Product Description
Acts as a complete resource for anyone interested in 3D modelling, providing detailed coverage of both realistic and nonrealistic images.Deals with the processes involved in converting a mathematical or geometric description of an object (a computer graphics model) into a visualization (2D) that simulates the appearance of a real object.Amazon.com Review
The third edition of Alan Watt's 3D Computer Graphics, a bible of computer graphics, includes a CD-ROM full of examples and updated information on graphics and rendering algorithms. The book discusses many of the techniques that have evolved in the seven years since the previous edition was published.

3D Computer Graphics is a textbook, and it's designed for serious programmers creating graphics applications (not end users). Over the course of 16 sections, Watt introduces the concepts and implementation of computer imaging, from "Mathematical Fundamentals of Computer Graphics" to "Representation and Rendering" and ending with "Image-Based Rendering and Photo-Modeling." The last section, devoted to computer animation, includes methods for linked structures, collision detection, and particle animation (to name a few).

Although the topics are sometimes hard to grasp, Mr. Watt writes clearly and concisely, making generous use of diagrams to help convey the principles described in the text.

The accompanying CD-ROM includes over a dozen studies of computer graphics techniques and rendering algorithms. Presented in HTML, the exhaustive studies, each with a matrix of thumbnails, demonstrates the varied achievable results. One minor complaint here: although the thumbnails can be clicked to view a much larger image, the larger versions come in .tif format, which few (if any) Web browsers can view. Users will need another application to view them. Having the large image in .jpg format would have enabled the reader to view it in the already-open Web browser.

3D Computer Graphics is ideally suited to graphics programmers and researchers working to create new medical imaging devices; geological research systems; virtual structural testing systems for aircraft, cars, and spacecraft; or effects and photorealistic Hollywood animation. --Mike Caputo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Is this book writen in English ??
I would recommend the author to learn how to speak English before to write a book.

Very tough
I am a junior student at Computer Engineering major. I am taking a computer graphics course and unfortunately, the instructor chose this title as the textbook.

I am not saying it is a bad book or something, but it is targeted to people who have some experience with computer graphics.... (e.g: for people doing graduate studies in computer graphics) As for me, my first encounter with computer graphics in this book made me hate the topic so much. The book makes you feel that graphics involve so much mathematics, especially analytic geometry. It is so hard as an introduction to the topic of Computer Graphics.

I would not recommend this book at all as an introduction to computer graphics, it may be good for those who have some (actually a lot) of experience in this so advanced topic.

a Disk version is wanted for the text
This is no doubt a very good book, but as a professor who wants to use it as a textbook, I can't make a powerpoint lecture notes from this book for my class presentation. I would like to have a disk version that goes together with the book.

classic
I have an earlier version of this book and I've always found it to be one that I return to time and again.It was one of the first three graphics programming books I bought during the same early career book shopping session, it was definately the most useful of the three and it's stayed with me ever since, where other books have been and gone.

It's generally very easy to read and very informative.It has a good progression of topics that introduce the reader to graphics programming concepts.

The thing I most like about this is that it covers much of the foley and van dam book, but avoids the many irrelevant sections and is a little more to the point.It's like a more concise reference to that book, which is also one that I would recommend.

The only thing I don't like about the updated version is the new layout, typeface and style.The old version just seems so much more appealing to me.

If you program game or computer graphics, then this is a reliable book to have in your collection.

No Better Book to Learn From
Contrary to what the other reviews say, I believe this is an excellent book for beginners in the 3D computer graphics world.However, that being said, you will need some basic math skills to be able to understand and apply the concepts in this book.If you are unfamilar with linear algebra, you should probably start with studying up on your math skills first.With the basic math skills, this book does a great job of introducing the basics to almost every major topic you'll see in 3D computer graphics programming.The book doesn't go into great detail at times, but the simplicity of this book is the winning ingredient that allows beginners to grasp the basics before moving on to indepth research in paticular topics of 3D graphics that interest them. ... Read more

Product Description
Graphics play a central role in the computer gaming experience, and arcade-style games are no exception. Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics emphasizes the development of quality graphics for 2D arcade-style computer games, both online and offline, including such topics as game design and documentation, graphics tools, animation, proper color usage, and fonts. Graphic designer and animator Ari Feldman provides a step-by-step example of designing 2D graphics and animation for an arcade-style game.

* Understand the capabilities of various display modes and learn the nuances of designing for each of them.
* Follow the step-by-step Fish Dish example for designing 2D graphics and animation for an online game.
* Create detailed design plans that document every aspect of the creative-related issues associated with your games.
* Find out the most important features of graphics creation tools, including painting programs and screen capture utilities.
* Identify the essential graphic file formats used in arcade game graphics development and find out which image compression techniques are most suited to arcade game graphics.
* Implement file naming conventions, version control, and backup strategies to manage your graphic assets.
* Discover how the proper use of fonts can liven up your graphics in addition to displaying important game information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Ebook version is free
The book is a great resource for anyone starting out in 2D game development.The author Ari Feldman has been VERY generous to allow an EBook version (Yes the entire book in PDF format!!!!) to be distributed for free from Yoyo Games.

[...]

Thank you Ari for a wonderful book and contribution to the game community!!

Also YoYo Games distributes GameMaker (there's a free version) to easily make 2D games quickly without any programming.

a fine, fine book
A very capable and useful treatment of the subject of 2-D graphics, written by the Master himself.Feldman, as you can judge for yourself from the accompanying spritelibs, is a Mozart at this kind of stuff.

HOWEVER, the book sorely needs a second edition, just like any textbook.I would estimate that about 70% of the book is out of date: not only the discussions of what software is available and what it can do, but also the disc that comes packaged with the text.

Certain basic principles, however, do not require updating and for that alone you're unlikely to regret purchasing the book.Such material only comprises 20% or so of the book, however.

Note that Feldman is a great guy, personally.If you contact him, you can without too much difficulty convince him to email you the chapters of this that are still relevant, because timeless.

In summary:If you're only making 2-D games, or if you're still using software from the late 90's for whatever reason, this book is a gem.For the rest of us, however . . . UPDATE IT!

Borderline brilliant!
Feldman really knows his stuff. Information presented logically, with many interesting examples.This is one computer book that's a keeper.

A great book on design
That's a good book that covers some aspects of the game world that are outside the programming stuff.
You can't reach far if you only knows how to program a game, and this book is one of your allies.

Playing the percentages
I bought this book after a recommendation taken from a 10 page WEB tutorial on creating 2D sprites and tiles for computer games. A couple of weeks later a pretty hefty book arrived on my doorstep. Unfortunately, the majority of the pages could have been thrown away.
30% of the information is no longer valid especially in the first 5 chapters where DOS seems to have made a comeback.
30% of the information seems to be either 'waffle' (another reviewer use the term 'filler' which is very accurate) or highly suspect.
30% was very useful
10% might become useful
Most of the utilities included on the CD are either old, rubbish,peculiar or can be downloaded anyway.
I really wanted to like this book but I find myself going back to that 10 page WEB tutorial when actually creating any 2D graphics. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

resource-full book, but little for the average computer user

Do you know how to get to Mouse Properties in the control panel without instructions? If not, then you might not be able to follow half the material in this book.

Examples of Annoyances addressed in this book:
"I replaced my CMOS backup battery just a few months ago, but I still see occasional CMOS battery errors..."
"I updated my BIOS and need to clear the CMOS RAM, but my motherboard lacks the proper jumper..."
"I want to overclock my PC..."
"Will my system crash if two PCI devices share the same IRQ line?"
"I tried to install DDR333 DIMMs along with my existing DDR400 DIMMs... I thought the modules were compatible..."
"I ran the System File Checker for Windows XP and got a DLL cache error."

There are a few easier topics that an average computer user like me can find useful and understandable ("My CD-RW drive refuses to eject my audio CD."), but the examples above are typical of the difficulty level of the content.

I'm a big fan of the Annoyances series, and this is a book meant for those who are keenly interested in computers, so I'll make sure to go back and read it after I've accumulated more knowledge. In the meantime, it'll serve as a standby reference to consult if a particular hardware problem comes up.

Awesome
This is one of the most useful books I have ever bought.I had three particular problems in mind, and I wasn't buying this book specifically for them; it was more for reference.But I opened it up and it had clear, concise, and easy instructions for doing what I needed- much better than the information I had gotten through hours of internet searches into the problems.

This is a must own for any PC owner, ESPECIALLY if you have Windows.

Interesting resource for hardware hackers
I liked this book, but that's easy because it's a topic that interests me. If hardware hacking is something that you enjoy you will probably find a lot to like in this book. Because in general it's all about the tips and tricks.

That being said this book, like all of the Annoyances books, is not a complete reference. You won't find the list of PC cards, but you will find tips on how to fix flaky USB connections and the like.

A great book to have around "just in case"...
O'Reilly has a series of Annoyances books on the market, and I recently had a chance to review the PC Hardware Annoyances book by Stephen J. Bigelow.It's a really good book with an enormous number of tips and tricks to fix misbehaving computer components.

Chapter List:
Desktop Annoyances: Setup Annoyances; Keyboard Annoyances; Mouse Annoyances; Startup Annoyances; BIOS/CMOS Annoyances; Memory Annoyances; Processor Annoyances; Card and Port Annoyances; Maintenance Annoyances
Laptop/PDA Annoyances: Setup/Startup Annoyances; Battery Annoyances; LCD Annoyances; PC Card Annoyances; PDA Annoyances; Maintenance Annoyances
Graphic Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Driver Annoyances; Upgrade Annoyances; Desktop Annoyances; Monitor Annoyances; 3D Annoyances; Video Capture/Playback Annoyances; Player Software Annoyances
Sound Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Setup Annoyances; Speaker Annoyances; CD Audio Annoyances; Music Player Annoyances
Hard Drive Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Performance Annoyances; Maintenance Annoyances; Backup and Restore Annoyances
CD/DVD Drive Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Performance Annoyances; Playback Annoyances; Recording Annoyances; Rewriting Annoyances; Burning Software Annoyances; DVD Player Annoyances
Network Annoyances: Configuration Annoyances; Modem Annoyances; Cable Annoyances; DSL Annoyances; Wireless Networking Annoyances; General Networking Annoyances; Printer and File Sharing Annoyances; Firewall Annoyances
Printer and Scanner Annoyances: Setup Annoyances; Performance Annoyances; Maintenance Annoyances; Color Printer Annoyances; Paper Annoyances; Scanner Annoyances
Index

As you can see, Bigelow covers a lot of ground in the book.I almost view this as a combination between a Hacks book and a compilation of questions asked by readers.And in fact, the compilation angle is pretty accurate.O'Reilly solicits annoyances from a number of sources, and these submissions make up a large part of what the author writes about.The questions can range anywhere from pretty basic ("my cursor skips all over the screen, and the mouse doesn't seem to be controlling it very well") to pretty advanced ("I get an HPF9XDR0 error whenever I try to print to my HP printer"), and Bigelow covers all of them with complete and often humorous information.In between the annoyance/fix entries, you will find a number of warnings, tips, and tools that will make your interactions with your hardware much more error-free.

The "bad" thing about a book like this is that *your* particular annoyance may not be covered.Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do about that.But the breath of questions covered should give you some insights that can be applied to your problem if it isn't answered directly.This is a book you probably want to have around your bookshelf "just in case" something goes wrong.Very well done. ... Read more

Product Description
In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you will be up and running with CorelDRAW 9.Step-by-step approach allows you to learn the essentials of CorelDRAW 9 from the ground up.Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good book - better than taking a class
I really enjoyed this book.I already knew the concepts of desktop publishing, but was new to CorelDRAW and needed something that would get me up and running quickly.Each chapter of the book showed me what the program could do and then told me how to do it.I liked the web-links to see some finished projects in color.

Also, I had a question about how to pronounce something in the book and e-mailed the author.He e-mailed me back with the answer right away.

I am very impressed with this book and with the author.I highly recommend "Sam's Teach Yourself CorelDRAW 9 in 24 Hours" by David Karlins.

a good book but not good for a beginner
Normally, a marked as 24 hours course book should be easy to follow with and easy to learn from. However, Mr.Karlins tried to cover almost everything of Corel Draw 9 in this book, which causes a lot of confusionfor the beginner reader.

Good Book
I haven`t read the book. But I think it has a good layout.(I have a friend who has bought the book for CDraw Ver 8,He says it`s very easy to follow.)I think this newer version has the same approuch if not better. ... Read more

Product Description
Shows how to start with a scan of almost anything, a clip art engraving, a lackluster photo, or a household object-and turn it into an original, high-quality piece of art. Gives clear, step-by-step instructions along with hundreds of full-color illustrations of useful ideas. Previous edition: c1996. Landscape format. Softcover.Amazon.com Review
The art of mixed media has taken on new meaning in the digital production environment, and the second edition of Start with a Scan guides new artists through the maze of image acquisition, hardware, and software toward the goal of final output. This is not just a book on scanning and creating art, but about the art and science of scanning, editing, and tailoring an image to your needs, too.

Beginning by explaining how scanners work, the different types of scanners that are out there, and why it's important to know how the scanned image will be used, the book quickly digs into the meat and potatoes of editing, altering, tracing, and otherwise changing a scanned image to suit a project.

Arguably the most interesting chapters are "Creating Textures and Backgrounds from Print and Paper" and "Transforming Photos into Graphics." One of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks that a designer faces is finding and creating background elements and graphics. In these two chapters, which probably are worth the cover price alone, Scan explains how to use scanned photos or raw elements (cloth, paper, and so on) to create the element that you need.

Although the book deals with digital tools (e.g., scanners and computers), it hardly could be called a computer graphics book. The goal is teaching how to scan and alter images, and Scan never loses sight of that. The authors deserve a great deal of credit for creating what is an educational and inspirational book on a form of visual art that happens to use computers as tools, instead of a computer book that happens to talk about digital graphics. This is how books of the genre should be written. --Mike Caputo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

vERY PLEASED
Book came quickly and in good shape as promised. Very happy with the transaction. Will do business again in the future. Thanks

Amazing Book, a guide to the both the technical and artistic
I bought this book solely for reference on scanning line art and fonts, but have found that it has much, much more to offer.I disagree with a prior reviewer that this book is only for beginners and that much of the information is out there on the web.I have been searching, without success, for specific directions on scanning line art and fonts and converting those scans into usable art.(Just two chapters in this book.)This book not only gives one specific instructions for this, but goes much further and delves quite deeply into the actual creation of real art from a simple scan. The book also provides a lot of information on turning photos into graphic art. I had considered myself a fairly advanced user of photo software, but this book has opened my eyes to an amazing range of techniques and ideas on image usage.

I was expecting a technical guide to basic scanning techniques, and this book provides that.It also takes one much further beyond mere technical skill and is a wonderful guide to both the creation and use of computer generated graphics.

Amazing book
I was graphics-challenged till I read this. The most I ever did with graphics was pretty much to resize them or add a little text. This book gives you a whole range of possibilites with color, texture, cropping, layering, etc.- more than just applying a fancy filter or tweaking the brightness and contrast. Now, based on the wealth of ideas in this book, I look at clip art and photos with a new eye, and have applied the various ideas to make a much wider variety of graphic images. The best thing about this book is that it's DESIGN-centric, rather than SOFTWARE-centric, so it's not limited to what a handful filters might do. Instead it expands your thinking to combine a whole variety of techniques to create something really unique.

for beginners
I ordered this one. I will return it. Yes, there are very good ideas in this book, but nothing great that you cannot come up by yourself if your are creative. Trust yourself.

There are many references to using photoshop (I am an intermediate photoshop user) that you can find elsewhere, not pertaining specifically to scanning.

Technical discussions on file types, resolution are OK but, once again, if you have read other books, doesn't add anything.

I think that you can find better tips and ideas surfing the Web.

Simply not for me.

The secret of great graphic design
I have already reviewed the first edition of this book. There is a second edition with *all new* graphics and more about making art for the world wide web. It is so good that I was moved to come back here and say this... here goes...

This book is the best book I have ever read about scanning. It is also the best book I have ever read about the principles of GRAPHIC ART itself. Everything that I learned formally about graphic design in years of study I found expertly summarised within these pages. This book must be the bargain of the century. Most artists would jealously guard these great secrets, tips and tricks. Look carefully at every illustration (I am still making great discoveries) analyse the appeal, reproduce in your own way and reap the artistic and financial rewards. Real insight freely and abundantly given into how professionals make the grade. ... Read more

Product Description
Written by members of the development team at Apple, Programming with Quartz is the first book to describe the sophisticated graphics system of Mac OS X. By using the methods described in this book, developers will be able to fully exploit the state-of-the-art graphics capabilities of Mac OS X in their applications, whether for Cocoa or Carbon development. This book also serves as an introduction to 2D graphics concepts, including how images are drawn and how color is rendered. It includes guidance for working with PDF documents, drawing bitmap graphics, using Quartz built-in color management, and drawing text. Programming with Quartz is a rich resource for new and experienced Mac OS X developers, Cocoa and Carbon programmers, UNIX developers who are migrating to Mac OS X, and anyone interested in powerful 2D graphics systems.

* This is the definitive guide to the revolutionary graphics system of Mac OS X that uses the Portable Document Format (PDF) as the basis of its imaging model.
* It contains the latest on programming with Quartz for Mac OS X version 10.4.
* Carefully crafted and extensive code examples show how to accomplish most of the drawing tasks possible with Quartz. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Resist the urge to dismiss
I've known about this book for a while now, but I've never bothered paying attention to it given it's somewhat ridiculous price tag. Necessity forced me to forgo my earlier conclusions however, and I'm now angry at myself for not picking it up sooner. However much you think you know about Quartz, there's always more to learn, and this book is a whole lot easier to pick new tricks up from than Apple's scant free documentation. It's a bit dated when it comes to the XCode specific info, but unless you're a total newcomer you should be able to fill in the proverbial gaps there without much trouble.

This is the second book on OS X programming that I have felt is truly worth owning; the first being Amit Singh's "Mac OS X Internals." This one's not as thick, nor is it hardbound, but there are lots of color plates.Good stuff.

Excellent Book
If all of the Apple frameworks were explained as well as CoreGraphics/Quartz is in this book, life would be so much better for independent programmers. I am not writing code in XCode, but one where I need to port calls to custom classes. This book has helped me so much. I have not located the link on the publisher's site (maybe I'm just missing it), but my only complaint (a very minor one) would be that they don't have a contact email for the authors to report errata or thank them.

Well written, to the point, good code examples and does not duplicate the Apple documents. Covers Carbon and Cocoa calls. The chapters on axial and radial shadings were the most helpful for me.

Great Introduction to Quartz
Great programming guide to Quartz. This book really sets the example for how to provide the combination of concepts and code to get the new user over the hump.The XCode projects are beautifully organized. This is the best book I have bought on Macintosh Programming that I can recall.Well done!

Very good
This is an extremely comprehensive guide to drawing in Mac OS X with Quartz.I was a little disappointed in the lack of Cocoa (with objective-C) ties.You can do anything with Quartz, but sometimes it would take much less time to use the Cocoa equivalents when programming your OS X applications.

That said, it's well written, and easy to follow so long as you do the examples as you go.You can certainly hop around in the book, but I found I had to read the intro chapters twice to really get the terminology.

Best book for beginning Quartz programmers
Quartz 2D is the primary graphics library in Mac OS X and is based on version 1.4 of Adobe PDF. It supercedes QuickDraw, which was used in earlier versions of the Mac OS. In Quartz 2D the coordinate space is an abstract concept defined by real values in 2 dimensions. Points in this space can be connected to form paths, such as straight lines, Bezier curves and so on. To create actual graphics on the display, the paths are rasterized as needed to generate the pixels at the display device's resolution. This permits the same graphics commands to yield the same output on any device using the best resolution available.
This book is full of clear explanations for mere mortals of how Quartz has packaged the state of the art in graphics programming. The book starts out with Quartz 2D drawing basics such as drawing and filling basic geometric forms and drawing lines. With the basics out of the way, the author goes on to show how you would use Quartz 2D both in Cocoa and in Carbon. Next there are chapters on basic computer graphics intertwined with performing these tasks in Quartz. Included topics are coordinate systems, affine transformations, and parametric curves all within the framework of performing graphics in Quartz. The book then moves on to working with images including creating CGImage objects, and importing and exporting data to PNG, JPEG, and Quicktime formats. Another chapter is devoted to working with text. There are two chapters devoted to working with PDF data, including a chapter on handling PDF images that is very thorough in its descriptions and the issues that are raised. The book is very well written and covers many complex topics in 2D graphics clearly and at a level appropriate for all programmers, and I highly recommend it for all programmers interested in Quartz. ... Read more

Product Description

This book introduces the fundamentals of 2-D and 3-D computer graphics. Additionally, a range of emerging, creative 3-D display technologies are described, including stereoscopic systems, immersive virtual reality, volumetric, varifocal, and others.

Interaction is a vital aspect of modern computer graphics, and issues concerning interaction (including haptic feedback) are discussed. Included with the book are anaglyph, stereoscopic, and Pulfrich viewing glasses. Topics covered include: - essential mathematics, - vital 2-D and 3-D graphics techniques, - key features of the graphics, - pipeline, - display and interaction techniques, - important historical milestones.

Designed to be a core teaching text at the undergraduate level, accessible to students with wide-ranging backgrounds, only an elementary grounding in mathematics is assumed as key maths is provided. Regular ‘Over to You’ activities are included, and each chapter concludes with review and discussion questions.

Product Description
Updated to the latest release, this book explains and demonstrates how you can create a Web site with maximum effect and a limited file size. Concepts are discussed in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner, complete with applied examples of the newest Flash MX functions. The book provides coverage of vector animation commonly associated with Flash, as well as information on integrating video, sound, text and basic ActionScripting to polish off your site. This book is the perfect learning tool and desk reference for anyone using Flash MX for web design. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The worst instructional book!
My experience is that of a student who took a Flash MX course where, unfortunately, the assigned textbook was this horrible piece of junk.This has got to be the worst instructional book I have ever encountered!It is pretty clear from the first page that the author is very knowledgeable about the subject. I just wish that he would have worked on finding a better way of conveying his message instead of trying SO HARD to impress us with his vocabulary.He is not concise and his sentences are very long-winded.He repeats the same thing over and over again in a course of a paragraph. He spends the first page of every chapter telling us what we will be studying and what we will encounter in subsequent chapters, instead of just getting to the content (I do not want to spend my precious time reading about something that I will read about again later). There were many times I wanted to shout, "Get to the point!"

I enjoyed playing around with Flash, but this book has been so tedious and tiring to read.My fellow classmates expressed the same opinion in our class evaluations.I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Poorly written and edited, but some good content
An author with a master's degree has the writing skill of a sophomore in high school. He uses the passive voice extensively, which makes understanding his instructions and recommendations difficult. A writer of a technical instruction piece should never use the passive voice because it is imprecise.
He pads sentences with unnecessary words, uses split infinitives, and uses adjectives such as "which" as sentence subjects.
He buries important points in long-winded sentences.
While some of the content is very good, its organization is poor, particularly the chapter on Introduction to Action Script.
Some of his exercises are useless. They merely instruct you to open a feature up in Flash and look at it.
The Flash Help system is much better than this book.

A Library of Flash MX Information
I cannot give less than 5 stars, Mohler did a phenom-job of writing this book. Every question that I asked myself while I was reading eventually was answered, usually within the next few pages. Also he provides information on bitmaps and audio in a detailed fashion (a chapter for each), which might[tick] you off, but there is a connection between those items and Flash, it's just harder to see when your inexperienced.

Other than that it includes a CD-ROM with tutorials, which are helpful. And there is quite a bit of information on Actionscript, to get you familiar with it.

It's a library of information on Flash MX, in which you can keep going back to for more books or videos, if you'd like to try your hand at some of the advanced tutorials for practice.

Stuck in Chapter 9
After trying to do an excerise in Chapter nine of this book 4 times, I threw this book in the trash and went to look for a better book. This book is a waste of time.
I even looked for a web site with a correction, no luck just more books to buy.

Should have a "windows only" warning
While the book in itself is quite good, it seems to have forgotten that many Flash developers use Mac. All the screen shots are from the PC - and many of the examples on the CD did not work on my Mac OS X Powerbook (using Flash 6 player). The author spends a lot of time explaining the docked panel environment, forgetting (or at least not mentioning) that it is not available on the Mac version of Flash MX.

If you use a PC, however, go for it. ... Read more

Product Description
This introduction to 3D computer graphics emphasizes fundamentals and the mathematics underlying computer graphics, while also covering programming techniques using OpenGL, a platform-independent graphics programming environment. The minimal prerequisites make it suitable for self-study or for use as an advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate text as the author leads step-by-step from the basics of transformations to advanced topics such as animations and kinematics. Accompanying software, including source code for a ray tracing software package, is available freely from the book's web site. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

So good
Great service!!The book is new and the deliver has been so fast!(3 days more or less) :)

Good coverage, clean and clear language
I have several graphics books and I find two are indespensible: The OpenGL Programming Guide and Dr. Buss' book.Dr. Buss' book has clear, elucidating language and good coverage for both the classroom and the practicing graphics software developer.Though the OpenGL Programming Guide covers many of the same topics, its coverage of the mathematics is thin.Hence, this text perfectly dovetails with it.Particularly well-written is the chapter covering the Phong and the Cook-Torrance lighting models. ... Read more

Product Description
With extensive cross-references, illustrations and C-language sample code, QuickDraw GX Graphics shows readers how to create and manipulate the fundamental geometric shapes of QuickDraw GX to generate a vast range of graphic entities. It also demonstrates how to work with bitmaps and pictures, and specialized QuickDraw GX graphic shapes. ... Read more

Product Description
Self-paced, self-guided instruction is all well and good, but at theend of the day, most people could use a little feedback--especiallywhen they're ready to build a design portfolio and hit the job market.Not to worry, this book provides actual instructor feedback along withthe self-paced, individualized instruction in Photoshop and Illustratorthat designers need. Written by the faculty of New York-based,accredited online design school Sessions.edu, the book uses theschool's trademark project-based curriculum to teach essential designconcepts with Photoshop and Illustrator. After a brief intro to theworld of graphic design, Sessions instructors provide quick "refreshercourse" chapters on the two programs. Then, armed with Photoshop andIllustrator basics, readers tackle a series of projects that stretchtheir imagination and creative muscles involving logo design, magazinelayouts, illustrations, poster design, digital imaging, book coverdesign, packaging design, and more. Best of all, readers are encouragedto post their work for expert feedback from Session.edu faculty on"Studio Sessions," the custom Web site created for this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Not Very Useful
This book is full of good ideas, but the necessary graphics for the projects
can only be accessed by students of the design school who have access to a special code.
Without is you can only review the projects, then try to come up with graphics of your
own for the tutorials.
Overall, not worth the almost $40 that I paid for it!!! The description should have stated that the required code would not be available.
Also, I received the book without so much as a slip of paper or sales receipt from the book store I bought it from.

Weak...
This book is terrible. The projects are lame and uninspiring. If you really need to learn photoshop and illustrator go get the adobe "classroom in a book" series.

This is a must for all graphic designers!
I borrowed this book from a graphic designer at work. At the time, I had just finished my certification and didn't know what to do about a portfolio. I kept it for a couple of weeks, and then bought my own copy. This book is awesome! It shows you step-by-step techniques on pieces to put in your portfolio and reviews some skills on Illustrator and Photoshop. It also gives you some hints on some effects you'd like to make on the project. To top it off, you get to post your work on a forum and get feedback from the institution's instructors! Definitely a must-have! Caution: this book is hard to get brand new since it is out of print.

Portfolio builder? Not@
This book sounds better than it is. Yourget a web site that you are supposed to be able to download projects and then put on the site to get feed back and see other students work. When you get to the site, they are trying to sell you the book and let you read a chapter on the site. I wanted to use it to create a portfolio so I could start my job search. This was a waste of money. I still don't have aportfolio and no help with creating one!!
I greatly disappointed and upset!!!!!

This book is fantastic!
This book was so very helpful in aiding my desire to build a portfolio!It helped me learn more about Photoshop and Illustrator - plus gave me assignments that were reviewed and critiqued by a very helpful and polite instructor.This is more than just a book it is a full class at a book rate!I would recommend it to anyone looking for this type of work or just to improve what they already know. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a complete, in-depth reference that will be of enormous value to anyone in the computer animation field-from students to established professionals to the many traditional animators who find themselves drawn to the computer-based world.The Computer Animator's Technical Handbook distinguishes itself by giving full attention to the motion that defines animation (as opposed to the modeling that produces the still image) and the often-neglected production processes that make it possible.The work of two widely recognized computer animation experts, this book is destined to become the standard reference for professionals throughout the industry and a popular text in classrooms.

* Introduces basic concepts, explores advanced issues, and provides detailed coverage of everything in between
* Designed to allow readers to follow its explanations on either of two levels: a general level that outlines key concepts and an advanced level that gives readers a complete understanding of the topic
* Covers every aspect of time-based imagery and media: film, video, production processes, traditional animation, Kinematics, Dynamics, and much more
* Software-independent in its coverage, and thus assured to appeal to the largest possible audience
* Filled with full-color illustrations, many the work of industry leaders
Amazon.com Review
The field of computer animation is constantly evolving. Hardware gains speed and capacity, software advances in features and becomes easier to use, and the eyes of viewers become more critical as they grow accustomed to more sophisticated effects. Writing a book about such an evolving topic would seem doomed from the start.

The Computer Animator's Technical Handbook intentionally stays away from the specifics of hardware and software, thus ensuring a shelf life longer than most computers. The book focuses on the driving ideas behind animation in general and computer animation in particular, and it offers a valuable historical perspective on contemporary terms.

The focus of the book is to teach computer animation production, and it does this exceedingly well. Fifteen chapters spanning 400 pages cover everything from computer animation modeling to the introduction of time-based media through understanding the mechanics of film and the differences between film and video production, and much more. This is a fine book to sit and read through, as well as to keep handy on the shelf for reference.

Although more expensive than many books of its kind, there were no shortcuts taken in the production. Every page is glossy and in full color, and is lavishly illustrated with diagrams, photographs, and examples of computer graphics and frames from noteworthy computer-animated productions.

This handbook is not a review of software packages, nor will it suggest which hardware platform to buy into, but it will provide a high-level overview of a powerfully dynamic field. --Mike Caputo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Not worth the time and money.
The book is basically a dictionary of terms in the computer graphic field.All most the whole book contain very simple ideas and concept I knew already.

Also Lynn Pocock doesn't even do computer graphic work professionally.I have yet to see any computer animation works by the writer.

SAVE YOUR MONEY.

Don't waste your time even looking at this book
You get more indepth information reading the help files in a 3d program.Save your money.Also, someone reviewed it twice and gave it 5 stars, How bogus.Price for the book is ridiculous.

BAD.

Smart book
The book offers a very broad and seemingly unrelated range of information.You read, familiarize yourself with the theory of what is done in the field and afterwards it is very easy to apply the quite interesting information in this book.Inevitably, you would require some more practical (not necessarily detailed) information pertaining to more advanced projects.In this case you will at least know what you are looking for and manage the time and project in a more professional manner.

I actually became smarter after reading this book; )
The book offers a very broad and seemingly unrelated range of information.You read, familiarize yourself with the theory of what is done in the field and afterwards it is very easy to apply the quite interesting information gotten from this book.Inevitably, you would require some more practical (not necessarily detailed) information pertaining to more advanced projects.In this case you will at least know what you are looking for and manage the time and project in a more professional manner.

Great reference text
I have already consulted this book for several pieces of hard to find information. Also, the section on video made me understand it truly for the first time! ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is a record of the Workshop on Graphics and Communications organized within ESPRIT II Project 2463 ARGOSI (Applications Related Graphics and OSI Standards Integration). The workshop was included in the Eurographics workshop programme for 1990. The ARGOSI project essentially arose from the observation that international standards in the graphics and networking areas were generally being developed in isolation and that insufficient attention was being paid to the needs of applications whose requirements spanned several standards. The importance of the integration of graphics and networking has been growing over recent years, with the growth of interest in multi-media systems to support cooperative working, and the use of computer graphics techniques in the visualization of the results of scientific and engineering computations. The latter frequently involve high-speed links between workstations and supercomputers. The presentations in this volume cover a broad range of activities from a classification scheme for graphics and networking to interconnection experiments with broadband networks. Three topics were selected for detailed discussion in working groups: - Improvements to the computer graphics metafile standard, - The role of application profiles in graphics data exchange, - The impact of multi-media. The volume contains a record of the discussions and the recommendations from the working groups, subsequently endorsed by the workshop. ... Read more

Product Description
Complementing Leendert Ammeraal's earlier book Programming Principles in Computer Graphics, (Wiley, 1986), this book focuses on a lower level of computer graphics. Written for the IBM PC and all compatible machines using PC DOS or MS DOS, it implements the function of the four primitive routines - intigr, move, draw, ebdgr - used in the first book. It also deals with the special features of 'raster' graphics, writing text in combination with graphics, and finally it develops a simple drawing system. The book's aim is to show that despite the absence of built-in graphics facilities, the C language is suitable for obtaining graphics output. ... Read more

Product Description
This book describes two ISO standardization projects - the Computer Graphics Interface (CGI) and the Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM). It has been written principally for users and practitioners of computer graphics. In particular, system designers, independent software vendors, graphics system implementors, and application program developers need to understand the basic standards being put into place at the so-called Virtual Device Interface. Technical managers, graduate students in computer science specializing in graphics, and buyers in government and industry will also find this book valuable. The CGI project is standardizing a functional and syntactic specification for the exchange of device-independent data and associated control information between systems with graphical capabilities. The CGI defines idealized abstract classes of graphical devices capable of accepting input and generating, storing and manipulating pictures. The CGM provides a file format suitable for the storage and retrieval of device-independent picture descriptions. Pictures described by a sequence of CGI function invocations can be written to disk and stored compactly as CGMs, and CGMs can be interpreted and displayed efficiently using a CGI implementation. Formal standards documents are difficult to read. They are dry, complex and lack tutorial material. This book is intended to supplement the standards documents themselves. Organized into four parts comprising seventeen chapters, it includes many illustrations and examples not found in the standards. The book also explains the relationship of the CGI and CGM to other standards, both formal and de facto, describes some early commercial implementations of the standards, and gives the reader insight into the future evolution of these standards. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One and probably only summary of CGI and CGM
Computer Graphics Interface (CGI) and Computer Graphics Metadata (CGM) were invented a while ago, take it: a long while ago!. But much of the industrial large graphical databases still use these protocols as their base of information. If you work with such data, e.g. for NC production, this book contains the most valuable information for the practice. These days CGI means mostly "Computer Generated Imaging" or another use in networks: Common Gateway Interface. This CGI in this book might be mostly a thing of a past, replaced by DirectX or OpenGL, but CGM still lives, foremost in the very much actively used WebCGM. WebCGM 2.1 was approved in year 2008. The web page of the consortium is cgmopen org. Take this book if you need information about the primary CGM standard for compatibility and proper interpretation. Aside of this contextual aspect, Arnold and Bono are good writers and explain well the spirit of both standards. ... Read more

Product Description
The Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) is an international standard for the storage of graphical data. The CGM can be used for storing pictures from a wide range of applications. A workshop was held at the National Bureau of Standards, Maryland, USA in September 1987 to discuss this newly adopted standard. The workshop brought together experts in the field. The papers presented included those from people who had been involved in developing the standard; those who were implementing it; those who were using it; those who could see future uses for this important standard; and those who may be involved in testing implementations. The book includes revised papers and records the discussions which resulted from them. This book presents a wealth of experience of the implementation and use of the CGM and supplies pointers to the future of standards work in this field. It is valuable information for implementors and users of the CGM and those involved in a consideration of testing. ... Read more

Product Description
Almost every computer user today has to deal with computer graphics on some level. This book will explain many of the graphics problems (and their solutions) common to users at all levels. It will also describe the details of most graphics file formats available on the personal computer, as well as the most common programs that deal with graphics in some form. ... Read more

Product Description
This book contains coverage of the hottest image editing and manipulation programs, including Adobe Photoshop, Aldus Photostyler, and Caligari's trueSpace and the latest advances in popular technologies, including PhotoCD, morphing, image processing, and 2-D and 3-D animation. ... Read more