Computer Animation
| Module | INF-MSc-522 |
| Lecture | Wed, 10-12, OH16 205 |
| Exercise | Wed, 08-10, OH16 205 |
| Lecturer | Mario Botsch |
| Tutor | Sven Wagner |
| Evaluation | Previous course evaluation |
Since Prof. Botsch became Dean of the CS Department and has reduced teaching capabilities, this course will be offered in an inverted-classroom style in winter 2026/2027. You will get pre-recorded lecture videos on the weekend and are assumed to watch them until Wednesday. In the lecture and exercise time slots on Wednesday, there will be a short recap of the lecture material, Q&A, quizzes, and the usual theory/programming exercises, all given by Sven Wagner.
Content
Computer Animation is an attractive subfield of computer graphics, where “boring” static objects are brought to life. In this lecture, we will cover two types of animation: character animation and physics-based simulation:
- In character animation, virtual characters are animated using an embedded skeleton, which can be controlled either through user interaction (inverse kinematics) or by capturing and transferring the movements of an actor (motion capture).
- Secondary animation effects, such as the motion of clothing and hair, are computed using dynamic physics simulations of material properties and forces. In the lecture, we will simulate a variety of physical effects, ranging from simple particles to rigid bodies, deformable bodies and surfaces, and even fluids.
Typical application areas of these methods include realistic special effects in movies, and increasingly (thanks to growing computational power) physical effects in interactive applications and computer games. Unlike structural mechanics, our primary goal here is not numerical accuracy, but rather the efficient and robust computation and implementation.
In the exercises, most of the topics covered in the lecture will be implemented and thus put into practice. This takes place in the form of five mini-projects, each with about three weeks of processing time.
Prerequisites
- Good working knowledge in math (linear algebra, calculus) are required.
- The basic course “Computer Graphics” is recommended, but not strictly required.
- The programming assignment will be done in C++. We will have a C++ crash course in the beginning.
Material
- The interactive HTML slides can be accessed here. Credentials for accessing the slides will be communicated via LSF/Moodle.
- Video recordings of the lectures will be embedded into the HTML slides.
- At the end of the semester, slides and recordings will be available as one big Electron app.
- The course makes use of the following excellent course notes:
- Witkin, Baraff, Physically Based Modeling, SIGGRAPH 2001 Course.
- Müller, Stam, James, Thürey, Real Time Physics, SIGGRAPH 2008 Course.
- Bridson, Müller, Fluid Simulation, SIGGRAPH 2007 Course.
- Adams, Wicke, Meshless Approximation Methods, Eurographics 2009 Course.
- For a broader overview we recommend the following books:
- Eberly, Game Physics, Morgen Kaufmann, 2003.
- Erleben, Sporring, Henriksen, Dohlmann, Physics Based Animation, Charles River Media, 2005.