Here is some general information about computer graphics courses at Cal Poly. Please follow the course links for more detailed information. We have a very healthy program related to computer graphics. See the related recent article in the Cal Poly magazine.
In addition, you may want to check out the Computing for Interactive Arts minor.
Graphics related courses (note that all courses are taught in OpenGL and student's are encouraged to use C++, but C is accepted), occasionally projects in Direct X are allowed:
CSC/CPE 471, Introduction to Computer Graphics
CPE/CSC 473, Advanced Rendering Techniques
CSC 474, Animation
CPE/CSC 476, Real-Time 3D Computer Graphics Software Systems
CSC 570/572, Computer Graphics (graduate course)
Other Cal Poly computer graphic's links:
Very short low res or high res video showcase of Cal Poly student work in computer graphics for 2007.
Cal Poly bio:
This course covers advanced rendering techniques such as global illumination, raytracing and shaders.
This course covers animation basics (interpolation, paths and curves) along with character animation basics and physically based animation basics.
This is a project focused class where student teams develop a large interactive entertainment software project (typically a computer game).
Students pick teams in the first week (teams of 4-8 people) and those teams work together all quarter to build as close to a real (single level) game as possible. Lecture material covers a deep understanding of the graphics pipeline with an eye on optimizing performance for real-time interaction with complex virtual worlds, shaders, multi-texturing, level of detail and graphics effects.
This is a graduate level computer graphics course typically focused on advanced topics in geometric modeling, rendering and animation. Students read and present SIGGRAPH papers and program various projects related to geometric modeling, rendering and aniamtion, culminating in a final project (typically an implementation of a SIGGRAPH research paper). This is an excellent course to start your Master's thesis research in computer graphics.
Top student projects from CSC/CPE 471
Example Master's thesis
Chris Buckalew's CG info page
Dr. Zoë Wood, Associate Professor (2003)
BS Computer Science UCSC, MS, PhD Computer Science Caltech
Office 14-209
(805) 756-5540
Dr. Wood's
research area is computer graphics with a specific focus on
geometric modeling. She is responsible for introducing a new graduate
level computer graphics course,
CSC 570 and regularly teaches
CSC 471, CSC 473, CSC 474 and
CSC 476. All of these courses are very project focused.
She is a part of the
Interactive Entertainment curriculum development
at Cal Poly and supervises
Master's thesis research projects
in computer graphics as well as senior projects. Many of these projects result in research publications. Dr. Wood regularly
arranges industry visits for her students to places such as EA and Dream
Works. Dr. Wood was voted the Professor of the Year award in 2004 and 2013 by the Department's students. During her PhD work, Dr. Wood did computer graphics research at the
following places: Microsoft Research, Hewlett-Packard Labs, and NASA Ames Research Center.