Siggraph Workshop

Things to Consider When Gathering Background Research

Background papers fall into two categories:

1) Specific Problem Papers: Papers you will need to discuss in careful detail in order to show that your research is different. These papers solve the same or similar problems as your research, you will need to tell your audience how your solution is "better".
(i.e. your research will be compared to these papers by all reviewers.)
2) Generally Relevant Papers: These are papers in the same general area as your work. You should use these papers to show how your reseach fits into the "Big Picture" and solves problems that are of concern to the entire graphics community.

For each background paper:

Write a paragraph that summarizes the paper ~as it relates to your research~. You can explain why your research is different or similar. If the paper falls into the second category, perhaps it is more important to discuss just the really interesting/foundational parts of that research.

When you have written these paragraphs, three things are suggested:

1) Staple a printed copy of your summary to your hardcopy of the paper.
(This makes it easy to go back to the paper & re-read or remember what the paper is about.)

2) Keep one file that holds all of the bibs, perhaps organized by date or subject.
(I found this really useful when writing my thesis; after writing all of these paragraphs, when I went to formally write my background, all I had to do was edit out the paragraphs I didn't need. -- Amy Gooch)

3) Use the annote field in the bibtex entry to store your summary in your papers .bib file. An example is shown below:

@article{Way:2001:TSO,
author = {Der-Lor Way and Zen-Chung Shih},
title = {The Synthesis of Rock Textures in Chinese Landscape
Painting},
volume = {20},
number = {3},
journal = {Computer Graphics Forum},
year = {2001},
publisher = {Blackwell Publishers},
note = {ISSN 1067-7055},
annote = {In Chinese landscape painting, rock textures portray the
orientation of mountains and contribute to the atmosphere. Many
landscape-painting skills are required according to the type of
rock. Landscape painting is the major theme of Chinese
painting. Over the centuries, masters of Chinese landscape
painting developed various texture strokes. Hemp-fiber and
axe-cut are two major types of texture strokes. A slightly
sinuous and seemingly broken line, the hemp-fiber stroke is used
for describing the gentle slopes of rock formations whereas the
axe-cut stroke best depicts hard, rocky surfaces. This paper
presents a novel method of synthesizing rock textures in Chinese
landscape painting, useful not only to artists who want to paint
interactively, but also in automated rendering of natural
scenes. The method proposed underwrites the complete painting
process after users have specified only the contour and
parameters. }, }