You'll still be able to complete this class in a fully remote fashion (if desired) in Fall 2024 (similar to the prior 4 years). All in person activities are optional.

If you are looking for the Summer 2023 quarter website, then you can find it here!

CS 148 fulfills the General Education Requirements (GER) as a Ways of Thinking/Ways of Doing (WAYS) course in the Creative Expression (WAY-CE) area. To satisfy this category, students need to enroll under the Letter Grade grading option; the WAY-CE requirement is not met by the Credit/No Credit option.

The course grade will be 50% Homework and 50% Final Project. No exams!

Course Announcements

Summary

This is the introductory prerequisite course in the computer graphics sequence which introduces students to the technical concepts behind creating synthetic computer generated images. The beginning of the course focuses on using Blender to create visual imagery, as well as an understanding of the underlying mathematical concepts including triangles, normals, interpolation, texture mapping, bump mapping, etc. Then we move on to a more fundamental understanding of light and color, as well as how it impacts computer displays and printers. From this we discuss more thoroughly how light interacts with the environment, and we construct engineering models such as the BRDF and discuss various simplifications into more basic lighting and shading models. Finally, we discuss ray tracing technology for creating virtual images, while drawing parallels between ray tracers and real world cameras in order to illustrate various concepts. Anti-aliasing and acceleration structures are also discussed. The final class project consists of building out a ray tracer to create a visually compelling image. Starter codes and code bits will be provided here and there to aid in development, but this class focuses on what you can do with the code as opposed to what the code itself looks like. Therefore grading is weighted towards in person "demos" of the code in action - creativity and the production of impressive visual imagery are highly encouraged.

This is the first course in the computer graphics sequence at Stanford. Topics include: Scanline Rendering; Triangles; Rasterization; Transformations; Shading; Triangle Meshes; Subdivision; Marching Cubes; Textures; Light; Color; Cameras; Displays; Tone Mapping; BRDF; Lighting Equation; Global Illumination; Radiosity; Ray Tracing; Acceleration Structures; Sampling; Antialiasing; Reflection; Transmission; Depth of Field; Motion Blur; Monte Carlo; Bidirectional Ray Tracing; Light Maps.

Prerequisites:

• CS 107, MATH 51
• Must be fluent in Python.
• We will assume knowledge of the following mathematical topics
• Vectors, vector operations, and vector spaces
• Matrices
• Basic linear algebra, such as solving a system of linear equations

Meeting Times

• Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:00pm to 1:20pm at the NVIDIA Auditorium in the Huang Engineering Center.
• The class will be recorded for SCPD/CGOE on Canvas, as usual.
• All students (Stanford and SCPD/CGOE) can access the lecture live during the lecture times (as well as the recording afterward) through Canvas:
  • Log in to Canvas using your Stanford SUNet ID.
  • Navigate to the CS148 Fall 2024 page.
  • Look for and click on the "Panopto Course Videos" page.
  • The lecture live stream should start shortly before lecture time, and the recordings go up a few hours after processing.
  • Alternatively, here is the direct link to the course video page.

Staff

• Instructor
  • Ron Fedkiw
  • Office Hours: Most Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00pm to 2:00pm
    For 2024, to better address emergencies, Ron's office hours are by appointment, and he will send zoom invites.
  • * Ron's office hours are geared towards the lecture material and final projects; for homework help, we want students to get to know the CAs, as they'll be the ones grading.
• Head Course Assistant (CA)
  • Kevin Li: kevli@cs.stanford.edu
  • Contact for logistical questions, OAE letters, alternative grading sessions, etc.
• CA Office Hours: Refer to Canvas for the schedule and locations. Office hour changes and rescheduling will be announced on Ed.
• Course Assistants (CAs)
  • Dalton Omens: domens@stanford.edu
  • Yitong Deng: yitongd@stanford.edu
  • Manh Dao: manh08@stanford.edu
  • Cat Fergesen: catf@stanford.edu
  • Jimming He: jimming@stanford.edu
  • Bradley Hu: bradleyh@stanford.edu
  • Hannah Kim: hkim24@stanford.edu
  • Brenden Koo: brendenk@stanford.edu
  • Cole Lee: xintong@stanford.edu
  • Miranda Liu: mirliu@stanford.edu
  • Michael Maffezzoli: maff2023@stanford.edu
  • Gabriel Magana: gdmagana@stanford.edu
  • Hannah Norman: hnorman@stanford.edu
  • Labib Rahman: labib@stanford.edu
  • Abhinav Sinha: absinha@stanford.edu
  • Valerie Tang: wvtang@stanford.edu
  • Nicholas Vo: nickvo@stanford.edu
  • Minh Vu: minhavu@stanford.edu
  • Caroline Wang: carol23@stanford.edu
  • Polycarpos Yiorkadjis: polys@stanford.edu