect
8%
Technical Innovation
15%
Visual Realism
15%
Artistic Creativity
8%
Effectiveness of "The Making Of ..." video
5%
Total
60%

 

Project Presentation Format
Each project group will present your project in a 45-min time slot:
     30 minutes to present your work + 10 minutes for question answering.

     Project Presentation Schedule

Every member of a group must present and answer questions. We suggest that each member
     presents the part that you are most familiar with.

Your presentation should include the following (not necessarily in this order):
     Briefly explain the storyline and the main effect featured in your video.
     Explain how you achieve the main effect.
     Summarize the explanation in "The Making Of ..." video.
     Show the effect video.

     Comments:
     - You may use slides for your presentation if your making-of video does not contain sufficient
       information.
     - You should point out the novelty, innovation, and creativity in your effect to the instructors.

The format of the special effect video and "The Making Of ..." video should be MPEG-2.
     If you have avi video files, please convert them to MPEG-2 for submission.

Submission will be done during presentation.

The effect video, "The Making Of ..." video, and the optional slides will be regarded as
     your final project report.

The project presentation is open to all students. In fact, we encourage you to watch other
     students' presentations. This way, you can judge for yourself how good is your project work
     compared to other students' project work.
  

Last updated: 21 Feb 2008