Computer Graphics in the Era of AI

This course introduces deep learning methods and AI technologies applied to four main areas of Computer Graphics: rendering, geometry, animation, and imaging. We will study a wide range of problems on content creation for images, shapes, and animations, recently advanced by deep learning techniques. For each problem, we will understand its conventional solutions, study the state-of-the-art learning-based approaches, and critically evaluate their results as well as the impacts to researchers and practitioners in Computer Graphics. The topics include differentiable rendering/neural rendering, BRDF estimation, texture synthesis, denoising, procedural modeling, view synthesis, colorization, style transfer, motion synthesis, differentiable physics simulation, and reinforcement learning. Through programming projects and homework, students who successfully complete this course will be able to use neural rendering algorithms for image manipulation, apply neural procedural modeling for shape and scene synthesis, exploit data-driven methods for simulating physical phenomena, and implement policy learning algorithms for creating character animation. Recommended Prerequisites: CS148, CS231N