During a break today I watched parts of Pixar’s “Wall-E”.  As with many movies I think I like it better now than before.  It has had time to mature in my mind.  Whenever I watch a movie I tell myself not to try not to judge it immediately.  I find that over time my view of the movie (or book, or music) settles down.  This also has important implications for things like reviewing papers.  Generally, I try to read the papers I get and then to set them aside for at least a week or two.  (Then I usually wake up frantically the night before the deadline!)

One aspect of Wall-E and other Pixar movies that I find appealing is the idea that almost any object can emote.  This is such an appealing idea that I am strongly tempted to make it a project — perhaps the project — of the Graphics course I am responsible for in the second half of the year.  (I know: another post about my courses.  But there are only three:  Software Engineering, Model Checking, and Graphics.)  One justification is that students will tasked to produce graphics that really do what graphics is supposed to:  communicate, entertain, affect, inspire.  Moreover, the students will probably learn as much from such an exercise as from any other.  And it will be a lot of fun!  Plus something one could advertise on a website!

A big problem with all our courses is that it is harder than before to engage the students.  Thirty years ago, personal computers did not even exist.  Twenty years ago it was still an exciting prospect to learn to program a computer, and many students (probably most) had never used one.  Nowadays the students are used to computers, and programming one has lost all its “cheap” appeal.  Of course there is still deep ideas that appeal to some students, but I think that some of the “magic” has disappeared.  So one popular strategy is to ask the students to produce a game.  But I find game programming exceedingly boring.  One you’ve tried it, you realize that there is little hard-core programming to it.  A lot of user interface design, some software engineering, a fair amount of AI (although nothing spectacular).  And it is really hard work to make a good game.  A second strategy is web-based applications.  But even that I find slightly boring.  But graphics in general and animation in particular is a great third way with a high reward/work ratio.

The argument against an animation project is that the course is supposed to be about the basics of graphics.  Asking students to produce an animation may not be “fundamental” enough.  Moreover, my expectations of seeing Pixar-like animations may be way too high.  On the other hand, “high expectations” is the second of Shneiderman’s conditions for excellence in teaching.  One further complication is that I will not lecture the course myself.  I think.  I had better start to arrange for my external lecturer, and to start to convince him that my idea can work.