1 comments about An Introduction to Splines for Use in Computer Graphics and Geometric Modeling (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics).

1. Inside the Introduction to Splines, the reader will find the construction of B-spline basis functions. The complete reference for B-splines for both uniform and non-uniform knot vector, and various methods for constuctions B-splines given certain contraints. The text goes further to introduce the B-spline recurrance relation through divided differences and one sided power functions. Beta splines, Hermite interpolation and other relavent topics are covered in great depth with illustrations to clarify concepts.

2 comments about The Illusion of Life 2: More Essays on Animation.

1. The title of this book is misleading. Whether it is intentional or not, I am not sure. I would like to make it clear that this book is not related to "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Frank and Ollie's book is the animation bible, and anyone who is serious about animation should own it.
   
   This book, "The Illusion of Life II by Alan Cholodenko," is a collection of overly theoretical essays that have little bearing on the craft and art of animation/storytelling.
   
   I would highly recommend getting the "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation" by Frank and Ollie instead of this book.



2. With this wildly eclectic yet controlled collection of essays, Alan Cholodenko accelerates and expands his project of reanimating film studies in and through animation studies and the rigorous theorizing of animation.
   
   In the 1991 precursor to THE ILLUSION OF LIFE 2, Cholodenko upset the classic logic of animation as a subspecies of film and instead posited film, all film, as a form of animation. Polemical and challenging (yet, paradoxically, in some sense obvious), this assertion was and continues to be well-defended by both Cholodenko's perspicacity and his enviable expertise in `poststructuralist' and `postmodernist' thought.
   
   This new publication even further diversifies the implications of its contributors' efforts, as they analyse the concept of animation in relation to the history (and future) of war, the military, the cityscape, cultural exchange, old and new media, marketing, self-identity, the soul, life, death, intellectual property, and the very physical nature of the universe that surrounds us.
   
   The essay's subjects range and connect in a wide array: from manga to Blade Runner; from anime cuteness to military flight simulation; from The Lion King's controversial authorship to its metaphysical subversiveness. Meanwhile, an estuary of theoretical wellsprings feed the book from sources Aristotle to Zizek. Do not count on every essay following a theoretical bend, but do count on each one being meticulously researched and placed informatively in a wider nexus of animation history and scholarship.
   
   As these essayists contour the late 20th century's variegated wave of animation, they move in-between disciplines and distinctions, upsetting those disciplines and distinctions, all the while richly theorizing and animating the subject of animation itself. If you're ready to let it take you, THE ILLUSION OF LIFE 2 makes for an exciting ride- as challenging as it is fun.

5 comments about The Flash 2 Web Animation Book.

1. A great book for beginners as well as expert multimedia designers. If you are familiar with Macromedia, you know their manuals tend to be thin (to put it lightly). This book picks up where the manuals leave off. Great tips and tricks. If you are going to use Flash, then buy this book!



2. Being new to using Macromedia products, I found the manual pretty limited. After reading this book I feel I was better off with the manual. It was not the best £25 I have spent. It is very poorly illustrated, the files referred to in the book do not exist on the CD, not well structured. The author presumes prior knowledge of Flash. I feel some more use of screen shots would have done the book more justice. I personally think this book would be ideal for someone who already knows how to use Flash (then why would you buy this book).



3. I personally didn't find it useful. However, when I let a friend borrow it who was just starting to play around with Flash, he said it was great. So if you know the basics of Flash, then forget about this book. But if the interface weirds you out and you need some handholding then this is the book to get



4. Since I'm totally new with Flash and its manual isn't helpful. I thought buying this book would help me get through with Flash. But my first tutorial with it was a disaster. The software command was listed wrong, instructions were completely confusing as hell. I felt like an idiot for buying this book. My advice to you is not to waste your money.



5. To be fair to the Authors I think the book was well researched, although compared to more complex multimedia educational books such as Macromedia Press' Director 6 and Lingo Authorized, this book could have been better structured with each lesson. Plus the files in the companion CD had their fair share of problems, its either they were missing or that the program simply could not open them. Either way this book is worth buying.

5 comments about Infinite Game Universe: Mathematical Techniques (Advances in Computer Graphics and Game Development) (Advances in Computer Graphics and Game Development Series).

1. This is a good book for game programmers who are just starting to realize that the need a background in mathematics to reach the next level in the careers.

   Other audiences will not really like the book. Mathematicians wanting to know more about gaming or graphic techniques will find the math lacking. There is not enough action to keep game players from yawning. There is no cut and paste code for second rate programmers to plagerize. Only a narrow audience will really find the book of interest.

   I am really happy to see this book on the shelves. Game programming is a multi-billion dollar industry. Many of the people got their start in the business through graphic arts, or simply banging on computers without much training. This book shows how programmers need to evolve from just plain code monkeys to true thinkers.

   It was interesting to see what subjects the author found to be important. He concentrated a great deal on random number generation, seeding, plot development, basic oop and finally he touched on fractals. Unfortunately, the mathematics in the book was pretty much obvious stuff. The book would not serve well as a reference, nor as a text book.

   If you are in the game programming business, I would recommend this book. Others will not receive much value from it.




2. I am participating in programming a tool for automated design, and I identified some ideas in the preface that I already had. After reading that, I really wanted to see what were someone else's thoughts on a subject that really interests me. But the preface happens to be the only interesting part of the book.

   Random number generation is an evident first step, but you better read some good book about it (there are plenty). The methods outlined here are just not good enough.

   Every chapter tries to develop a theory and then explain it with an example. The theory is usually a long explanation of a simple idea, without adding any interesting information to it. Then the examples are often too simple or don't have anything to do with the subject.

   There are many pages devoted to fractals, and very little information in them. The same thing happens with random name generation, music generation, fractal terrains... These are all really cool subjects, but go learn about them somewhere else.

   The chapters are totally disconnected, and the purpose of the book is not clear. If it's a book about techniques for making games with automatically generated worlds, the book should focus on how to develop such a thing, using the development of the program as a guideline for connecting the parts. If the book is about math, it's just the worst math book I have read (and I have read quite a few).

   The author should learn how to write and should also organize his ideas better. Using a Mandelbrot image to modify probabilities of pairs of letters is just nonsense. The ghosts in Pac-Man are not good examples of self-similar behaviour, and have nothing to do with fractals. And there are many more examples of "thinkos" in this book.

   Spend your money in a better book.




3. I bought this book hoping for information on fractals, random number theory, compression, etc. Very disappointed. He seemed to lean heavily on a few particular sources that I didn't think were very strong. (For example, I can't imagine anyone covering random numbers without mentioning Knuth's book which is considered one of the authorities on the matter.)

   Basically, this book spends a lot of time describing to you in generalities the basic principles, without actually giving any compelling examples. In many cases, he teases you by talking about what *could* be done with the types of techniques he is describing, and you're like, "all right, now we're getting interesting." But then he never actually gets around to the meat of the matter. He talked a lot about fractals in general, but never any good examples of how to actually make fractals. Or in the chapter "probabilitity as a compression technique" (which is only 5 pages long, btw) he discussed RLE encoding, which is an excellent trivial example. The only problem is, that's where he stopped - I can't believe he didn't discuss ADPCM encoding, for example.

   It's not that this is a beginner, book, either. There really just isn't that much material at any level. I'm still trying to figure out where all the pages went. Basically, a disappointment. Lots of fluff. Not much math, which is what the title would lead you to believe this book is all about.




4. The "universe simluation" view of game design draws on a diverse array of topics in computer science: random number sequences, cellular automata, neural networks, fractals, formal languages, scripting, object-oriented systems, physics, algorithms, data compression, artificial intelligence. While Thompson's book manages to touch on most of the above, no topic is explored or applied in any real depth, and the difficult prose hinders reading.

   The text is full of off-hand references to the classic computer game "Elite" as an example of an infinite game universe, but awfully short on specifics. A few hours of web research into gaming sites would have filled in the blanks. Even more shocking is the omission of "Starflight"---a groundbreaking computer role-playing game that used a good number of techniques in this book (i.e. fractal terrain generation) to support hundreds of detailed, explorable planets and star systems, each with its own atmospheric conditions, mineral deposits, ancient ruins, and mysterious life-forms. All that crammed onto a 720K disk---surely of great interest to this book's audience. Why is there no coverage of this classic?

   Likewise, I can't understand why the author provides an illustrated reference to "R-Type" --- the most predictable shoot-em-up game ever --- while not mentioning the massive, still-unequaled world-simulation that was "Ultima VII - The Black Gate."

   What exposition remains is obscured by the awful writing style and distinct lack of mathematical rigor.

   What should you read instead? I recommend "The Computational Beauty of Nature" for the math side, "The Official Book of Ultima" for the design philosophy; you can read up online about the relationship of object-oriented systems to simulations. For people who are thinking about game design, read up on Interactive Fiction and some of the old papers applying discrete maths to storyline, plot, character, environment. I've been planning for years to write a book on these types of games someday---perhaps it'll be sold on Amazon? :-)




5. I got this book because the title sounded like just the sort of good algorithm design discussion I was interested in. Sadly, the book doesn't live up to expectations. By a long shot.

   I got the book before reviews were up on this site, unfortunately... Listen to these reviewers!

   The book provides a lot of interesting discussion and pontification without a lot of specifics or advanced concepts. The techniques described are nowhere near cutting-edge. It honestly reminds me of listening to one of my CS professors rambling after a long day.

   The upside is that it contains a lot of interesting ideas and could be a good introductory text for programmers not already experienced in advanced algorithms, real-world game design, or higher mathematics. Unfortunately, that's a small audience, I suspect.

5 comments about Macromedia Director Game Development: From Concept to Creation (Miscellaneous).

1. This book assumes you already know how to code in lingo. I am experienced in using Director but don't know anything about lingo. It has a verry small appendix that hardly explanes what the code does. You can however read the code frome the games it includes but that is the hardest way to learn. If you already are familiar with lingo, then you don't even need this book. The book says "to get this effect, type in this code.." but it doesn't say why. It says if you need to know why, look up the lingo in the appendix. Problem is, only one or two words in that whole code you just typed are in the apendix. This boolk made me more confused than ever.



2. Flash 5 - Director Games: Where will they go next. Granted the books by epic software and Kris Jamsa are a bit more expensive than the rest of the books, but WELL WORTH IT. I bought the book so that I may see and learn how others are using their creativity to do games. Glad I bought this book. It has a great deal of code and actually walks you through them. Sometimes it can get difficult to follow, but it makes me just that much better when I get through it. I have already been able to sell the concept to a client and used one of the games from the book, changed some of the graphics, just a little of the code and I now have a finished piece that I can sell. Awesome job, awesome book and awesome games.

   This book is not geared for the starters, but trust me, you will learn a great deal from this book if you are just starting out. I have been working with Macromedia products for a couple of years and am glad I added these two books to my arsenal.




3. There are two kinds of reviews for this book: the ones written by people who paid $$ to find out how much it sucked, and the ones written by shills for Jamsa and Epic. See if you can figure out which ones are which! Speaking as someone who didn't write this review because my boss told me to, I can say in all honesty that this may be the most worthless book I have ever seen. Period. Whether you're a Director pro, somewhat experienced, or even a rank beginner, this book garuntees to be a 100% waste of your time and money. Run away. Now!



4. This book really exceeds what it means to be stupid. How can something so hyped, be so lame. That is the only real thing you can get from this book, vaporware.



5. I just bought this book and have been working through it the past few days. This book is an excellent source of examples of complete Lingo code. It contains 15 games on the CD with all of the source code, and the finished working programs. The real value is not the book itself, but the CD with the source code! All the book does is give a brief overview of each game. This book is excellent for intermediate Lingo programmers like myself, not beginners looking to learn Lingo from scratch. Advanced programmers will probably find it boring. If you already know the basics of Lingo coding then this is an excellent book to see working examples of code. I learn best by seeing how other programmers assemble projects, seeing their code in action, and evaluating the finished product. Not reading theories and snippets of code in some 800 page book. Therein lies the value of this book to me. It doesn't try to educate you on Lingo, it cuts right to the code.

   I think the other reviewers did not give this book a fair shake. It delivers exactly what it states, and I am not a shill working for the authors, just a beginning Lingo programmer looking for working examples from which to learn. If you want to see basic Lingo game programming in action this is an excellent book. If you still need to learn Lingo basics or are looking for advanced Lingo concepts then buy another book.

No comments about GIF Animation Studio (Web Studio Series).

No comments about Tutorials on Multiresolution in Geometric Modelling.

No comments about Australia in Pictures (Visual Geography. Second Series).

1 comments about Exploring Mathematics With Mathematica: Dialogs Concerning Computers and Mathematics.

1. This book uses the powerful "Mathematica" tool, to present mathematical issues. Most of them are very interesting subjects, which include Sounds, chaos, ... The idea of discussing the subjects in dialogs, contributes a lot to the discussion. I really enjoyed the book, and it is suitable for everyone who likes mathematics, especially those who have "Mathematica".

5 comments about 3-D Human Modeling and Animation, First Edition.

1. Good source for the beginner or advanced student involved in 3D Animation -- b-spline, rendering, etc. Comes with clear illustrations of every anatomical configuration used in modeling.



2. 3-D Human Modeling and Animation is a great book for beginners starting in the 3-D field. It gives step by step instructions to model every body part, even down to the finger nail. This book involves spline modeling which is a great tool for modeling organic objects, especially humans. Best is the generality of the book; the book is not software dependant and is very usefull with any software that uses spline modeling.



3. I was looking for a book on Human nurbs modeling & This was supposed to be exactly what I needed - Although it is very easy to read & great for beginners, I expected more refinement. my greatest disappontment was from the really lame looking model examples displayed in the book.



4. 3-D Human Modeling and Animation is a great guide for beginners and a solid reference manual for those with art and 3-D modeling backgrounds. It presents the basic knowledge that is essential in creating the human form. For those looking just for a reference manual, the book provides examples and presents ideas on how to utilize and improve on the techniques given.



5. A word of warning. . .computer graphics books age like milk, not wine. The graphics here are considerably _worse_ than what you'd get out of a consumer grade product like Metacreations Poser-- not to mention 3D Studio or Softimage.

   At the time this was written, it may have been useful, but you can spend your time and money more productively now.