CS229 Final Project Details

Deadlines

Well before Nov 3: Set up an appointment to discuss final project ideas
Nov 3: Final project written proposals are due
Nov 6,8,10: Proposal presentations
Week of Nov 6: Set up an appointment to review proposal
Nov 13: Revised proposal due
Dec 13: Written reports due
Dec 15: Final presentations

Grading

10% - Proposal presentation (November 6,8,10)
20% - Proposal draft #2 (due November 13)
50% - Final writeup / content (December 13)
20% - Final presentation (December 15)

Final Project Proposals

All of the projects should have some algorithmic / technical content. In other words, they should involve some sort of algorithm or procedure for generating motion, preferably something we have touched on in class. Some of the projects may also include a substantial animation component, meant to express an idea or tell a story. For either type of project, your proposal should include the following information for the algorithmic portion of the work:

Goal of the project.
Background research / why the project is interesting.
Exactly what you plan to do.
Exactly how you plan to do it (algorithms, software).
Detailed timeline for completion, with intermediate deliverables.
Description of what you will be able to show for your proposal presentation.

Animation projects that involve telling a story should also include current storyboards in the proposal.

Final Project Presentations

Presentations will follow the proposals by one week. Each group will have approximately 10 minutes to present their project idea. The presentation should cover roughly the same ground as the proposal. Your goals are to get the rest of the class excited about your project, obtain early feedback from others in the class, and show that you have carefully thought out the steps involved in completing your project.

You should try to have some piece of the puzzle worked out to show the class. For an animation project, this might be the storyboard and some test images or animation. For a technical project, you might have coded up a "straw man" version of your project, one that pulls some of the pieces together, but does not involve a very clever algorithm.

Both the written proposal and the proposal presentation will form a portion of your grade for the final project.

Resources Available

If you will be working on a final project involving kinematics, dynamics, or motion capture data, one option you have is to extend one of the course projects.

For heavy-duty physics-related projects, software called SD/Fast, developed by Symbolic Dynamics is available for use. SD/Fast will compute dynamic equations of motion given a creature description. It will also take care of integrating those equations of motion forward in time. You "only" have to figure out torques at the joints and external forces to apply to create coordinated motion.

We have a few Maya licenses on machines in the graphics lab that will be available for groups that want to do full-blown animations.

If there is other software you would find useful for this course, let me know.

Ideas

Project ideas are here!

Nancy Pollard