COM4503/COM6503: 3D Computer
Graphics
Assignment 2: Rendering effects (60%)
Dr Steve Maddock
Deadline: 3pm, Friday 21 January, 2022
1. Introduction
Look around you. When you look at the real
world, can you see computer graphics rendering
challenges? How would you render the objects in
terms of patterns of colour and lighting? What
techniques would you use? This is what you will
consider in this assignment.
Your task is to write a report that contrasts the use
of a rasterization-based approach using a z-buffer
with the approach known as path tracing when
producing computer graphics images that
simulate real world effects. To limit the coverage,
you will choose only three effects. You must
choose one effect from list A and two effects from
list B to discuss:
List A: patterns of surface colour, shiny
reflections in surfaces;
List B: shadows, atmospheric effects (e.g. light
scattering), caustics, depth of field.
A particular requirement is that you will make use
of three photographs that you will take to illustrate
and individualise your report – no-one else will
take the same three photographs as you. More
details on this are given in section 2.
2. The report
Structure
The report should start with a general introduction
to the topic and what your report will cover. This
should be followed by some further sections that
structure the parts of your report. It is your
decision what sections you will use to structure
the report and what the order of these sections
should be – this must be explained as part of the
introduction to the report.
You should consider introducing the two
rendering approaches you are comparing and
contrasting before you consider the real-world
effects you choose. The initial description of the
rasterization based approach should be brief as
this has been covered in detail in lectures. The
description of ‘path tracing’ will need a little more
detail. This means you will have to do some
research and cite some references for a description
of path tracing. Make sure you use illustrations to
reduce the amount of text you write here.
However, it is the comparison and contrast
between the two rendering approaches when they
are used to produce the chosen real-world effects
that is the main focus of the report – this is where
you should spend most of your effort and most of
your writing. Make sure that you describe how
each of the real-world effects you choose could be
simulated using the two rendering approaches and
what the advantages and disadvantages of each
rendering approach are. (For rasterisation, you
will have to think carefully about whether or not
the particular real-world effect can be simulated.)
The report should finish with a conclusions
section where you summarise the main points of
the report.
Illustrations
These are an important part of the assignment and
can come from a range of sources: photographs,
screenshots from assignment 1, illustrations you
make, general illustrations from the internet.
Photographs: A particular requirement is that you
must make use of three photographs that you must
take to illustrate and individualise your report –
no-one else will take the same three photographs
as you. You might take a picture of your desk, or
a part of a kitchen, or part of a space in the
Diamond, or wherever else you can think of.
These photographs must be used to illustrate the
real-world effects you choose. As an example, if
you choose shadows as one of the things to
discuss, then one of your photographs should have
some good shadow effects in the picture. Choose
your photographs carefully as they must serve the
arguments that you make in your report.
Remember, whilst you may start with photographs
of three different scenes, if the resolution is good
enough, you can always zoom in on one part of a
photograph to produce a further illustration for the
report.
Screenshots from Assignment 1: These should be
used to illustrate your report (possibly zooming in
on relevant areas of the screenshots). As an
example, the lighting used in Assignment 1 was
limited. It failed to capture many real-world
lighting effects. So, you could use a screenshot to
show what a picture looks like without shadows
and discuss the impact that makes on the result.
One of your photographs might even look a little
like the scene in Assignment 1 to support your
discussions.
Making an illustration: You could choose to use
some computer graphics tools (e.g. Unity or
Blender or some other tools that are free for
personal use) to produce some illustrations to help
explain things in your report.
General illustrations from the internet: You must
check the copyright permissions before you use
any illustrations from the internet.
Decisions and skills
As part of the assignment, you will need to make
decisions about what should be presented, make
decisions about the ordering of information,
decide what should be assumed and what should
be explained (you can assume I know about my
lecture notes – as an example, there is no need to
explain the workings of a rasterization based
rendering approach in detail; a brief summary
using a diagram would suffice), link to reliable
information sources, and use appropriate language
in your report. You are finding, understanding,
filtering, organising and presenting information.
You are demonstrating that you can summarise
and appraise information about computer
graphics.
References
I expect to see at least 3 published research papers
in your reference list, as well as other kinds of
reference, e.g. online materials. Google Scholar
(https://scholar.google.com) is a good place to
search for academic papers.
3. Deliverables
• The report should be between 2000 and 4000
words. This total does not include the list of
references and the figure captions. You may
include as many pictures as you deem
appropriate.
• You should submit the report via Blackboard
as a pdf document.
• You must include the following statement at
the start of the report:
/* I declare that this work is my own.
Author: < name >, < email address > */
4. Marking
The following aspects will be considered:
• Coverage of the topic area and relevance of
material – Is the material included relevant? Is
there evidence of independent reading to find
advanced/interesting information for the
report? Are the references good?
• Knowledge and understanding of relevant
material – Do you demonstrate knowledge
and understanding of what you are writing
about? Is deeper understanding demonstrated
by comparing and contrasting ideas? Is your
information accurate, or is some of the
material misleading or even incorrect,
demonstrating that you don’t understand it?
• Organisation, clarity of expression and
diagrams – Is the report tidy and organised,
with a good flow of information? Are all
points in the writing expressed clearly and
succinctly, and supported with the use of
diagrams? Good use of illustrations –
photographs, screenshots from Assignment 1,
other illustrations. All diagrams should have a
figure number and a caption and be referred to
from the main text.
5. Other
• Standard lateness penalties will apply.
• Turnitin will be used to check for use of unfair
means.
• See the Department’s UG and PGT student
handbooks for more detailed information on
lateness penalties and unfair means:
o UG:
https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/co
mughandbook/
o PGT:
https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/co
mpgtstudenthandbook

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