5 comments about Visualizing Data.

1. Based on the title and publisher's writeup I was expecting the book to provide in-depth coverage of various visual metaphors for understanding and manipulating data, such as "Designing Interfaces" by Tidwell, another O'Reilly book that I am very pleased with.
   
   Unfortunately it would be more appropriate if the title (Visualizing Dta) and sub-title (Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment) were switched. This book is primarily a tutorial on using the Processing Environment (http://processing.org), showing you how to create various interactive charts and composed primarily of code examples.
   
   In addition, the visualizations presented in the book are far from aesthetically pleasing. The Processing Environment has the capability to create visualizations that are not only functional, but beautiful as well. You can find a collection of visualizations at http://www.visualcomplexity.com, many of which were created with the Processing Environment.
   
   In summary I am granting a 2-star rating because the book does not deliver the expected coverage of data visualization design and even in its explanation of the Processing Environment does not provide exemplary visualizations.



2. Ben Fry hits the mark!
   
   The author jumps right into describing the process in Chapter 1, "The Seven Stages of Visualizing Data."
   He elaborates each of the stages with illustrations and examples.
   
   In chapter 2, "Getting Started with Processing," Ben introduces a software tool (named Processing) that's available for download: www.processing.org/download.
   
   From the site: "Processing is an open project initiated by Ben Fry and Casey Reas. It evolved from ideas explored in the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab."
   
   And the remainder of the title details the various stages of visualizing data with sample code you can use to develop your own visualizations!



3. 'Visualizing Data' is a book that is supposed to discuss how data is presented, sorted, stored and examined. Instead what we get is a 350+ page book that is jumbled with lots of code samples (why) and a small subset of data that is actually visualized. This is a really niche topic that I thought would be interesting to examine as I opened the book cover but thumbing through I saw few pictures (although there are a few in here that are good) and lots of java code. While it's interesting to see how data is outputted code-wise, from the book title I felt this would be more of a design discussion for the reader.
   
   I can't recommend this book. There is too much code, too much content, and the code that is contained within is all Java. I didn't get much out of it and I feel that if less code and more pictures were added the end result would have been much more solid.
   
   ** NOT RECOMMENDED



4. This book was exactly what I was looking for--chapter eight alone was worth the cost of the book. A word to the wise: rather than assuming its contents from the title alone, read chapter one thoroughly to ensure that this book is right for you.



5. I'm short of superlatives for this book or more generally for the work of Ben Fry.
   
   In my line of work, how people think of graphs is very much influenced by what is possible to do in Excel without changing the default settings too much.
   Enter Processing, a data visualization-oriented language, which makes it easy to create custom visualizations, tailored for the problem you want to address. There is a growing community around Processing and a number of truly incredible graphs that have been created with just a few lines of code. Ben Fry's own work, which ranges from simplistic to very sophisticated, is nothing short of mind-blowing. Yet this book demystifies this and make it all look accessible.
   
   It opens great perspectives for anyone interested in expressing their data graphically. Still, the title is misleading.
   
   This is not a book about, say, editorial rules by which one should construct a visualization. It is not an abstract book that offers generic advice that can be used in whatever environment. For that kind of book, pick Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten or The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition - books which are consistent with Fry's approach, by the way. "Visualizing Data" is really a practical cookbook that will introduce you to Processing. It offers methodological insights, but which are mostly relevant in the Processing environment.
   
   That being said, I highly recommend this book and keeping a close tab on [..]

5 comments about Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move!.

1. This book is fantastic, and a fine addition to my Friends of Ed collection. The author does a brilliant job of explaining how Actionscript 3 works and doesn't assume you are using a particular application to put it all together. So for anyone developing in Flex or some other Actionscript app, this book is equally useful.
   
   The trigonometry and maths of it all are simplified down so you can understand it, and through this book I've rediscovered my inner geek - playing with maths for the fun of it!
   
   If you are at all interested in building your own animation scripts, grab this book and read it! It's great.



2. Good book for intermediate user. One dimensional but does adequate job in that one dimension.



3. Years ago, I got an interview for a new startup company called FriendsOfEd (and for those wondering, Ed is 'Every Designer'). I assumed it was flash designer role, but I ended up writing books as the resident in-house author.
   
   The initial book was Foundation flash 5 (released 2000), the first book for the Foundation series. Approximately 20 other books followed in the period 2000-2005.
   
   The thing is, I haven't written a book since then, but had an idea to write a new book that went through the stuff that Adobe dont cover in the standard Flash docs; scripted animation.
   
   Looks like I don't have to write that book now, because its already been done, and done well!
   
   Perhaps the only thing I would do differently is to add a book project, where the animation techniques were used in a high end Flash user interface design (thus putting the techniques in a typical design context), but thats just a difference in style... all the content I would wish to cover is in this book.
   
   Well worth buying, and not just for beginner Flash users; many of the tchniques in this book go well beyond 'Foundation' level, and are recommended for intermediate/advanced users. good coverage of 3D techniques in Flash means that this book also comes recommended for advanced users looking at Papervision et al, and advanced Flex users looking to add a bit of motion-graphics into the mix.
   
   Back to lurk mode :)
   
   Sham Bhangal.



4. If you're new to AS 3 and have some kind of OOP (Object Oriented Programming) experience in your past or none at all then this book is right up your alley...an experienced programmer may find this book a little simplistic. Anyway, I've always had a problem understanding programming concepts because I could never apply them to real world applications. All through college while taking JAVA, VB, PL/SQL...etc I always felt like I never truly grasped some of the basic concepts that made up OOP. The way Keith Peters explains his examples and some of the more basic concepts that make up AS 3 is awesome. I've been able to couple his explanations with the stuff I've learned in the past to really help clarify some of these more basic OOP concepts that I could never quite grasp. Since AS 3 is a lot like JAVA, I have a really good jumping off point for doing some really cool things with this language. This book has really lit a new fire of excitement in me for OOP that was long lost back in school. I really enjoy this book and the way the author uses real world terms and normal "speaking language" to write the book. It's as if he's speaking to you in person and explaining things to you face to face.
   
   I have one CON to all of the PROS. The book needs a resource CD with the code chapter by chapter. I know, I'm lazy. But sometimes it really helps to compare my code that I may have problems finding the errors in with the correct code just to see if it's my code with the problem, the class path I have setup, an author error or maybe even something else. Regardless the book is well worth the money I spent and I'd recommend it to anyone.



5. This book teaches motion physics programming on flash! And amazingly it's an incredible resource for OOP beginners as well. The first 2 chapters will talk about the philosophies of motion and flash and set you up to learn AS3 programming and OOP! I already had knowledge a solid knowledge of OOP from C# and C++, and let me just say that this book is very concise! It cuts to the chase and gives tons and tons of examples (downloadable), very accurate and useful information! I recommended this book to my girlfriend whose a graphics designer because it was so coherent and very well written. This is a very good book. I've read over other books like AS3 Design Pattern and one other book that tried to OOP, none of them are as concise as this book is. This book IS THE BOOK you're looking for!!!
   
   Get this book if you want to learn OOP, get this book if you want to learn motion physics programming in Flash, get this book if you want to learn AS3! Clear, coherent, and cheap. This book is your one stop.

5 comments about The Essential Blender: Guide to 3D Creation with the Open Source Suite Blender.

1. I think it is well written but the illustrations are rather poor. A book like this that teaches a subject dealing with imagery etc. should be well illustrated.



2. This is exactly what I needed to learn Blender - well written with lots of illustrations.



3. I am not done reading the whole book, but so far I feel much more knowledgeable about Blender. There are a few problems with the book though. A lot of the pictures are small and hard to make out, also they are not in color so showing off how Blender uses color for different modes is impossible. Overall it seems to be a very good book for beginners, it does skip a lot of more advanced features for other books to cover.



4. I have not actually read through the book entirely yet, so I'm not going to address the content at all. What I did want to clarify is that there seem to be a lot of comments about poor picture quality. Okay - they're not stellar full-color prints with 3D popouts. But they're hardly as bad as I've seen them repeatedly described. I was a bit nervous about ordering this book, but the pictures easily compare to the quality of "Introducing Character Animation with Blender" by Tony Mullen (which, btw, are black and white as well), a book we probably all know and love (and I'm very glad I own). So, to those interested in buying, don't let a bunch of negativity about image quality get in your way. I'm very much looking forward to using this book.



5. This book is composed by 372 (black and white) pages featuring 15 chapters, describing Blender 2.43 and later bug fix revisions in its essential features needed to start working with this wonderful piece of always evolving software. The book try to "hit" the biggest audience possible and it is tailored to three kind of people: those who are completely new to 3D and Blender, those who are new to Blender but have reasonable 3D experience (and maybe want to read the book for software evaluation)and those who already know Blender but need a refresh in their knowledge to fill the gap with latest Blender development.
   This book has been written by well renowed Blender artists and chapters are packed and extended in a wonderful book by editor and lead author Roland Hess. Each chapter speaks its own voice, so you can read the book in a non particular order and they're divided in two parts: a tutorial part (in which you explore main tools and techniques with a "learn by doing" approach) and a discussion part in which more detailed concepts are explained, completing the topic with further advices and tips.
   Chapters are grouped by topic (basics, modelling, animation and rendering) and they are:
   
   Chapter 0: How to Get Blender and Install it.
   Maybe this chapter is completely unuseful. If you're interested in this software, probably you already own Blender, you know where to get it and you know how to unzip/untar an archive or double click on an executable to install it (depending on your operating system). Fortunately, it's only 3 pages long and include a reference on where to get help when you need it.
   
   Chapter 1: An Introduction to 3D Art (Roland Hess)
   This 11 pages long chapter gives you a gently introduction to 3D art, how it is accomplished and what working with a 3D app means. It's short but still worth reading, especially for those who are completely new to the 3D world. It describes the main differences between triangles and quads (and their relationship), the necessity of materials to achieve realism, the importance of modeling tools and an accurate lighting description and the (very basic) principles of animation, keyframing and rigging. Read this chapter if you're new to 3D, you will surely be interested.
   
   Chapter 2: The Blender Interface (Roland Hess)
   As the title imply, this chapter gives you an overview of the Blender interface. Many new users gets frustrated with the Blender interface at first. This is no longer the case, as the chapter gives you nice informations on how to master the basic concepts to work proficently. After reading this chapter, you will finally appreciate this interface and you will be able to exploit the real potential of the efficient workflow it produces. Headers, the toolbox, the buttons window, orthographic/perspective modes, layout adjustments, all is covered here.
   
   Chapter 3: Object Manipulation (Roland Hess)
   No exageration, this is the most important chapter of the book. The material covered here will be used all over the book and it's a description of the basic knowledge to use the program and its main tools. Many important principles described here are the basis of most of the Blender tools. This chapter is structered in a way you will work through a simple Blender project, complete with a keyframe animation.
   Main hotkeys and functionality are covered and it will touch concepts like undo/redo, the meaning and use of the 3D cursor, adding objects to a scene, moving/rotating/scaling principles, transform manipulators and their activation/use, mouse gestures, object duplication, what empties objects are and how to use them, object parenting, the snapping menu (very important), layer management, object constraints and the basic of keyframing animation. If you are new to Blender and 3D in general, this chapter will teach you the basics of working with a 3D modelling package. A very well written and informative chapter. You will be surprised on how many topics can be well covered in just 37 pages.
   
   Chapter 4: Mesh Modeling (contribution by Kevin Braun)
   How to produce complex objects with Blender using its modeling tools. I really enjoyed this chapter. You will build a complete bridge with wonderfully decorated pillars. You will discover various kind of selection tools fo verticies, edges or faces, how to effectively use the mirror modifier, how to subdivide objects, the art of the knife tool, object extrusion, a good introduction of the proportional editing tool, the loopcut tool, edge slide, edge loop/ring selections, the use of the array modifier and much, much more... Even experienced users may learn something new from this chapter. Personally speaking, I liked the technique described to pull vertices into inline. This is used everywhere in modeling but it wasn't described in any book I bought in the past.
   
   Chapter 5: Multiresolution Sculpting (Tom Musgrove)
   Multiresolution sculpting is an approach to mesh modeling that allows you to shape and add detail to a mesh by pushing and pulling polygons with specific sculpting tools (brushes), instead of direct manipulating vertices/edges/faces. Not much to say about this chapter, you will produce a nice detailed monster using the draw/layer/grab/inflate/pinch brushes. It will teach you all the tools needed for sculpt modeling, including informations on how to use a regular texture and transforming it in a brush. Mesh hiding to improve performance is also explained in detail. Advices and tips complete this nicely structured chapter.
   
   Chapter 6: Character Animation (contribution by Ryan Dale)
   Character animation is a huge field and not much can be covered in 23 pages. But this chapter make a tremendous good job in concentrating much of the key concepts of character animation in a good practical tutorial. You will produce a complete walkcycle and you will be introduced to various stages of the walkcycle poses. The Timeline Window, the Action editor and the NLA editor are the main actors for character animation production and they're well covered in this chapter. Inverse Kinematic (IK) and Forward Kinematic (FK)are also introduced. Good the choice of presenting character animation before introducing rigging/skinning concepts (which are concepts explained in the next chapter).
   
   Chapter 7: Rigging and Skinning (contribution by Ryan Dale)
   The natural extension to the previous chapter. All the basic knowledge you need to create a solid rig and hook it to a mesh is here. You will be introduced to bone creation/manipulation, bone naming and its importance, bone layers, parent/child relationship with bones, IK (inverse kinematic) chains, constraints usage and explanations like Locked Track, Copy Location/Rotation, Track To, Floor, Stretch To and the IK solver. The skinning part (hooking the final rig to a mesh) covers the main concepts like the Armature Modifier, envelopes, vertex groups and has a nice tutorial on weight painting too for a fine control of mesh deformation. Rigging/skinning is the essence of character animation and naturally not everything can be covered here. The only complain I do with this chapter is that it doesn't cover many useful constraints.
   
   Chapter 8: Shape Keys (by Andy Dolphin)
   Shape keys are the Blender implementation of what other packages call "morph targets" and it's a new implementation of what Blender called RVK (Relative Vertex Keys) and AVK (Absolute Vertex Keys) in the past. Very useful in facial animation, shape keys are the way Blender implements mesh deformation in a time aware manner (animatable). This tutorial teach you how to create/edit multiple shape keys and how to use them in conjunction with the action editor to produce mesh deformations by editing vertex keys in the action editor. And it does a good job in this. After you read this chapter, you will have full control of these concepts.
   
   Chapter 9: Materials and Textures (contribution by Colin Lister)
   The chapter I liked less. It stresses a lot on real materials observation (and this is right) but it gives little informations on the settings meaning. You will produce a "wood like" material and you will enrich it with a coffee stain. It left out many interesting concepts on material creation and this is a real pity. It does not even mention the difference of having two texture channels with the same texture and two separate channels with the same texture. Fortunately, the discussion part of the chapter try to fill the gap but it's still insufficient. I was expecting more from a chapter that's 30 pages long, to be honest. There is nothing about shader editing with nodes. What a pity!
   
   Chapter 10: UV Mapping (contribution by Modron)
   Suzanne unwrapping! Modron will guide you through the art of mesh unwrapping, a refined method for texturing complex objects. As an exercise, you will going to unwrap the Suzanne mesh (Blender's mascotte) using the automatic unwrapper (the easy method ...) exploring texture painting in the UV editor and in 3D view using texture painting mode. You will have fun with the live unwrap transform. Easy, informative and direct to the point.
   
   Remaining chapters are a gentle introduction to the topics and are not advanced at all, but they give you the understanding you need to read more advanced material on these subjects.
   
   So, from what I said so far, you have already understood we are speaking about a very good book to begin with, with many topics covered, useful to read more advanced documentation. A very good book, but still far to be perfect and these are the reasons why I give it 4 stars:
   
   1) It doesn't cover scene management (link/append features) also known as "the blender database" and the obData system. This is very basic knowledge (and unintuitive, I would say, expecially the obData system) so it really should have been covered in this book.
   2) Figures are (sometimes) really too dark to be useful. Fortunately they can be downloaded from the support site (*).
   3) It has many errors. Not bad errors but still it has many of them (again, look the support site).
   4) It does not cover many new features since the 2.3 guide, so its use for updating your knowledge is limited.
   
   (*): The book has a support site that contains an errata, all images used in the book and some additional files to play with.
   You can reach this site at http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Books/Essential_Blender
   
   Conclusion: if you are a new Blender user (new to Blender and 3D) you should buy this book without thinking twice. If you're new to Blender but you already know 3D, you should buy this book as well. If you know Blender and you have already read the 2.3 guide, you may want to skip this book and buy something more advanced and illuminating, like "Introducing Character Animation With Blender" by Tony Mullen, for example, if you're interested in animation or "Bounce, Tumble and Splash!" by the same author, if you're interested in physical simulations. New features can always be learned from the user manual on the Blender wiki, assuming you already have the basics.

5 comments about ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers.

1. For those of us who have experience in many programming languages (C, C++, C#, JAVA etc.) who were introduced to flash and to actionscript (2.0/3.0) - I HIGHLY recommend this book as your first choice! - it'll get you up to speed in a matter of a week or two!
   I highly recommend taking some time aside and read it thoroughly. This is the best cookbook I've ever read. Very clear, well organized, easy to understand - you name it! In fact, I don't know whether to consider it as a cookbook - as it is by all means an excellent learning textbook as well!!!
   If you wanna be an actionscript 3.0 stud - start with this book.



2. I've been a fan of programmer's cookbooks ever since the famous Perl Cookbook ages ago. It's a great way to get into a language and do away with any nagging thoughts that maybe you didn't solve a problem well.
   
   This specific cookbook falls short, though. I tried to read it cover to cover as well as individual chapters, but I found it oddly balanced. For example, the authors waste three recipes on about 10 pages about generating a random number (which is just one command!), and then describe event handling (the big thing!) on half a page. I also find it strange to read about trigonometry in a programmer's book, and I don't think recipes work very well for explaining basic language features (such as how to create a new object, or how to "trace a message").
   
   Mostly though, the book is outdated with the release of flex2/3. Yes, Actionscript 3 is still current, but you don't roll your own buttons as subclasses of sprite anymore!
   
   In short, I give it three stars for content, and subtract 1 for being outdated. If you want to read about Actionscript 3, Adobe has a very nicely outlined pdf online, which is an easy read compared to these confusing and stale recipes.



3. This book is about ActionScript ONLY. when I bought it, I was hoping to find cookbook solutions for Flash and/or Flex IDE and all the step-by-step color illustrations and the cool visual effects that you can implement with those IDEs. That is not really what this book is geared for. So when I first started this review, I really wanted to give it a less-than-5-star rating, but I realized I can't do that in all fairness, because it does serve the purpose it portends. If you want an unadorned, pedantic, O'Reilly-ish how-to on ActionScript, this their ilk. If you want something with easy-to-follow illustrations on the Flash/Flex IDE and flashy visual effects, look elsewhere. Buyer beware.



4. In theory this book could have been very good. There were a few things that I did like about it. I liked the problem, solution, discussion approach to learning ActionScript. The book covered all of the topics I was interested in. It used real world examples to demonstrate the points.
   
   The reasons I gave this book a poor rating were the fact that it was written for Flex developers and all examples used the Flex tool to build (not very good for me who uses Flash), and they continually gave examples and explained how to solve problems using their predefined, custom classes. The pages would have been better spent showing us how to build these useful Classes ourselves, instead of teaching us how to use them. Luckily for me, I was already versed in ActionScript and could easily understand that these Classes were not part of ActionScript. If I were not, I think it would have been rather confusing to try to pick out their custom classes from what comes with ActionScript 3. I'm trying to learn ActionScript, not the custom Classes the authors have created.
   
   If you are new to ActionScript and not a Flex developer, do yourself a favor and buy a different book.
   
   _t



5. very simple recipes. for any intermediate to advanced programmer this book is not recommended.

5 comments about Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation.

1. Everything in it is golden. The information is superb. Definitely a must have for production artist interested in animation field.
   I can see this book become the most sought book in animation field.
   Filled with nothing but legendary works of arts.
   Definitely a must have.
   
   Now i have praised everything that i need to praise about the content, let's deal with the bad.
   
   Everything will be perfect if only the publishers know the difference between a bad paper and a good paper.
   For a hard cover book, i do not expect such poor quality of papers to be used.
   
   It is a bit insulting to see maestro works such as Eyvind Earle's and many others to be presented in a low quality paper. The book is as guilty as Leonardo Da Vinci's glorified failure of his "Last Supper", if you know what i mean.
   
   Everything is great but the presentation and the medium used ruin the supposedly a glorious victory.



2. Hans Bacher's retrospective of his years at Disney should be in every animation professional's library, actually it should be in every filmmaker's library. This is all the work that goes on behind the scenes to create the beauty we see on the screen. Hans is a genius when is comes to screen composition, color, visual motif.



3. I've been looking for a book like this for years! I've been able to find some great books about the principles of moving an animated character around and the "Art of"-type of books about a particular movie can be very inspiring and educational in their own right, but a book that deals with the thought process that goes into the production design of an animated film is long overdue. I wish it could have delved deeper into the more theoretical "nuts and bolts" of things like setting up camera shots for both 2D and 3D animation--I guess I'm looking for something more technical, where this book still has a "coffee table" feel to some of the individual chapters on particular films--but it's already had a big impact on the way I lay out scenes in my own work. I have a feeling this one is going to be on my drawing table for a long time!



4. Hans Bacher has created a wonderful, insightful and beautiful book, which is a work of art in its own right. Yet, it IS an instructional book on the process of Production Design for animation. Whether you are a student of animation, a film aficionado, or a working industry professional, you will find something new to think about and much to appreciate on every page.
   
   The images are clear, and both appropriately chosen to illustrate Mr. Bacher's points and serve as coffee table worthy art. His precise and yet easy way of presenting the subject of Production Design is a fast read, while remaining, educational, interesting, and enjoyable all the way through. Well worth the investment.



5. This is a great book for any art student wanting to get into preproduction for film or animation. This is the bar, industry standard. I found it to be very helpful in sharping my own portfolio.

5 comments about Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book.

1. After reading Adobe Illustrator CS3 Classroom in a Book and really finding it to be quite good, I expected this book to be good, as well. Unfortunately, as many other reviews here already share, it has many steps missing in exercises throughout the book. Adobe needs to go back to the drawing board on this one.



2. This was such a terrible waste of money. It is too confusing and it does not help as much as it was supposed to. I have used a few of the Classroom In A Book series before,and I was relying on these past experiences, but this book is not as good as the other ones were. It looks like it has been written by some lazy writer who doesn't feel like explaining much. I should have listened to you guys who harshly criticized it. I agree with every one of you now. If I could, I would give NO stars at all to rate this thing.



3. I thought there was something wrong with me until I read through the other comments. I agree with those who say the instruction is imitative and not sufficiently explanatory. It is like following breadcrumbs through a forest-
   what do you do when the breadcrumbs are gone? Show me how to use a compass and a gps and I will find my own way through the forest. I felt the same way about the Illustrator and Photoshop books, though to a lesser extent. I am a middle aged adult returning to school, and something has changed in instructional philosophy.
   I like the program's capabilities and will now have to start over with a book that focuses on explaining how the program works.



4. I have been a graphic designer for over 14 years. I eat, breath and sleep Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark XPress, and have worked with InDesign, DreamWeaver, FireWorks, Acrobat and similar tools of the trade. I've also worked with Flash to an extent, and that's the only real reason I believe I got anything out of this book.
   
   The problem isn't that the lessons don't illustrate real-world applications, but that the author rarely explains WHY he's instructing you to do something. Also, in many of the more advanced lessons too much has already been done for the student, especially with the construction of nested symbols for complex animations.
   
   I had no difficulty completing the lessons successfully, but when I had finished the book and began to design an intro for a photography website, I realized that I didn't have a grasp on the principles of Flash, which should have been exactly what this book covered.
   
   If you've had some experience with the program, I think you'll probably glean something new from it. If you've never worked in Flash before, you should probably seek a different book for your initiation.



5. The Adobe Flash CS3 Classroom in a book is an easy to understand and fast way to get up to speed with the latest version of Flash. How do I know? I had NEVER used any previous version of Flash and solely using this book, in two weeks I taught myself enough to pass the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) certification exam!

5 comments about Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual.

1. The book is clear, concise and comprehensive. It covers from how to get a domain name to how to accept credit card payments.I like the emphasis in formating using CSS instead html. This was a new concept for me. The author introduces java scripts and dynamic html. I missed a chapter about how to organize, and keep update the whole web site (sometimes with hundreds of web pages, pictures, icons, etc...). It was one of my first book about the topic and I really think that it's a powefull introductory book.



2. Some of the introductions are a little dated (i.e. jokes that reference beanie babies, etc.), but the other content of the book is still pretty current. This is a really helpful book for the beginning web designer. It is definitely a good reference to have, espically for design students. This book covers things that appear in the software Dreamweaver. It discusses codes for things such as CSS, HTML, etc.



3. I have been searching for a good, fairly insightful, starter book on what to do to set up a website, that wasn't too advanced or way to boring.
   
   This is it! The author knows his stuff, brings it into the learning forum in such a way that you are excited to read the next section and re-read for additional insights previously completed sections.
   
   I am going to use this book, and will probably buy more by the same author/publisher.



4. Now a days, creating a web site is more about design than development; resources exist on the internet where millions of web developers will share their ideas and creativity for free - but how does one access it and where are these resources located?? The Missing Manual Series, Creating Web Sites addresses these questions and more. This book is an excellent starter book for those who are just getting their feet wet in the world of web design, development and programming, but that's not to say that an expert wouldn't find this book a handy resource. Creating Web Sites also answers a lot of questions that I had about different aspects of web development. The section on e-commerce and the other web resources referenced within the book, points you to the right places in which to grab code, and get ideas to build great web sites. The Missing Manual series is one that I recommend to everyone (this is the 2nd book from the series I own) - all the books are very thorough, but easy to follow; if you're a novice this book should be required, if you're a pro this should be a handy resource to add to your library.



5. A great book for any novice trying to build a web site. The book is divided into clear sections each giving excellent advise and information. I recommend this to anyone starting a web site. If you are fortunate enough to have Dreamweaver software for web creating I also strongly recommend "Dreamweaver 8 - The Missing Manual.

5 comments about Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Hands-On Training.

1. This Flash book is very thorough and the tutorials are simple to follow. I love it includes a disc that holds all of your tutorial files to help you along the way. I definitely recommend this book to someone who is new to the program and wants to learn it all!



2. This seems to be a strong resource but I honestly have not gotten that deep into.



3. Todd Perkins is the worst teacher I have ever encountered. He's very good at explaining over and over everything that is obvious, and he leaves out what you need to know in order to actually do anything. It's frustrating.



4. I've used the previous two versions of this book to teach from, as well as this one, and the amount of space devoted in this book to practical applications of Flash is very small. 2 versions back most of the exercises focused on creating a flashed based site and the last two versions get into that less and less - as a matter of fact there is hardly any content in this latest edition that would help a novice build a flash site. Several files were missing or incomplete. Some screenshots were not updated from previous editions where the exercise had changed and the screenshots themselves were very small - no one had a good time trying to read the code in them. Half the books fell apart as well. I'll be looking for another book for next time.



5. I am moving through this book and very much appreciate the charts for reference, the clarity in his explanations, the repetition of important distinctions, and the repetition shortcuts throughout the exercises so that by the end of the book, you really can use the shortcuts. So far, I especially appreciate the in depth explanation of blending modes, that I have never found in any of the other adobe introductory books read to date.

5 comments about Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop: The Basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo Updated for ArcGIS 9 (Getting to Know series).

1. This book is very user friendly and concepts are well explained. However, some single exercise instructions contain too many steps which one can easily skip or confuse with other things. Such instructional steps could be made as simple and as many as possible.



2. This book is really good with giving step by step directions. I had no prior knowledge about ArcGIS or any of the software and it walked me through every process. I highly recomend it for beginners and nonbeginners.



3. This book is a superb learning resource. The 180-day evaluation copy of ArcView 9.2 is icing on the cake.
   
   The book takes the reader through a series of 20 lessons covering a number of practical scenarios with each chapter having two to four examples, where the material is prepared as mxd documents. So it is straightforward to get into the actual purpose of the exercise.
   
   Each page is fully illustrated to reassure the reader that what they are seeing on screen through the structured lesssons is correct.
   
   I worked solidly through the book in about 4 days as preparation for the taught Introduction to ArcGIS 2. I should'nt have bothered with the instructor-led course, there was very little new material and the exercises were rushed. By contrast the book enables you to re-work a difficult area, at your own pace.
   
   I would rate this book 10/10 for content, presentation, structure and choice of examples. I now wish there were a follow-on book to build on the foundation this book has provided.
   
   Make sure the copy you get is the latest version (currently 2004).



4. I never use ArcGIS before and this is my first experience. This book is used as a textbook in my class and it's very helpful for those who needs step by step guide in using ArcGIS. Still, it is very important to have a teacher to guide you as you will learn more in depth. For those who needs an intro, this is a very good book although you might find some instructions in the book which is different from what you see on your computer but still it's easy to make out the right steps. Good for beginners.



5. The manual is well written, with an extreme emphasis on "doing things" rather than on "reading things". A little different, but I like the hands-on approach. It is definitely possible to read-ahead without actually doing the examples as, while they do build on each other, a new starting place (example file) is included for each logical breakpoint.
   
   Having the full use of the software during this period is definitely an added bonus.

5 comments about Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D.

1. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn and/or master physics in Blender 2.46. This book has great tutorials. Unlike Tony Mullen's other book Introduction to Character Animation you are not working on one project, you work on lots a bit like the Essential blender. There are pictures to help you on every page and there ar .blend files on the CD.



2. I must say, I'm biased... I started liking this book the first time I read the title! The book is very impressive, it is full-color, lots of images, and the chapters are nice and modular so you can jump to the section the topic you're interested in. Tony Mullen did a great job in making the complex straightforward. The tasks in the chapters are clearly written in step-by-step style. He gets right to the point of the chapter and has you work through the material. Another nice touch is seeing pics and blurbs on various Blender artists/developers.



3. I purchased this hoping to learn to use Blender, and open-source program available from blender.org. The book is very well written, very informative, and an excellent reference, but definitely NOT for beginners; the author even says so. If you, like me, are a beginner, either buy this AFTER getting "Character Animation With Blender" or "The Essential Blender," buy it WITH one of those, but if you are serious about learning 3D imaging, animated or not, this is a definitive must for your library.



4. I ordered this book without much hesitation, once I discovered Tony was writing it. Having read his past book "Introducing Character Animation with Blender", I ordered this one without thinking twice. Now that this book is in my hands, I can't regret for my choice. The overall quality of the publication is impressive. Not only for the contents but also for the technical production: fine paper with color quality images. It's not common these days. The book is composed of 400 pages (7 chapters) plus an appendix and they are:
   
   Chapter 1 - Re-creating the World: An overview
   This chapter describes those tools and techniques that are not well explained elsewhere by the Blender literature. It covers topics like material creation with nodes, transparency, subsurface scattering, sky maps (sphere maps and angular maps) and those tools that can be used to fake physics, when accurate simulations are not necessary at all but you still need a "quick and dirty" method to achieve an effect efficiently and with sufficient speed (an example: water simulation with surface tension displacement or cloth simulation using a displacement modifier). Obviously, these techniques are useful for everyone involved using Blender. No doubt. Much appreciated.
   
   Chapter 2 - The Nitty-Gritty on particles.
   The first thing I thought after reading this chapter was:"WOW". *ALL* the latest development on Blender particles is covered here: emitters, reactors, positioning particles on a grid, chained physics systems, various types of visualizations, force fields (harmonic, magnetic, vortex, spherical, wind, etc.)
   You will be guided through the creation of a convincing fire material using clouds and stencils textures! All is explained gradually and with great style. Highly informative.
   
   Chapter 3 - Getting flexible with Soft Bodies and Cloth.
   As you can expect, all that has been developed is covered here: baking, how to animate a spring, force fields and collision, using curves with softbodies (it will teach you how to animate a chain using an empty), stress maps, how to produce a fantastic cube of gelatin using lattices, simulating clothes. It will even explain how to use the demolition plugin to produce a window breaking in a spiderweb pattern!
   
   Chapter 4 - Hair Essentials: The Long and Short of Strand Particles.
   How to produce hair, fur and grass. After covering the basics, this chapter will guide you through the creation of an hairstyle on top of a practice head. One of my preferred chapters.
   
   Chapter 5 - Making a Splash with Fluids.
   One of the most interesting part of Blender: the fluid simulator. All is covered here: domains, resolution, inflow, outflow, fluid object intersection, kinematic viscosity, obstacles (considering animation, of course).
   
   Chapter 6 - Bullet Physics and the Blender Game Engine.
   One of the less undestood parts of Blender is certainly the game engine. So I was favourably impressed when I have seen an entire chapter dedicated to it. This chapter describes all the tools needed to produce hard bodies simulations, using the game engine and the powerfullness of the Bullet Physics Library. Actors, actuators, IPO curves, rigid body simulations with IPO curves, joints, ragdolls ... This is material that will be probably new to most Blender users.
   
   Chapter 7 - Imitation of Life: Simulating Trees and Plants.
   This chapter explores a few tools that can be used for creating trees and vegetation in general, like the L-System, ngPlant and Ivy Generator.
   
   Each chapter is independent, so you don't need to read the book from the first page, with the exception of chapter 4, who strongly depends by the two previous chapters. This book is of course not intended for beginners. This book is completely updated with the latest Blender development and it covers the actual stable release. This is the documentation Blender needs. I highly recommend this book. It is well written, well presented, well structured and, most importantly, it's definitely fun!



5. I just bought the book and will start learning it immediately. The book is amazing in its illustrations and quality. I had a complaint about another book by Tony Mullen. He responded to my complain in a matter of hours. I will let more experienced reviewers evaluate the book, but I will highly recommend any author who cares so much for his customers.