2 comments about Pro Java 6 3D Game Development: Java 3D, JOGL, JInput and JOAL APIs (Expert's Voice in Java).

1. There is some overlap between this book and the author's other book on Java game programming, "Killer Game Programming in Java", but overall there is enough new material to make it a worthwhile purchase. The author starts out trying to explain Java3D. His explanations are OK, but the best explanation I have ever found as an overview of the API is "Java 3D API Tutorial" on the Sun Microsystems website. It's old, but the basics haven't changed. For the specifics of working with Java 3D in the modern era, come back to this book. The author has done a good job of putting together some programming examples that show how to program in current versions of Java 3D including a 3D version of Conway's game of life. He then modifies the program to show off some of the features of Java 6 such as its ability to communicate with scripting languages. Further chapters show how to build creatures with operational limbs that demonstrate Java 3D's TransformGroups, how to handle physics and Java3D using a specific physics API, multitexturing for more natural looking outdoor scenes, and finally how to deal with level of detail problems using mixed mode rendering. In each case, the author just doesn't talk about how to do something, he produces working code that gets the job done and provides a blueprint for the reader to go further.
   
   The section on non-standard input devices deals with interfacing devices such as webcams, game controllers, game pads, and the P5 Virtual Reality Glove to your 3D worlds and games. He mentions parts of Java that are seldom well-explained such as JInput to describe how to control these devices. In the section on webcams, the author talks about JMF and an alternative method of interfacing to cameras. This is good, since for all intents and purposes JMF is really a dead API with very little useful capability. One of the more interesting chapters in this section really has nothing to do with input devices, that being the chapter on JOAL, which is a wrapper around OpenAL, the OpenAudio Library. This is very practical since there are bugs in Java 3D's sound interface that have been there from the beginning and show no sign of being resolved. This chapter provides a practical way for Java programmers to get actual reliable 3D sound into their games and applications.
   
   The final section of the book is on JOGL, which is a Java wrapper for the OpenGL graphics library. The author explains and illustrates the use of JOGL by first implementing a very simple application to clearly illustrate all of the steps needed. Next, a 3D world is written using JOGL that includes a floor with a checkerboard pattern, an orbiting earth, a skybox of stars, a billboard that shows a tree, overlays, and keyboard navigation.
   
   This book, along with the Sun tutorial, is a good education in how to use the Java 3D API in general, and also how to build virtual worlds in Java as well as how to write 3D Java games, which was the book's original purpose. Highly recommended.



2. If you are new to 3D programming in Java then this book is not a very good place to start. That's not to say this isn't a good book its just that you will need to be somewhat comfortable with Java3D before reading this book. Like the previous reviewer said the sun tutorials will help to understanding the examples used in this book, just don't think that this book will hold your hand.

5 comments about Computer Graphics Using OpenGL (3rd Edition).

1. Like most of the books I buy online, this one was also for a class I'm currently taking. The instructor for this class is fresh out of the box and this is his first semester and class ever. Needless to say, any learning I have to do in this class is taught to me by reading the book. It is more of a teaching book than a techincal reference book, but the good news is, they offer a free online techincal reference book. The best of both worlds. If you're starting off in graphics like me, this is a great investment....



2. This is an excellent book. I was coming from a novice OpenGL user and wanted to branch out from OpenGL, to understand more impressive CG techqniques. He uses OpenGL, but it's the underlying techniques that make this book impressive. He goes beyond the API and delves into a number of interesting areas. Good overall introduction, with a fair amount of code examples and discussion of how to modifiy what he gives you. Not perfect, I would have liked another chapter about radiosity, or more ray tracing, but really excellent.



3. I just bought this book and up to chapter 3 there are more errors and typos than what I care to recall. You would expect more of a book with a price tag as this one. Furthermore, the writing style is bad. The author begins a paragraph with one idea and finishes with something totally different, which makes it hard to read.
   
   It is a very good book otherwise, but keep this in mind when buying.



4. This is a good solid introductory text on computer graphics theory and programming. Note that the book uses OpenGL rather than teaching it, so if you are looking for an OpenGL tutorial you will be disappointed. For that consult the classic "Red Book" on the subject. This book does throw in a couple of advanced topics - fractals, virtual realism, and ray tracing, for example. I really liked how the explanations were very detailed, and how pseudocode accompanies the explanation of every algorithm. The pseudocode is C-like and is therefore easily understandable. Also, the author makes excellent and frequent use of very excellent figures to get his points across. I also liked all of the practice problems, because they are good sanity checks on whether or not you really understand the material.
   
   I will add that I was at first hesitant to add this book to my collection, because in the early 90's I used a textbook by this same author in a class I was taking on computer graphics, and it was about the most awful thing I have ever seen in print. There were a couple of good chapters, but most of it was paragraph after paragraph of rambling text without equations, codes, or anything that approached a tutorial. I wasn't a novice to this subject at the time, either, so it wasn't a lack of knowledge on the subject that made me hate that book. I'm saying all of this just in case this was your last experience with this author, don't let it prevent you from getting this book. Hill seems to have learned from his past mistakes, and I highly recommend this text. I notice the table of contents shown is for an older edition. This edition has changed considerably, so I show the new table of contents for the 3rd edition next:
   
   Chapter 1 Introduction to Computer Graphics
   1.1 What is Computer Graphics?
   1.2 Where Computer Generated pictures are Used
   1.3 Elements of Pictures created in Computer Graphics.
   1.4 Graphics display devices
   1.5 Graphics Input Primitives and Devices
   
   Chapter 2 Getting Started Drawing Figures
   2.1 Getting started making pictures
   2.2 Drawing Basic Graphics Primitives
   2.3 Making Line-drawings
   2.4 Simple interaction with mouse and keyboard
   
   Chapter 3 Additional Drawing Tools
   3.1. Introduction
   3.2. World Windows and Viewports
   3.3. Clipping Lines
   3.4. Regular Polygons, Circles, and Arcs
   3.5. The Parametric Form of a Curve.
   
   Chapter 4 Vector Tools for Graphics
   4.1. Introduction
   4.2. Review of Vectors
   4.3. The Dot Product.
   4.4. The Cross Product of Two Vectors.
   4.5. Representations of Key Geometric Objects.
   4.6. Finding the Intersection of two Line Segments.
   4.7. Intersections of Lines with Planes, and Clipping.
   4.8. Polygon Intersection Problems.
   
   Chapter 5 Transformations of Objects
   5.1. Introduction
   5.2. Introduction to Transformations
   5.3. 3D Affine Transformations
   5.4. How To Change Coordinate Systems
   5.5. Affine Transformations used in a Program.
   5.6. To Draw 3D Scenes Interactively with OpenGL.
   
   Chapter 6 Modeling Shapes with Polygonal Meshes.
   6.1. Introduction
   6.2. Introduction to Solid Modeling with Polygonal Meshes.
   6.3. Polyhedra.
   6.4. Extruded Shapes.
   6.5. Mesh Approximations to Smooth Objects.
   6.6. Particle Systems and Physically Based Systems
   
   Chapter 7 Three-Dimensional Viewing
   7.1 Introduction
   7.2. The Camera Revisited.
   7.3. To Specify a Camera in a program.
   7.4. Perspective Projections of 3D Objects.
   7.5. To Produce Stereo Views.
   7.6. Taxonomy of Projections.
   
   Chapter 8 Rendering Faces for Visual Realism
   8.1. Introduction
   8.2. Introduction to Shading Models
   8.3. Flat Shading and Smooth Shading.
   8.4. Adding Hidden Surface Removal.
   8.5. To Add Texture to Faces.
   8.6. To Add Shadows of Objects.
   8.7. OpenGL 2.0 & The Shading Language (GLSL)
   
   Chapter 9 Tools for Raster Displays
   9.1. Introduction
   9.2. Manipulating Pixmaps.
   9.3. Combining Pixmaps.
   9.4. Do It Yourself Line Drawing: Bresenham's Algorithm.
   9.5 To Define and Fill Regions of Pixels.
   9.6. Manipulating Symbolically-defined Regions.
   9.7. Filling Polygon-Defined Regions.
   9.8. Aliasing and Anti-Aliasing Techniques.
   9.9. Creating More Shades and Colors.
   
   Chapter 10 Curve and Surface Design
   10.1. Introduction
   10.2. Describing Curves using Polynomials.
   10.3. On Interactive Curve Design.
   10.4. Bezier Curves for Curve Design.
   10.5. Properties of Bezier Curves.
   10.6. Finding Better Blending functions.
   10.7. The B-Spline Basis Functions.
   10.8. Useful Properties of B-Spline Curves for Design.
   10.9. Rational Splines and NURBS Curves.
   10.10. A Glimpse at Interpolation.
   10.11. Modeling Curved Surfaces.
   
   Chapter 11 Color Theory
   11.1. Introduction
   11.2. Color Description
   11.3. The CIE Standard
   11.4. Color Spaces
   11.5. Indexed Color and the LUT.
   11.6. Color Quantization.
   
   Chapter 12 Ray Tracing
   12.1. Introduction
   12.2. Setting Up the Geometry of Ray Tracing
   12.3. Overview of the Ray-Tracing Process
   12.4. Intersection of a Ray with an Object.
   12.5. Organizing a Ray Tracer Application.
   12.6. Intersecting Rays with Other Primitives
   12.7. To Draw Shaded Pictures of Scenes
   12.8. Adding Surface Texture.
   12.9. Anti-aliasing Ray Tracings.
   12.10. Using Extents
   12.11. Adding Shadows for Greater Realism.
   12.12. Reflections and Transparency
   12.13. Compound Objects: Boolean Operations on Objects
   12.14. Ray Tracing vs. Ray Casting
   
   A1. Graphics Tools - Obtaining OpenGL.
   
   A2. Some Mathematics for Computer Graphics
   A2.1 Some Key Definitions for Matrices and their Operations
   A2.2. Some Properties of Vectors and their operations.
   A2.3. Spherical Coordinates and Direction Cosines.
   
   A3. An Introduction to SDL: Scene Description Language
   A3.1. Syntax of SDL
   A3.2. Macros in SDL.
   A3.3. Extending SDL.
   
   A4. Fractals and The Mandelbrot Set
   A4.1. Introduction
   A4.2. Fractals and Self-Similarity
   A4.3. The Mandelbrot Set
   
   A5. Relative and Turtle Drawing.
   A5.1. To Develop moveRel() and lineRel().
   A5.2. Turtle Graphics
   A5.3. Figures Based on Regular Polygons.
   
   You'll note that the main difference between the second and third editions is that Hidden Surface Removal and Fractals no longer have dedicated chapters, but additional chapters on other subjects have not been added. The HSR material is now part of another chapter, and the Fractal subject matter is part of the appendix. One positive difference is the addition of some good material on the OpenGL Shading Language, which is a hot topic these days. Also, the material in the appendix on Postscript has been eliminated.



5. The title of the book is misleading; It is rather an introduction to computer graphics;
   The explanations on the graphics pipeline are really enlightening; The introduction on the curves is also worth reading. I consider it to be also a good introduction to OpenGL.
   However, it deserves only 3 stars because of the too many typo errors (and that's the third edition...). Moreover some topics are too superficially treated, particularly extents or bounding volumes (which are of great importance in computer graphics), and surfaces.
   The book is verbose, which is acceptable when some notions are hard to grasp, but it is definitely too verbose at the start of each chapters where you will find a "preview" followed by an "Introduction" section. One repeats the other.
   In addition, the appendices only contribute to the thickness of the book. An appendix on matrix algebra where you will learn how to add / multiply matrices (...) and an appendix on the turtle drawing, a hot thing in the early 80s...
   There is no real bibliography section, and no errata on the author's web site.
   I was also not pleased by the exercises; the ones that are trivial are fully developed by the author, and the solution to the thornier ones are not presented.

3 comments about Game Development Essentials: Game Story & Character Development.

1. As a student in interactive writing for video games, this book is a must-have!



2. This comprehensive guide is an excellent resource for anyone interested in game design and story writing. It systematically details all of the elements necessary to good storytelling, framing them in the context of various video game genres. The conversational style is engaging and easy to read, with numerous examples illustrating each concept. Review questions and prompts at the end of each chapter provide a variety of opportunities to work with the ideas and put them into practice. This is a must-read for all students of game development and anyone interested in honing their storytelling skills.



3. This book would have been nice if it had more practical tips on story and plot development and innovative examples on how to create interesting characters. But at least 50% of the book just describes what is common sense and stuff that you know already if you are interested in this topic. Also most of the thrown-in comments from people in the industry are just the obvious blather and no really useful tips. Everybody keeps telling you how storytelling for games is different from storytelling for film and TV but none of them give you any innovative examples on how to approach creating ideas for your game or creating intricate plot layouts and interesting character backgrounds.

2 comments about Macromedia Flash 8 Advanced for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide.

1. I really enjoyed this book. It goes in depth in covering the actionscript language for Flash 8, and starts off at a relatively slow pace so you don't feel overwhelmed. My only complaint is that it relies a lot (at least in the beginning) on using the script assist mode which I think is a waste of time for those trying to LEARN actionscript. In it's defense, the book weans you off it as it goes along, and I can see someone with no actionscript experience finding that extremely helpful. Knowing a decent amount of actionscript before reading this, I found it a bit annoying but like I said, it fades out of that as the book goes on. Great for learning the newer way to code, and gives a good basis to really use Macromedia Flash to it's full potential.



2. This is a PeachPit Press "Visual QuickPro Guide"--similar to their "Visual QuickStart" training book series, but aimed at more experienced users. The series uses a task-based training approach, teaching skills through short step-by-step exercises. This approach has some major drawbacks for me, although this particular book seems to have dealt with some issues fairly well. My first complaint is that task-based training tends to focus too much on quick, "surface" results without really giving an understanding of what is happening and why it works. This makes it difficult to apply skills effectively in future situations, or to know when they ought to be applied. A task-based organization also makes it difficult to use a book as a reference, since information is dispersed throughout the exercises.
   
   I was pleasantly surprised with Macromedia Flash 8 Advanced in many ways. First, I found that the chapters had a good mix of theoretical instruction and practical exercises. Almost every exercise was accompanied by an explanation of topics: what might be new to Flash 8, how the techniques might be important in a larger context, and an overview of how they work. There were a lot of explanatory sidebars and tips that offered very useful, relevant information. I was also pleased with the indexing, and I was able to find information on several topics as I worked. Most of the step-by-step instructions were very general, giving a basic process without getting sidetracked into specific projects.
   
   Overall, I found that this book does just what it claims to do: it gives good, quick explanations of some advanced Flash topics and skills, such as external communications, sound and video, and dynamic content, as well as complex handling of things like movieClips, text, and buttons. It does not offer much in-depth discussion on any topic, and it does not focus on any area of Flash development specifically, but it takes a very broad approach to expanding Flash skills. I should particularly mention that I wouldn't recommend the book to someone trying to learn actionscript, since the actionscript in the book lacks the depth or focus that can be found elsewhere (O'Reilly's Actionscript for Flash MX), and information is dispersed throughout the book. It also does not really cover Flash components. I would recommend it to Flash users who want to expand their general skills and (especially) keep current with some of the growing capabilities of Flash. The book also includes a CD with working files for the exercises and a trial version of Flash 8.

5 comments about Dynamic Learning Dreamweaver CS3.

1. 'Dynamic Learning Dreamweaver CS3' is a fantastic guide for all those developers who are looking to learn and ramp up on Dreamweaver CS3 asap. Jam-packed with 400+ pages of material with a DVD inside, this wonderful book isn't just pages but full interactive content included!! Chapters are called Lessons in this book and there are 13 here. The transitions from one lesson to the next are smooth and clear with not just great layout (so easy on the eyes) but nice writing as well!!
   
   If you are a new user or want to see what the newest version of Dreamweaver has to offer you will be hard-pressed to not be happy with this book. It's a welcome addition to your web library and a sure fire hit!!
   
   ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



2. While not part of the Missing Manual series, the book provides the reader with a step-by-step set of instructions on how to use Dreamweaver CS3. It is aimed at new users of Dreamweaver CS3, but will be of use to more advanced users as well because it covers the upgrades to and changes from the last version.
   
   The book begins with clear and succinct instructions on how to use the video tutorials as well as the lesson files and sets forth the requirements for both Windows and MAC users. The first lesson jumps right into Spry and discussions of integration with various other Adobe products along with an explanation of how web sites work, domains, servers and web hosts, the role of web browsers and an introduction to HTML. The order of the topics is a little weird with the discussion of Spry and Adobe Bridge before the basics of web sites and html. That having been said, it's still a good introduction for the beginner.
   
   Other lessons include creating a web site from scratch with Dreamweaver. There are lots of illustrations and each is accompanied by a clear explanation of each topic discussed. For those interested in adding Flash, videos and sound to pages, there is a chapter devoted to how to do it. It does not show you how to create the Flash content, but Dreamweaver does include functionality to create some Flash content such as buttons and text. Another lesson is on building web forms and at least mentions ways to connect the form data to a database. The scope of the book doesn't permit detailed coverage of the topic, but does include the addition of some behaviors to the form, such as validation. Dreamweaver has a number of built-in javascripts to do validations that are easy to add.
   
   Chapters are followed by a number of assignments for studying to reinforce what has been discussed. There is a set of review questions complete with answers.
   
   One of the best features of the book is that as the lessons progress, there is a great emphasis on the use of CSS to style the pages and it includes discussions of the differences between print and the web when choosing font sizes, how to prepare images for use on the web. Several chapters are devoted to page layout, both with tables (for data mostly) and with CSS.
   
   The first part of the book teaches using the design view in Dreamweaver--the reader doesn't have to deal directly with the HTML, but it does include a lesson on editing in the code view as well.
   
   The final chapter discussions maintenance of the web site, including reports and optimization.



3. I never take the time to write a book review but maybe I'll save you the money and especially the time. I bought this over other books for the instructional DVD included. The very first instruction in Lesson One on the DVD tells you to open "index.html". There is no "index.html" in Lesson One on the DVD. So, I read the beginning of Chapter One for Lesson One and it says to open "SpryWidgets.html". The instructions on the DVD and the book are worlds apart! Upon opening the "SpryWidgets.html" it does not have the text needed to follow the instructions on the DVD. I spent over three hours trying to interpet the two different sets of instructions. The book is very poorly written with no attention to detail. Now I have to drive back to Borders in the morning on my $3.50 per gallon gas to get my money back. I wasted over half a Saturday on this turkey!



4. Files are missing on the dvd which comes with this book, making it very difficult to learn from it.
   Take my advise not to buy this book



5. Not fully understanding what I was getting into I offered to support a web site for a non profit organization that did not have the funds to pay for the service. Using this book as a textbook, I was quickly able to get up to speed and bring their web sit up to date. I have since been asked to develop a web site for a possible new business.
   
   The book takes a step by step approach with each step explained. Possible errors or points of confusion are anticipated and clarified. Each lesson has well developed examples that can also serve as models for your web site. The book is in color so the book pictures match the screen displays. I scanned over the first chapter of what was new because it was all new to me. I followed the other lessons as one would a textbook using what was appropriate for my own site. I never encountered a step that wasn't possible and when finished with the lesson their examples were good templates for what I was doing.
   
   This book does not cover the server side of the coding and I have started using another source to learn how to use PHP with Dreamweaver. However, I still refer to this book for ideas and found it to be an incredible frustration free way to learn how to create and update web sites.

1 comments about Flash ActionScript for Dummies.

1. Loved this book. ActionScript was such a mystery to me but this book really made it easy to understand. I am an instructor and technical writer who has been called on to teach Flash. The Actionscript stuff had me stumped; but this book really helped me pick up a few tricks that really are impressive.

   It is the only book I ever read on the subject that is not boring. This guy definitely has a sense of humor!

5 comments about Contextual Design : A Customer-Centered Approach to Systems Designs (Interactive Technologies).

1. This is quite a useless book about an otherwise interesting subject. The writers give redundancy and repetition new meaning as they repeat themselves by saying the same thing over and over innumerable ways.

   That said, the examples scattered throughout the text are the most interesting part.




2. Beyer & Holtzblatt have done an excellent job describing the process of contextual design. I'm currently implementing a new company-wide business process, in conjunction with co-workers, and thought it would simply be a good idea to both refresh my memory, gather ideas, and form concepts that would be helpful in the organizational design process. This book has undoubtedly served the purposes I've wanted it to. Again, excellent book - worth the buy.



3. This book provided a method to gather requirement efficiently but the rest of the method should be revised.



4. 
   If you've got a memory like a gold fish this might be a great book. For others this book is likely to be repetative to the extreme. Half of the pages could easily be cut out. The same message gets repeated over and over again. Many of the ideas are great but.. for many people out there time is a limiting factor, thats my largest issue with both the book and the method in general.



5. This book is not the end-all be-all methodology for software design. Infact, the authors aren't really suggesting anything new, other than providing a framework within which to assess what they learn through observation and inquiry. And they are a bit redundant in the presentation.
   While I might recommend contextual inquiry to developers and analysts as it is presented here, I most certainly wouldn't recommend their design process. It has many holes and there are better ways to complete the process.

5 comments about The Cg Tutorial: The Definitive Guide to Programmable Real-Time Graphics.

1. This book is very good to get yourself started with Cg, but lacks technical details and advanced topics. Once you're on your way coding shaders, you're better off with NVidia's free cg_toolkit.pdf which is included with the Cg SDK.



2. My review here is from an experienced OpenGL programmer's perspective.

   This is an good introduction to the Cg shading language. It goes well beyond the free introductory PDFs on Cg that you can download from the nVidia site, and will quickly bring you up to speed. If you are unfamiliar with the new generation of graphics cards with programmable GPUs, you will love the introductory chapters. There is also an excellent chapter on bump mapping - the best, practical explanation of the technique I have ever seen. (Other books keep harping about tangent space, without explaining *why* you choose tangent space - never mentioning that it *is* possible to do it in object space.)

   Now, for a few gripes:

   1. There is no clear explanation for how exactly information (say, a calculated light position) should be passed from the vertex program to the fragment program. There are many ways to do this, and there is no suggested way of doing this. (eg: I can use out float3 var: POSITION, NORMAL, COLOR0, TEXCOORD0 - which one should I use and why?)

   2. The vertex and fragment programs are given as such without any calling code. This may be really tough for beginners.

   3. It does not provide a good reference to all the built in Cg functions. In many cases, you have to guess whether a function returns a value or modifes a parameter passed in. For example, there is only 1 line in the book about the faceforward(Ng, I, N) call. What is Ng? Does this function return any value?

   4. The utility value of this book will plummet after you go through it once, since it is only an introduction. So I feel it should be priced accordingly. $45 is too much. I recommend getting it used, like I did, for half the price.

   I like the book, but it is definitely not in the calibre of the Red book. (The OpenGL programming guide)




3. This is a well written book covering the Cg shading language. It contains a lot of useful information about Cg and graphics programming techniques in general. Unfortunately, I felt like it didn't cover as much of Cg as I would have liked, making the book less useful than it could have been.

   The book starts with a history of shaders and programmable hardware, an overview of Cg, and a summary of related technologies, such as HLSL and CgFX. It then spends some time covering the syntax and semantics of Cg, and then moves on to the core material of the book, in which the authors explain key graphics pipeline functionality and how it can be implemented using Cg. The book concludes with several appendices covering the Cg runtime, CgFX file format, and Cg standard library, as well as other reference material.

   The topics covered include transformations, animation, lighting, environment mapping, bump mapping, fog, shadow mapping, toon shading, and projective texturing. The explanations are all clear and understandable, in particular the chapter on bump mapping, which is one of the easiest introductions to the topic I've encountered. Features of Cg are introduced as needed while explaining these topics, rather than introducing them all at once, which is very conducive to learning. In addition, the authors include warnings and workarounds for techniques which may not be supported on older hardware, as well as advice on attaining optimal performance.

   I have two primary complaints about the book. The first is that they never really discuss the application code using the shaders, which made it a bit difficult to understand how they fit in at times. The second is that the book isn't nearly as complete a reference as you might expect. For a great deal of the functions and functionality in Cg, they simply refer you to the Cg reference manual. Although this electronic document is freely available, it's fairly brief at times, so a more detailed explanation in the book would have been appreciated. Similarly, I would have liked to have seen more detailed explanation of CgFX, as well as examples of using it.

   Overall, though, this book does a very good job of introducing the reader to Cg and to shaders in general. If you're new to these topics, I'd recommend it. Even if you're a DirectX programmer intending to use HLSL, you'll find this book useful since the languages are identical (though the usage is of course different). If you're already an experienced graphics programmer with some knowledge of shaders, then you'll likely be able to find everything you need in the freely available documentation instead.




4. The current generation of GPUs puts a huge amount of rendering power at your fingertips. This book gives a great intro to a range of highly versatile techniques, including bump maps, shadows, complex illumination models, fog, non-realistic rendering, and lots more. You need a little math, but only what's given here. For example, you'll need to know what a dot product is, and the formulas are given. You won't need to know all the extras, like the geometric and trigonometric properties of dot products - those are simply stated where they become useful. Best, the entire discussion is illustrated with simple, legible samples of working code. The cut&paster gets off to a running start. This book really delivers what the title promises: Cg, by means of clear discussion and useful examples.
   
   The book does not deliver what the title does not promise. For example, the authors discuss the effect of finer or coarser tesselation on image quality, but give no idea how to create the geometric models. Because the authors discuss only what goes on inside the GPU, they scarcely mention how to get your shader programs into it, and scarcely mention vertex shaders at all. Those aren't defects in the book, they're choices made by the authors. This book does a lot, but you'll need other references, possibly more than one of them, if you want to build a complete application.
   
   Advanced graphics programmers have probably seen most of this before, and the barest beginners are still struggling with their box's shrink-wrap code samples. If you're ready for the second and third steps of graphics programming, then this could be very helpful. The "gallery" section could be a bit longer and the images a bit bigger, but this is really a how-to book and succeeds nicely in what it set out to do.
   
   -- wiredweird



5. As the owner of a game company, books like this are a valuable asset in getting our developers who aren't familiar with CG up to speed on the subject.
   
   This book is highly recommended by our development staff, and our developers went out an purchased their own personal copies of the book even though we have it in our office library.

1 comments about Becoming a Digital Designer: A Guide to Careers in Web, Video, Broadcast, Game and Animation Design.

1. Not finished with this book but so far a witty and insightful book which focuses on graphic design beyond printed matter. This book explores the world of digital graphics and looks at new dimensions of graphic design and how designers will become part of a dialogue with the public. A scenario in which they receive feedback from an audience and perfect there design solutions based on feedback from viewers reactions etc.
   And of course Heller has become an authority on Design Culture so this book is informed and up to date.

2 comments about Designing Sound for Animation.

1. This is a very well written introduction to sound design for film. And while the book focuses on animation, it is also very relevant for traditional narrative film. The author has a real talent for getting to the basic essence of things. A very practical book!



2. I could make out every sound clearly. This is a great DIY book on soundtrack production with excellent examples from the author on the accompanying DVD. It answered just about every question I've ever had about creating soundtracks for stopmotion films. Well written and illustrated.