3D-Rendering & Computational Art

Description

The first session is on Wednesday, April 22. Topics will be assigned by April 30. Withdrawal is possible until May 15.

This seminar is part of the bachelor program and is intended for students who have already com-
pleted the lecture 3D Computer Graphics I, and have already completed 3D Computer Graphics II
or at least participate in this lecture alongside this seminar.. Participants are therefore expected to be familiar with the central concepts of modern real-time computer graphics, including mathematical foundations, rendering, modeling, texturing, animation, and related techniques. The seminar builds on this knowledge, but it places it into a different context: instead of approaching computer graphics from a productive, commercial, or user-centered perspective, it asks students to think in artistic, experimental, and highly focused terms.

The seminar focuses on the conception and implementation of small but high-quality computer graphics applications. Each project is expected to unite technical excellence with artistic intention. From a technical perspective, it should make use of contemporary interactive 3D rendering methods. From a conceptual perspective, it should be guided by a distinct artistic idea that gives the application its purpose, coherence, and identity. The artistic idea is not an ornament added afterwards; it is the central motivation of the work. There is no product idea in the conventional sense. What matters instead is the quality and harmony of image, animation, sound, motion, atmosphere, and interaction. Each application should therefore be designed for one clearly defined purpose only. The goal is not to maximize functionality, usability, or feature richness, but to develop a focused artifact that expresses one central idea through a refined and convincing graphical realization. In this sense, the seminar encourages students to think small, but deeply. A successful project does not attempt to cover all possible techniques at once. Rather, it selects only those few methods that are truly needed and explores them with precision and care. Depth is valued more highly than breadth.

Technical Objective: One major objective of the seminar is to deepen the understanding of modern 3D computer graphics technology and software, especially in the field of real-time rendering. The crucial challenge lies in mastering the interplay of geometry, modeling, texturing, lighting, simulation, and animation, and in shaping these elements into a coherent visual and temporal experience. The seminar is therefore not only about producing a final application, but also about learning how specific rendering techniques can be combined, controlled, and artistically directed.

Conceptual Objective: A second objective is conceptual. Students are invited to move away from user-centric and product-oriented thinking and instead to concentrate on a single strong thought, gesture, or visual narrative. The application should not primarily justify itself through utility. It should stand as a self-contained piece of computational art: precise in concept, limited in scope, and convincing in execution.

Methodological Objective: A third objective is methodological. Development is expected to be based on three.js and on generative approaches to software creation. Manual programming should be minimized wherever possible. Ideally, the project should be developed almost entirely through generative software development, using tools such as Codex to produce, refine, and integrate the implementation. In this respect, the seminar is also experimental. It explores the extent to which generative development can already serve as a serious method for creating excellent graphics software. The application thus becomes both a concrete artistic artifact and a medium for learning a new mode of software development in computer graphics. While generative tools are encouraged, students remain responsible for the mathematical correctness and performance of the rendering pipeline.

List of Topics:

1. Organic Superquadrics: Develop an interactive app for living superquadrics that behave like organic objects.
2. Unstill Life: Develop an interactive app for a still life in slow transformation.
3. Yayoi World: Develop an interactive simulator for a Yayoi-inspired virtual exhibition.
4. Empty Matter: Develop an interactive app that stages the paradox of empty matter.
5. White Noise Space: Develop an interactive app in which image streams dissolve into a white-noise space.
6. Hue Space: Develop an interactive app that allows users to move through and explore an imaginary 3D hue color space.
7. Order Without Repetition: Develop an interactive tool for composing, designing, and executing endless aperiodic Wang tilings.
8. Bitmap Sculptures: Develop an interactive game that transforms a sentence into a stack of bitmap glyphs and converts the stack into a block-based 3D sculpture.
9. Wehrli Layout: Develop an interactive app that deconstructs complex 3D scenes and reorganizes their contents according to strict visual ordering principles.
10. 80x24 Screen: Develop an interactive app that transforms images or video streams into an unstable 1980s-style screen aesthetic.
11. World as Beehive: Develop an interactive app that symbolically maps worldwide flight traffic in real time.
12. Inside the Hidden State: Develop an interactive audiovisual installation visualizing the internal state of a tiny recurrent neural network.
13. T-1003: Develop an interactive app that stages an alien metallic body oscillating between blob-like form and liquid particle flow.