POV Break C. Constructive solid geometry

This page contains links to all resources mentioned in POV Break C of the textbook.

Project Information for Instructors

When my students do this project, I create a wiki page in our course management system (Blackboard) that contains instructions for how they can post their work to that wiki.  I create one central page with the list of topics, and students claim a topic by editing that page and placing their name next to their chosen topic (first come, first served).  They make the topic name a link to a new wiki page, and place all their writing there.

I provide two example tutorials already written, as examples of the kind of work I expect.  I usually create two such examples:

1. a reference image showcasing all of the wood.inc and stones.inc textures, with instructions on how to import those include files and use them in your scene file
2. a tutorial on how to simulate focal blur in POV, with example images

I do not include those tutorials on this website, so that others who wish to assign those particular projects in other classes may do so.

I also encourage my students to improve upon their first draft, by grading that draft and offering them two options.  They can keep that grade and be done, which students who do a great job on the first draft often do.  But as most of us know, writing is hard, and many people do not get the grade they want on their first draft.  My grading of it provides specific suggestions for improvement, and those who choose to follow them can resubmit once, and I will update the grade according to how much of the suggestions they have implemented.

I tell my students to write to a target audience of their classmates. Assume that a classmate may read your wiki page while working on a future project for our course, hoping to put to immediate use what you've written. Assume the reader has no POV knowledge beyond what you have, just what we've learned in our course so far. Read your work critically and ask yourself, "If I read someone else's post and it looked like this, would I understand it? Would I be able to use it in a project? Is there anything missing, confusing, or inaccurate?"

I use the following grading criteria.

Claiming a topic, creating a wiki page for it, and inserting any kind of content	25%
Satisfying the requirement of including example work, images, and references	25%
Correctly following directions for submission	10%
Writing clearly for your target audience (If this is difficult for you, pair up with a friend and read and criticize each other's work. And remember, friends don't let friends submit confusing wiki pages.)	20%
Ensuring your work makes it easy for someone to use the topic you chose	15%
Creativity and/or artistry, or simply going beyond the call of duty	5%

Again it is very easy to earn 60% by simply submitting information in the correct form, even if it is completely wrong and useless. That's generous of me, but of course 60% is not actually a passing grade.

Warning

The writing clearly portion of the assignment is not easy at all; I grade it harshly, especially since they have another opportunity to fix their mistakes and improve their grade. I suggest that they write once, then go back and revise several times, just as their Expository Writing 101 teachers taught. Writing about technical material is hard, and I encourage them to allocate time for doing this well, preferably over a period of several days, a little at a time.

The creativity portion of this assignment is only 5% because this assignment has less room for creativity. I also include in that category doing extraordinary work, since this is a project on which it is quite possible to "do more."