Research and Laboratory Projects

LOADING SCREENS - Gamedevelopment | summer term 2018

"LOADING SCREENS" is an interdisciplinary project between students of Computer Science & Media and Art & Design, which will be a practical journey into Gamedevelopment. We will work with tools such as Unity and Blender in order to create games. CSM students should have basic programming knowledge. A&D students should have knowledge in sounddesign, illustration, animation, 3D-modeling or storytelling. You will create and complete games in mixed teams before the Summaery starts. Your games will be showcased and shall be presnted to the audience.

Play In My Dome | winter term 2017/18

At the GFXLab of the Faculty of Media we want to use the space above us for dome projections in interactive games.

After having built the dome (including 3D sound) in the last semester, we will start to work at implementing a gaming/projection environment for the dome. Integrating gaming devices in a dome, integrating Ambisonics sound into games, working at concepts for dome games are some – but not all – tasks of this project.  

Project applicants should ideally but not necessarily have experience in sound/3D graphics/Video/3D games software, as well as the willingness to adapt things until they work and make things happen. Project beginners are very welcome.

This is an Interdisciplinary Project, open to Medieninformatik/Computer Science and Media students, as well as to students in the Media Arts and Design Bachelor/Master Study Course.

View My Picture II | winter term 2017/18

"A picture is worth a thousand words" says the common saying: but what if one wants to see what a picture is saying? Visualizing picture components is not a task for the faint of heart. Aim of the project is to develop a new visualization tool for pictures, visualizing their characteristics, components and attributes in three-dimensional space in a way that it is easy for the user to reason on the picture itself. New ways to visualize the light, color composition, image composition rules, and much more will be developed in the course of the project in order to make picture analysis more usable and understandable.

Build your own Dome | summer term 2017

At the GFXLab we want to use the space above us for dome projections in interactive games. The Project will handle with the physical construction of the dome and the development/adaption of the software for it. The final dome will be consist of a modular tiltable/transportable dome, mirror dome projection, 3D octophonic sound and interactive device controllers, so as to make the space above us an interactive user experience instead of just a ceiling.

Project applicants should ideally but not necessarily have experience in sound/3D graphics/Video/3D games software, as well as the willingness to adapt things until they work and make things happen. Project beginners are very welcome.

Projects winter term 2014/15

  • Perception and Analysis of Quality in Images
    • Prof. Dr. Charles A. Wüthrich and M.  Sc. Banafsheh Azari

    • GFXLab, Raum 023, Bauhausstr. 11
    • There are many - relatively simple - methods for evaluating of image quality. In the field of image acquisition new methods have recently surfaced, allowing a more detailed view of various aspects of quality, both at the micro- and macro-level.

      The project will focus on understanding what defines quality and what factors are perceived as quality in imaging and rendering. When humans look at static pictures, where do they look? When humans look at computer generated pictures, where do they look at? Do they explore the same picture differently if they look at the same image rendered at different quality levels? Is resolution important? When is detail important? These and similar open questions will be central themes of the project.

Projects winter term 2013/14

TreeHugger - Enlightenment

The project aims at generating, simulating and visualizing trees.
topics:

  • growth (L-Systems vs. Particels)
  • Modelling (Generalized Cylinders, NURBS?)
  • Visualisierung (OpenGL, GLSL, OpenCL, Displacement Maps, Shadows)
  • Physics (Rigid-body vs. Euler-Bernoulli-Beam-Model)
  • Simulation of 3D windfields (Navier-Stokes)
  • Light calculation (Raycasting vs. atomic kitten)
  • Pruning of dynamically generated trees
  • Procedural growth dependent growth rings
  • Procedural aging wine-leafes
  • Synthesizing bark using real-time tesselation

 Slides of the first meeting can be found here

 

Quality Assessment and Perception II

 There are many - relatively simple - methods for evaluating of image quality. In the field of image acquisition new methods have recently surfaced, allowing a more detailed view of various aspects of quality, both at the micro- and macro-level.

The project will focus on understanding what defines quality and what factors are perceived as quality in imaging and rendering. When humans look at static pictures, where do they look? When humans look at computer generated pictures, where do they look at? Do they explore the same picture differently if they look at the same image rendered at different quality levels? Is resolution important? When is detail important? These and similar open questions will be central themes of the project.

      Folien der Projektbörse

      • cArtooniZe Yourself II

      Aim of the project is to recognize face expressions in real time, and map them to a 3D virtual character. Project tasks will be:


        - the recognition of facial expressions by comparing webcam images and
          facial motion curves based on the FACS system.
        - Triggering animation curves on the virtual character.
        - The definition of a high level language to describe facial expressions.

      • Freehand Modeling

      Creating smooth and natural looking shapes on a computer is (still) a tedious task wich requires a deep knowledege of 3D modeling techniques and a good command of the functionality of the modeling software.
      The project aims at exploring new and intuitive ways of designing and manipulating 3D surfaces and shapes, to overcome the traditional mouse- and keyboard-based input techniques by using tracked gestures for modeling. A special focus will be put on the mathematics of parametric patches and subdivision surfaces.

      • Cannonbasketball
        Inhalt des Projekts ist die Auseinandersetzung mit Methoden zur korrekten physikalischen Simulation elastischer Materialien in Echtzeit. Zur Veranschaulichung und Verifizierung wird eine interaktive Spielumgebung entwickelt, in der sich ein virtuelles Basketballnetz entsprechend physikalischer Gesetze verhält.

        Cannonbasketball from CoGVis Weimar on Vimeo.