For a computer science class, this class doesn't do a lot of coding. The lectures are all math/concept-based, with the first half of the course primarily involving matrices, and the second half involving algebra and just knowing the concepts. Lectures are fairly engaging and he uses slides but they don't cover everything and he usually writes most things on whiteboard.
Discussion sessions are where all of the coding happens... except the TAs aren't really the best at explaining the code, since it's from an obscure JavaScript library made solely for this course, therefore there's not much outside help. I didn't know JavaScript before this class, and there was only a small effort to teach the basics, so I had to self-learn quite a bit. Like I mentioned, TAs don't explain the code that well and usually just show screenshots of code from slides and a few demos.
There's also a group project which involves 3 people and you can make anything as long as it has an advanced graphical feature. As for the tests, the midterm was fair, but the final was really hard and ended up tanking my grade to a B+. Major time crunch too. But overall the workload is doable, with only 3 graded assignments, two exams, and a group project. I'd recommend this course if you know javascript and matrices pretty well and need a course with an easy workload.

Professor Law is a very kind and passionate individual! Overall this class was fun but exams were difficult; linear algebra isn’t a prerequisite for this course and would definitely recommend you only take this class if you have taken linear algebra before, as the professor automatically assumes everyone has. There is also little to no practice material, so you really don’t know what to expect in the midterm or final. We were never tested on code but rather arcane mathematical calculations that you can’t find practice problems anywhere online nor in the book, so you really have to study all the equations he gives out during lecture on your own and in-depth, as they’re not straightforward. Grade distribution for this class was:

15% Assignments — 3 coding projects in OpenGL & Javascript. I would say it takes a whole day or two to complete them, and would recommend going to office hours for clarity since lecture doesn’t help (lectures tend to be conceptual and mathematical, covering no code at all)

20% Midterm — Involves mainly mathematical calculations & a few conceptual questions. Grade statistics were high (oddly enough) so there is no curve.

35% Final — Same as Midterm

30% Team Project — SUPER fun! You basically create a game or animation with 3-4 teammates whom you choose at the beginning of the quarter. There is a midway demo & final demo, and grading criteria is based on how many advanced computer graphics features you implement. It definitely is time consuming and hard to start, since it’s a blank canvas, but I found it really fun so I didn’t mind. I would also recommend going to TA office hours and looking back at assignments for help since we’re really not taught any code in lecture.

I thought this course provided a good introduction to computer graphics, though it was quite heavy on the conceptual side and less "practical" (don't expect to be working with modern graphical frameworks -- for the projects in the course, we had to use a simplified version of WebGL called tiny graphics for learning purposes). The projects were also cool but I ultimately didn't feel like I got a realistic sense of modern graphical programming.

For course content, the first half involves reviewing basic linear algebra matrix transformations and an introduction to each step of the graphics rendering pipeline (how a 3D scene gets rendered to a 2D image). The early projects are really simple and can be done in a few hours, especially if you attend the discussion sections where the TAs basically give a mini walkthrough of each assignment. The second half covers a wide array of topics like object lighting, texture mapping, and ray tracing, which made me really appreciate the complexity of the work involved in this field.

The professor is quite good at explaining the concepts in an easy to understand manner, and I was able to follow along his mathematical derivations without trouble even though I do not consider myself a math person by any means. It's clear he has had years of experience teaching this material because concepts are made intuitive through his explanations. Sometimes though he would go a bit fast (especially when we would start to fall behind) so the lecture recordings were great for those times.

What's strange about this class is that the exams involve a lot of math computations (they're simple, but still there's a lot to remember) but there's little to no practice material made available. So you should definitely try to get a copy of the older exams to practice as the professor likes to reuse questions. Also, a large part of your grade and the work in the class is your group project, which is graded based on features and creativity, so make sure to choose teams wisely and spend time on it.

Overall, not a bad class to take if you have any interest/curiosity in computer graphics. I can't speak for other professors in this course, but I definitely would recommend you taking it with Professor Law.

This is by far the class I regret taking the most. He doesn't explain anything well and I felt that coming to his lectures was a big waste of time. I was really interested in this subject, but this professor overall ruined it for me. His exams are all memorizations and are useless because he never goes over anything he talked about in the lectures. Hell, he couldn't even explain the math or the topics well enough. If I didn't have discussions for this class, I would be completely lost. The only way to do well in this class is through the TAs which shows how bad this class is.

This class is super TA dependent. Do not be fooled by the previous reviews, the project is normally an easy 100, but the professor made it so that the project was at a mean of 90. You get graded against how complicated your project is compared to the rest of the class. Although they give you a rubric, the TA's do not follow it at all. YOUR PROJECT HAS TO BE BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSES PROJECT. Not only that, no one got 100 on their project, which I don't even understand how that is possible if you follow the rubric the professor gives you.

The professor has no idea what is going on with the grading. When I asked him about the rubric grading, he didn't even know his own rubric, he just told me to ask the TA's. In class quizzes required mandatory attendance, and this class is a memorization class on the specific things he says in his lectures (they aren't even in his slides). You have to pay attention to every word he says during lecture and memorize it, which is not the point of CS at all.

Last complaint, HE PUT SOMETHING ON THE FINAL which he told us would not be tested on his study guide. I lost a lot of points from that, and because of that my grade dropped. But, I studied a lot for his final, and still ended up with a B+ in his class. DO NOT TAKE, this is a hard class. The previous reviews are all incorrect, because he made his class so much harder this quarter.

This class is super TA dependent. Do not be fooled by the previous reviews, the project is normally an easy 100, but the professor made it so that the project was at a mean of 90. You get graded against how complicated your project is compared to the rest of the class. Although they give you a rubric, the TA's do not follow it at all. YOUR PROJECT HAS TO BE BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSES PROJECT. Not only that, no one got 100 on their project, which I don't even understand how that is possible if you follow the rubric the professor gives you.

The professor has no idea what is going on with the grading. When I asked him about the rubric grading, he didn't even know his own rubric, he just told me to ask the TA's. In class quizzes required mandatory attendance, and this class is a memorization class on the specific things he says in his lectures (they aren't even in his slides). You have to pay attention to every word he says during lecture and memorize it, which is not the point of CS at all.

Last complaint, HE PUT SOMETHING ON THE FINAL which he told us would not be tested on his study guide. I lost a lot of points from that, and because of that my grade dropped. But, I studied a lot for his final, and still ended up with a B+ in his class. DO NOT TAKE, this is a hard class. The previous reviews are all incorrect, because he made his class so much harder this quarter.

Instructor was generally pretty unorganized and the class wasn't structured very well. He said that everyone complains about this and that they just need to go to the discussion sections to cover the tested material and help for the assignments. However, I did go to discussion and while it was helpful for practice questions and/or assignment help, it does not save the lack of structure in lectures. The instructor will start on the slides and then go to his IPad for an hour or more and then switch back to the slides at the very end and go through the rest of them in 5 minutes. The project that is required of students is mostly well laid out but parts of it make no sense. We had the initial proposal due on a Wednesday and two days later the demo (supposed to be 30-40% of our finished project) was due. What is the point of the initial proposal if you're supposed to be halfway done with your project before you can even get the feedback from the initial proposal. Despite the schedule for the project being on canvas the whole quarter, it makes absolutely no sense to structure it this way. That's kind of how the entire class feels, but the actual content that was covered was interesting and cool/fun to work with so it made the class worth it overall.

Not that difficult to do well, and pretty manageable workload compared to other CS courses. The only fun/useful parts imo were the coding projects/team project, which were not taught at all by the professor (just covered in discussion). Lecture was theory and math based. The first half was okay, and learning the "computing pipeline" had a nature flow and made sense. The second half of the quarter was a mess, unimportant, confusing, and everyone zoned out. Overall, somewhat easy class that is fun in some moments, boring in most. Professor Law is not the best lecturer by any means.

Hard to follow lecture & slides. Assignments completely different from tests, tests completely different from lecture content. You will not know how to prepare for the test.

I wish I didn't use my elective on this class.

Prof Law was a nice guy. He does genuinely care about students' learning and tries his best to be helpful and answer questions. I enjoyed getting to know him as a person.

The class itself though was not what I expected- before I even took it I thought it would involve digital artwork, but no, it involves math and programming textures, shading, and the like. There was really not enough guidance for the assignments since we didn't even talk about programming in class.

The exams were math heavy and also related to comparing/contrasting methods- the midterm was fine but the final was a bit hard.

There's a group project too, and they graded it a bit harshly.

It's not too hard to get an A but I personally don't think this class was worth being one of my electives.