Website writeup guidelines

We have provided a simple HTML skeleton in index.html found within the docs directory to help you get started and structure your write-up.

You are also welcome to create your own webpage report from scratch using your own preferred frameworks or tools. However, please follow the same overall structure as described in the deliverables section below.

The goals of your write-up are for you to (a) think about and articulate what you've built and learned in your own words, (b) have a write-up of the project to take away from the class. Your write-up should include:

  • An overview of the project, your approach to and implementation for each of the parts, and what problems you encountered and how you solved them. Strive for clarity and succinctness.
  • On each part, make sure to include the results described in the corresponding Deliverables section in addition to your explanation. If you failed to generate any results correctly, provide a brief explanation of why.
  • The final (optional) part for the mesh competition is where you have the opportunity to be creative and individual, so be sure to provide a good description of what you were going for, what you did, and how you did it.
  • Clearly indicate any extra credit items you completed, and provide a thorough explanation and illustration for each of them.

The write-up is one of our main methods of evaluating your work, so it is important to spend the time to do it correctly and thoroughly. Plan ahead to allocate time for the write-up well before the deadline.

Another link to how to submit assignments for CS184.

Technical details

Use whatever screenshot software or tools you are comfortable or familiar with, just like in Homework 2.

Deliverables

Part 1

  • Take some screenshots of scene/pinned2.json from a viewing angle where you can clearly see the cloth wireframe to show the structure of your point masses and springs.
  • Show us what the wireframe looks like (1) without any shearing constraints, (2) with only shearing constraints, and (3) with all constraints.

Part 2

  • Experiment with some the parameters in the simulation. To do so, pause the simulation at the start with P, modify the values of interest, and then resume by pressing P again. You can also restart the simulation at any time from the cloth's starting position by pressing R.
    • Describe the effects of changing the spring constant ks; how does the cloth behave from start to rest with a very low ks? A high ks?
    • What about for density?
    • What about for damping?
    • For each of the above, observe any noticeable differences in the cloth compared to the default parameters and show us some screenshots of those interesting differences and describe when they occur.
  • Show us a screenshot of your shaded cloth from scene/pinned4.json in its final resting state! If you choose to use different parameters than the default ones, please list them.

Part 3

  • Show us screenshots of your shaded cloth from scene/sphere.json in its final resting state on the sphere using the default ks = 5000 as well as with ks = 500 and ks = 50000. Describe the differences in the results.
  • Show us a screenshot of your shaded cloth lying peacefully at rest on the plane. If you haven't by now, feel free to express your colorful creativity with the cloth! (You will need to complete the shaders portion first to show custom colors.)

Part 4

  • Show us at least 3 screenshots that document how your cloth falls and folds on itself, starting with an early, initial self-collision and ending with the cloth at a more restful state (even if it is still slightly bouncy on the ground).
  • Vary the density as well as ks and describe with words and screenshots how they affect the behavior of the cloth as it falls on itself.

Part 5

  • Explain in your own words what is a shader program and how vertex and fragment shaders work together to create lighting and material effects.
  • Explain the Blinn-Phong shading model in your own words. Show a screenshot of your Blinn-Phong shader outputting only the ambient component, a screen shot only outputting the diffuse component, a screen shot only outputting the specular component, and one using the entire Blinn-Phong model.
  • Show a screenshot of your texture mapping shader using your own custom texture by modifying the textures in /textures/.
  • Show a screenshot of bump mapping on the cloth and on the sphere. Show a screenshot of displacement mapping on the sphere. Use the same texture for both renders. You can either provide your own texture or use one of the ones in the textures directory, BUT choose one that's not the default texture_2.png. Compare the two approaches and resulting renders in your own words. Compare how your the two shaders react to the sphere by changing the sphere mesh's coarseness by using -o 16 -a 16 and then -o 128 -a 128.
  • Show a screenshot of your mirror shader on the cloth and on the sphere.
  • Explain what you did in your custom shader, if you made one.

Part 6 (Extra credit)

  • If you implemented any additional technical features for the cloth simulation, clearly describe what you did and provide screenshots that illustrate your work. If it is an improvement compared to something already existing on the cloth simulation, compare and contrast them both in words and in images.