This is going to be an unusual course. In addition to learning how to connect "programming" with "design" (or as some people say, "drawing with math"), we're going to do several group projects that force us to rethink some the elements of Multimedia, such as storytelling, design, collaboration, from the ground up.
To take this course, you need to be comfortable with programming. You don't need to have taken a graphics course; but it might complement this course nicely to also take Denis Zorin's graphics course this semester.
The course will consist of two parallel "threads". One thread will be a sequence of programming exercises, which you will do individually in Java. Each week you will be asked to produce something visual and sometimes interactive, and you will post your results on the web.
The other thread will be a set of group projects, in which teams will tackle some unusual projects, designed to get you thinking in new ways about design, collaboration, structure, narrative and the interaction between information and the physical environment. These will begin about four weeks into the class, at which point I'll describe those projects, and you will get to decide which team you want to join.
Homework:
Assignment 1, due Monday, Sept 17, is here.
Assignment 2, building your own font, due Monday, Sept 24, is here.
Assignment 3, telling an interactively illustrated narrative, due Monday, Oct 1, is here.
Assignment 4, making an animated 3D thing, due Monday, Oct 8, is here.
Assignment 5, making some sort of vehicle, due Monday, Oct 15, is here.
Assignment 6, persistent applet and ideas for the project, due Monday, Oct 29, is here.
Assignment 7, simple parameterizable Thing for the shared world, due Monday, Nov 12, is here.
-Ken Perlin