CS 248: Introduction to Computer Graphics

Pat Hanrahan

Getting Started

Preparation

Before you try to use MOAN, you should review all class material relating to hierarchical modeling and animation:

Chapter 3 of the OpenGL Programming Guide.
Lectures 11 and 12 of the Course Notes.
Lectures 11, 12, 13, and 16 (especially the BBOP video).
Chapters 5 through 7 of Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice.

Also, you should carefully read the on-line documentation of MOAN.

Executing `MOAN`

You may invoke MOAN in any of the following ways:

Add
```
/usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3
```
to your path in ~/.cshrc. Execute
```
source ~/.cshrc
```
(This only needs to be done once, not every time you log in.) Henceforth, you may execute MOAN by simply typing moan on the command-line, no matter what your current directory is.
Create an alias to MOAN by adding the line
```
alias moan /usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/moan
```
to ~/.cshrc. As in the previous option, execute
```
source ~/.cshrc
```
once, and henceforth use simply moan to invoke MOAN.
Copy the MOAN executable to the /usr/tmp directory of your local raptor using
```
cp /usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/moan /usr/tmp/moan
```
and invoke it using
```
/usr/tmp/moan
```
or by defining an alias as in the previous option. This approach may improve performance if you use MOAN repeatedly, as disk accesses will be local.
Remember to delete your local copy when done.

Reminders:

The -help option of moan displays a detailed on-screen summary of MOAN's user-interface.

Example scene files of MOAN are available in

/usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/examples

Skeleton for cubic interpolator

Your may compose your cubic keyframe interpolator either in C or in C++. Please follow the appropriate instructions below:

If you want to use C

...you need to copy and rename the files Makefile_c and interpolate.c from the directory

/usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/

to some local work directory (residing either in /usr/tmp for efficiency, or in a subdirectory of your home directory for easy access across machines). To this end, cut and paste the following commands to your terminal:

cp /usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/Makefile_c Makefile
cp /usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/interpolate.c .

If you want to use C++

...you need to copy and rename the files Makefile_C and interpolate.C from the directory

/usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/

cp /usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/Makefile_C Makefile
cp /usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/interpolate.C .

Then, type

make

on the command line, and your very own version of MOAN will appear in your current directory (please disregard the warnings produced). This version differs from ours only in that it does not perform cubic keyframe interpolation (not yet, at least).

Read

/usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment3/interpolate.h

which describes the interface to and functionality of the code segment you have to write; you do not need to copy this file locally. It might help you to go over our implementation of the linear keyframe interpolator, in order to fully understand the role of each argument passed to your function.

Finally, once your code is fully debugged, you may want to edit your Makefile and deactivate the -g compiler option, while enabling the -O2 compiler option and the -s linker option. Thus, your version of MOAN will become as fast as (or even faster than) ours.

Good luck!

hanrahan@cs.stanford.edu
tolis@cs.stanford.edu