COS 598D: Animation

Computer Science Department
Princeton University
Spring 2002

Instructors: Adam Finkelstein & Grady Klein

Hours: MW 1:30-2:50
Location: Friend Center Room 205: The Frank and Gail Ritrievi Seminar Room
(Just go into the library in the Friend Center, walk up the stairs to the 2nd floor, and turn left to head to the door of the classroom.)

This seminar will be about animation, focusing on the use of computers for animation, but also touching on aspects of traditional animation in a variety of media. Subjects we plan to cover include the production pipeline, artistic principles of animation, and graphics technology applicable to animation. We will investigate both off-line animation for creating movies and real-time animation for immersive environments. As part of the seminar, we will create and render animations using production tools such as Blender, Shake and RenderMan/BMRT.

Our goal is to bring together technical folks and people with backgrounds in the graphic and theatrical arts in a semester-long collaboration. This is listed as a graduate seminar but undergrads are also welcome. There are no pre-requisites.

If you are eager to start learning right now about computer animation and/or the tools mentioned above, have a look at the books on Adam's list of recommended books.