multimedia authoring


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Multimedia Authoring I -- requirements

VRML

authors

Multimedia Authoring I -- VRML/Web3D course

Objectives

By the end of the course students will have been introduced to the ideas of virtual reality, and will have a working knowledge of VRML and Java script, and able to design 3D multimedia virtual world on the Web.

Prerequisites

Essential: HTML, Introduction to Multimedia. Desirable: Java Programming.

Approach

We will strive for a thematic approach, that is introduce the modeling principles and technologies underlying VRML by means of motivating examples. We will also indicate the relation of VRML to other formalisms and computation mechanisms that inhabit te Web, Java, Javascript, HTML and XML. Each example will be accompanied by an explanation of the constructs used, and a dissection of the points of interest.

The main focus will be on the practical work of the students. They will have to make a number of assignments and give a presentation at the end of the course. The course will be completed by an oral exam.

Course structure

  1. Introduction -- principles and applications of VR, basic geometry and links (both ways) to HTMLpages.
    Concepts: geometry, translation, viewpoints
    Example: product demo with HTML interface
  2. Animating objects -- sensors, interpolators, the event-model and basic scripting
    Concepts: routing and activation
    Example: coloring objects, replacing interpolator with scripts
  3. Structuring 3D space -- transforms, groupings and abstractions (i.e. protos), possibly including appearance, background and lights.
    Concepts: cascading transforms
    Example: showroom, or product demo
  4. Animating viewpoints -- avatars and viewpoints
    Concepts: vrml programming model
    Example: the bus, pushable crates
  5. Towards immersive virtual worlds -- the (blaxxun) HUD node, more sensors, the RIF interaction gadgets
    Concepts: navigation and interaction
    Example: the emotion disc
  6. Complex geometry -- advanced geometric nodes, authoring issues, creation from script, vrmlgen?
    Concepts: vrml authoring
    Example: elements from lego world?
  7. The future of VR(ML) -- the EAI, X3D, agent guides, information retrieval
    Concepts: creating advanced worlds
    Example: navigation by query

Remarks:

Note: care must be taken that a suffient part of the (annotated) reference manual is treated, in such a way that the students can do their practical assignments

Material

Due to the lack of suitable, up-to-date, material, we will develop our own syllabus

Assignments -- weekly

suggesties

  1. simple world -- basic geometry, positioning, colors
  2. simple animation -- pendulum, bouncing ball, or flying objects
  3. complex realistic scene -- building (outdoor) or gallery (indoor)
  4. guided tour -- on campus, in museum, or product demo (based on example world, e.g. VU Campus)
  5. simple game -- pong, tic-tac-toe, memory
  6. eind opdracht
  7. eind opdracht
  8. eind opdracht

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