Teaching Computer Graphics in the Context of Theatre

Abstract

Since the spring of 2004 the authors have coordinated efforts in teaching computer graphics within courses in their disciplines of computer science and computer graphics design, while collaborating on virtual theatre productions. On the computer science side one course is devoted exclusively to building the infrastructure necessary to produce participatory virtual theatre over the Internet. Some projects in CS extend beyond that single course into projects in other courses and some aspects have developed into thesis projects. On the design side, students in several different courses design and construct elements and assets for the production. In a modeling course, students design and build the sets. In a character design course, students design and build the characters. The design professor serves as artistic director and the CS professor as the technical director. This paper describes the advantages of this approach and tells of our experiences in teaching graphics in this theatrical context for both computer science and design.