Professor Law is a very kind and passionate individual! Overall this class was fun but exams were difficult; linear algebra isn’t a prerequisite for this course and would definitely recommend you only take this class if you have taken linear algebra before, as the professor automatically assumes everyone has. There is also little to no practice material, so you really don’t know what to expect in the midterm or final. We were never tested on code but rather arcane mathematical calculations that you can’t find practice problems anywhere online nor in the book, so you really have to study all the equations he gives out during lecture on your own and in-depth, as they’re not straightforward. Grade distribution for this class was:

15% Assignments — 3 coding projects in OpenGL & Javascript. I would say it takes a whole day or two to complete them, and would recommend going to office hours for clarity since lecture doesn’t help (lectures tend to be conceptual and mathematical, covering no code at all)

20% Midterm — Involves mainly mathematical calculations & a few conceptual questions. Grade statistics were high (oddly enough) so there is no curve.

35% Final — Same as Midterm

30% Team Project — SUPER fun! You basically create a game or animation with 3-4 teammates whom you choose at the beginning of the quarter. There is a midway demo & final demo, and grading criteria is based on how many advanced computer graphics features you implement. It definitely is time consuming and hard to start, since it’s a blank canvas, but I found it really fun so I didn’t mind. I would also recommend going to TA office hours and looking back at assignments for help since we’re really not taught any code in lecture.

I thought this course provided a good introduction to computer graphics, though it was quite heavy on the conceptual side and less "practical" (don't expect to be working with modern graphical frameworks -- for the projects in the course, we had to use a simplified version of WebGL called tiny graphics for learning purposes). The projects were also cool but I ultimately didn't feel like I got a realistic sense of modern graphical programming.

For course content, the first half involves reviewing basic linear algebra matrix transformations and an introduction to each step of the graphics rendering pipeline (how a 3D scene gets rendered to a 2D image). The early projects are really simple and can be done in a few hours, especially if you attend the discussion sections where the TAs basically give a mini walkthrough of each assignment. The second half covers a wide array of topics like object lighting, texture mapping, and ray tracing, which made me really appreciate the complexity of the work involved in this field.

The professor is quite good at explaining the concepts in an easy to understand manner, and I was able to follow along his mathematical derivations without trouble even though I do not consider myself a math person by any means. It's clear he has had years of experience teaching this material because concepts are made intuitive through his explanations. Sometimes though he would go a bit fast (especially when we would start to fall behind) so the lecture recordings were great for those times.

What's strange about this class is that the exams involve a lot of math computations (they're simple, but still there's a lot to remember) but there's little to no practice material made available. So you should definitely try to get a copy of the older exams to practice as the professor likes to reuse questions. Also, a large part of your grade and the work in the class is your group project, which is graded based on features and creativity, so make sure to choose teams wisely and spend time on it.

Overall, not a bad class to take if you have any interest/curiosity in computer graphics. I can't speak for other professors in this course, but I definitely would recommend you taking it with Professor Law.

Best advice for this class: When you get your scores back for the midterm and final, DO NOT PANIC or regret every twist and turn of fate that led you to Asish Law and his entertaining but extremely dangerous rendition of Eye Space. LOOK OVER YOUR WORK CAREFULLY and submit as many regrade requests as you can. The rubric is vague and the TAs barely even read your responses so it is your responsibility to argue for as many points back as you can. And trust me, those points will mean the difference between a B+ and an A- or something similar.

You’ve been warned…

Assignments-- the T.A.'s will basically do the assignments step by step during discussion sessions, some however didn't although you could just watch the recordings of the other sessions.

Group project-- as long as you have a good group, it should be doable (time consuming however)

Tests-- averages are high so no curve, they were not extremely difficult but not super easy either; test are live and proctored in the sense of having your zoom camera on

Professor Law is really understanding and always asks for the class's feedback on what exam time would be best for everyone. He is pretty clear and his slides are very useful for the exams. If you listen to the lectures and take notes on the slides, you will do well on the midterm and final. There is a lot of math involved, but he reviews all of the matrix computations in class and it actually made a lot of sense after applying matrices to computer graphics. The discussions are pretty helpful and go over code that you will need for the projects which are all doable in a day(take this from someone who sucks at coding). Pay attention to the examples that the TAs go over before the test because they always end up appear on the test. I would definitely take a class with Law again and I really enjoyed learning about computer graphics with him.