Computer-generated images and videos now permeate our daily life. From the entertainment industry (e.g., movies and video games) to the healthcare industry (e.g., 3D ultrasound imaging); from your computing desktop (e.g., displaying a window) to graphing calculator (e.g., plotting a line), computer graphics algorithms are in action to decide what pixel value to display onto the screen, based on the underlying model of the "world" and the mathematics and science of geometry, light, color, and mechanics.
PRIMARIES
The primaries of this focus area consist of five modules, tied together with the introductory module CS3241 Computer Graphics. CS3241 exposes students to fundamental computer graphics terminology, concepts, and rendering techniques. At the end of CS3241, students are expected to be able to develop simple 2D and 3D interactive graphics software.
There are two paths that students can take after CS3241. Students who wish to go deeper into the techniques of computer graphics modeling and rendering can take CS3242 3D Modelling and Animation and CS4247 Graphics Rendering Techniques. CS3242 covers computational modeling of objects, including lighting and animation. CS4247 delves deeper into the modern rendering techniques, including those that enable fast and photo-realistic rendering of objects.
The other path within this focus area provides students with a more application-oriented view of computer graphics, and cater for students who wish to pursue a career in the computer gaming industry. CS3247 Game Development builds on top of the computer graphics fundamentals and augments that with other knowledge that is necessary to develop computer games (such as artificial intelligence, design issues, audio). Students taking CS3247 are expected to continue on and take CS4350 Game Development Project, growing their homework in CS3247 into full-featured computer games.
ELECTIVES
Students who are interested in this focus area may also be interested in the related modules listed as electives in this area.
- CS4351 Real-Time Graphics and CS5343 Advanced Computer Animation serve as follow-up to CS3241 and CS3242 respectively, covering advanced techniques for rendering, modeling, and animation.
- Computational geometry is fundamental to computer graphics. Students who wish to study this topic further may take CS5237 Computational Geometry and Applications to gain a deeper understanding.
- Students keen on developing games on the mobile platform can consider taking CS3218 Multimodal Processing in Mobile Platforms.
- Designing a friendly and intuitive interface for interaction and for accessing game information is key to a successful game. Students who wish to learn about the area of human-computer interaction can pursue a series of three modules offered: CS3240 Interaction Design, CS3249 User Interface Development, and CS4249 Phenomena and Theories of HCI.
- A discipline closely related to computer graphics is computer vision. While the computer graphics deal with the synthesis of 2D images from 3D data; in computer vision, we often try to recover/infer 3D information from 2D data. Two modules relevant to this area are CS4243 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition and CS5240 Theoretical Foundation of Multimedia.