This course aims to give an overview of basic and state-of-the-art methods of rendering. Offline methods such as ray and path tracing, photon mapping and many other algorithms are introduced and various refinement explained.

The basics of the involved physics, such as geometric optics, surface and media interaction with light and camera models are outlined.
The apparatus of Monte Carlo methods is introduced which is heavily used in several algorithms and its refinement in the form of stratified sampling and the Metropolis-Hastings method is explained.

At the end of the course students should be familiar with common techniques in rendering and find their way around the current state-of-the-art of the field. Furthermore the exercises should deepen the attendees' understanding of the basic principles of light transport and enable them to write a simple rendering program themselves.

Please refer to the course webpage to get information on when the next lecture takes place.

• Rendering theory
  Basic optics, rendering equation, filtering
• Rendering algorithms
  Ray tracing, radiosity, (bidirectional) path tracing, Metropolis light transport, (stochastic progressive) photon mapping, path space regularization, vertex connection and merging
• Acceleration techniques
  Spatial hierarchies, sampling strategies,
• Surface representations
  BRDF models: Lambert, Phong, Oren-Nayar, Cook-Torrance, Ashikhmin-Shirley
• Participating media
  Scattering, volumetric photon mapping, photon beams
• Higher dimensional effects
  Motion blur, depth of field
• Camera models
  Pinhole, Perspective, Orthographic
  
• Post processing
  HDR, tone mapping

Subject to refinement. Definite version here.

Literature:

• Physically Based Rendering, Second Edition: From Theory To Implementation, M. Pharr and G. Humphreys, Homepage, ACM
  The main book of the lecture (referred to as PBRT).
  
  

• Course on Monte-Carlo Methods in Global Illumination, L. Szirmay-Kalos, Link
  A free course scriptum that gives a detailed explanation of the mathematical foundations of Global Illumination.

 Unit 1 - Introduction, Radiometry

• PBRT, 5.4, 5.5
  
  
• Radiometry, S. Marschner, Link
  Course notes in radiometry
  
  
• A framework for realistic rendering, D. Greenberg, K. Torrance, P. Shirley, J. Arvo, J. A. Ferwerda, S. Pattanaik, E. P. F. Lafortune, B. Walter, S. Foo, B. Trimbone, in Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 97, Link
  Description of an early framework for realistic rendering

Lecture slides and assignments

• They are available on the course website.

ECTS Breakdown:

3 ECTS = 75 hours

• Lecture: 30 hours
• Assignments: 30 hours
• Exam preparation: 15 hours

Course information:

Consult the course page here.

Practical and mathematical assignments.
Final oral exam.

Assignments take up 40% of the final mark. The distribution is uniform, i.e. assignments 1-4 give you 10-10% each. Plus points can be obtained by solving the "pro" versions of the individual problems. It is possible to hand in assignments late, but 20% of the points will be deducted every 24 hours after the deadline.

The oral exam gives 60% of the mark. Students who don't hand in all the assignments are still eligible for the exam, but it is very strongly advised since the exam builds upon the knowledge obtained throughout the completion of the assignments.

The grades are calculated the following way:
0-59% - 5
60-69% - 4
70-79% - 3 
80-89% - 2 
90-100% - 1 

Registration via TISS