The new realities are here. Virtual and Augmented realities and 360 video technologies are rapidly entering our homes and office spaces. Good quality audio has always been important to the user experience, but in the new realities, it is more than important, it's essential. If the audio doesn't work, the immersion of the experience fails and the cracks in the new reality start to show. This practical guide helps you navigate the challenges and pitfalls of designing audio for these new realities. This technology is different from anything we've seen before and requires an entirely new approach; this book will introduce the broad concepts you need to know before delving into the practical detail you need. Key Features This book covers audio for all types of new reality technology. At the moment, VR and 360 video are getting a lot of press, but in a few years we will be hearing a lot more about Augmented and Mixed reality technologies as well. A practical guide to creating, designing and implementing audio for this new technology by a leading sound design and implementation expert. Conceptual explanations address the new approaches necessary to designing effective audio for the new realities. Real-world examples and analysis of what does and does not work including detailed case study discussions.

Building Science Graphics: An illustrated guide to communicating science through diagrams and visualizations is a practical guide for anyone-regardless of previous design experience and preferred drawing tools-interested in creating science-centric illustrated explanatory diagrams. Starting with a clear introduction to the concept of information graphics and their role in contemporary science communication, it then outlines a process for creating graphics using evidence-based design strategies. The heart of the book is composed of two step-by-step graphical worksheets, designed to help jump-start any new project. This is both a textbook and a practical reference for anyone that needs to convey scientific information in an illustrated form for articles, poster presentations, slide shows, press releases, blog posts, social media posts and beyond.

Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs) have become a new genre of "play culture," integrating communication and entertainment in a playful, computer-mediated environment that evolves through user interaction. This book comprehensively reviews the origins, players, and social dynamics of MOGs, as well as six major empirical research methods used in previous works to study MOGs (i.e., observation/ethnography, survey/interviews, content and discourse analysis, experiments, network analysis, and case studies). It concludes that MOGs represent a highly sophisticated, networked, multimedia and multimodal Internet technology, which can construct entertaining, simultaneous, persistent social virtual worlds for gamers. Overall, the book shows that what we can learn from MOGs is how games and gaming, as ubiquitous activities, fit into ordinary life in today's information society, in the moments where the increased use of media as entertainment, the widespread application of networked information technologies, and participation in new social experiences intersect. Key Features: Contains pertinent knowledge about online gaming: its history, technical features, player characteristics, social dynamics, and research methods Sheds light on the potential future of online gaming, and how this would impact every aspect of our everyday lives - socially, culturally, technologically, and economically Asks promising questions based on cutting-edge research in the field of online game design and development

This book covers the distinguishing characteristics and tropes of visual novels (VNs) as choice-based games and analyzes VNs like 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors; Hatoful Boyfriend; and Monster Prom, some of the best examples of the genre as illustrations. The author covers structuring branching narrative and plot, designing impactful and compelling choices, writing entertaining relationships and character interactions, understanding the importance of a VN's prose, and planning a VN's overall narrative design and story delivery. The book contains exercises at the end of chapters to practice the techniques discussed. By the end of the book, if the reader finishes all the exercises, they may have several portfolio pieces or a significant portion of their own VN project designed. Features: Discusses different aspects and genres of VNs, what makes them enjoyable, and successful techniques developers can incorporate into their own games Analyzes various VNs and choice-based games that use these successful techniques Shares tips from developers on portfolio pieces, hiring a team to work on VNs, and plotting and outlining VNs Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue: Designing and Writing Visual Novels is a valuable resource for developers and narrative designers interested in working on VNs. The book will show them how they can design their own VN projects, design branching narratives, develop entertaining plots and relationships, design impactful and compelling choices, and write prose that's a pleasure to read.

Journalism Design is about the future of journalism. As technologies increasingly, and continually, reshape the way we interact with information, with each other and with our environment, journalists need new ways to tell stories. Journalists often see technology as something that improves what they are doing or that makes it more convenient. However, the growing might of technology companies has put journalism and news organisations in a difficult position: readers and revenues have moved, and platforms exert increasing control over story design. Skye Doherty argues that, rather than adapting journalism to new technologies, journalists should be creating the technologies themselves and those technologies should be designed for core values such as the public interest. Drawing from theories and practices of interaction design, this book demonstrates how journalists can use their expertise to imagine new ways of doing journalism. The design and development of the NewsCube, a three-dimensional storytelling tool, is detailed, as well as how interaction design can be used to imagine new forms of journalism. The book concludes by calling for closer ties between researchers and working journalists and suggests that journalism has a hybrid future - in newsrooms, communities, design studios and tech companies.

Key features include: Introduction to Projective Geometry, Image Based Lighting (IBL), Global Illumination solved by the Monte Carlo Method (Pathtracing), an explanation of a set of Optimization Methods, and the techniques used for Calibrating One, Two, and Many cameras, including how to use the RANSAC algorithm in order to make the process robust, and providing code to be implemented using the Gnu Scientific Library. C/C++ code using the OpenCV library, to be used in the process of tracking points on a movie (an important step for the matchmove process), and in the construction of Modeling Tools for Visual Effects. A simple model of the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) of surfaces and the Differential Rendering Method, allowing the reader to generate consistent shadows, supported by a code that can be used in combination with a software like Luminance HDR.

Drawn to Life is a two-volume collection of the legendary lectures of long-time Disney animator Walt Stanchfield. For over 20 years, Walt mentored a new generation of animators at the Walt Disney Studios and influenced such talented artists such as Tim Burton, Brad Bird, Glen Keane, and Andreas Deja. His writing and drawings have become must-have lessons for fine artists, film professionals, animators, and students looking for inspiration and essential training in drawing and the art of animation. Written by Walt Stanchfield (1919–2000), who began work for the Walt Disney Studios in the 1950s. His work can be seen in films such as Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians, and Peter Pan. Edited by Disney Legend and Oscar®-nominated producer Don Hahn, whose credits include the classic Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Hunchback of Notre Dame.

* Provides a comprehensive approach to Motion Design as Design Practice with specific areas of focus for a range of audiences. * Integrates professional examples, case studies, and interviews to validate its themes. * Written from ongoing and pragmatic experience in both education and professional practice.

Scholars and professionals from all over the world, across experience levels and the gender and sexuality spectrum, share experiences and analysis of romance and sexuality in video games. Whether discussing casual sex in the Star Wars universe; analyzing various Otome games; examining "the gaze" in various games; player romance behavior in games; or exploring the ethical ramifications of sexuality in virtual reality and other emerging technologies, this book discusses what players want in video game romance, and how developers can best deliver it. Key Features: Examines the past, present, and future of romance in single-player, role-playing games Discusses common presentations of romance in single-player, role-playing games- both in the category and game mechanics that drive romance Discusses research on how players define a satisfying game romance and what specific steps narrative designers can take to design satisfying games Explains the notion of the empathic game and explores its importance in relation to romance in game design

Giannalberto Bendazzi brings to light some of the lost relics of animation history with his new book, Twice the First: Quirino Cristiani and the Animated Feature Film. Unlike other works, however, Bendazzi focuses on the growth of animation in non-western countries. This book particularly emphasizes the contributions of Quirino Cristiani and how his work influenced other animators. Bendazzi provides in-depth coverage about Cristiani's life, both professionally and personally. Twice the First takes the reader on an exciting journey through the historical development of animation through the eyes of Quirino Cristiani. Key Features A look back at the modest beginnings of feature film animation. An exciting account of some facts never before revealed in the history and development of animated film Among the fascinating information the reader can learn from this book, is that not all the action in cinematography took place in North America and Western Europe This book provides an important service in documenting the early period of animation and filling in the gaps in the history of the development of animation.

Want to create studio-quality work and get noticed? Just coming off Flash and looking for a Toon Boom intro? Are you a traditional pencil-and-paper animator? From scene setup to the final render, learn how to navigate the Toon Boom interface to create animation that can be published on a variety of platforms and formats. Animate to Harmony guides you through Toon Boom's Animate, Animate Pro and Harmony programs, teaching you how to create high-quality 2D animation of all complexities. The main text focuses onfeatures that are common across all three programs while "Advanced Techniques" boxes throughout the book elaborate on Pro and Harmony features, appealing to all levels of experience with any of the three main Toon Boom products.

This text follows the animation production by concentrating on the documentation necessary to accurately and professionally organize each step of the process. Examples of each piece of paperwork needed to complete the project will be shown. Many newcomers to the field are not experienced in the basic processes to organize their project in an orderly manner. The result is a chaotic, inefficient, and incomplete product. Readers are presented with a step-by-step guide to organizing the process by following professional standards in creating needed and useful documentation for all animators, whether creating in cells, stop-motion, experimental, or computer graphic productions. Key Features Provides simplified but intense coverage of animation production. Written to be easily read by newcomers to the field, ranging from students to professionals. Each chapter contains objectives, summaries, examples of forms, key terms, and examples of how professionals use the same techniques. This book provides both students and instructors an easily understandable explanation of the system and the directions on how to prepare documentation.

Storytelling for Virtual Reality serves as a bridge between students of new media and professionals working between the emerging world of VR technology and the art form of classical storytelling. Rather than examining purely the technical, the text focuses on the narrative and how stories can best be structured, created, and then told in virtual immersive spaces. Author John Bucher examines the timeless principles of storytelling and how they are being applied, transformed, and transcended in Virtual Reality. Interviews, conversations, and case studies with both pioneers and innovators in VR storytelling are featured, including industry leaders at LucasFilm, 20th Century Fox, Oculus, Insomniac Games, and Google. For more information about story, Virtual Reality, this book, and its author, please visit StorytellingforVR.com

Written based on the author's own notes compiled over 18 years This manual is a learning tool focusing exclusively on the work of animators. explains the principles of physics applicable to any motion

If Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs represented the Animation industry's infancy, Ed Hooks thinks that the current production line of big-budget features is its artistically awkward adolescence. While a well-funded marketing machine can conceal structural flaws, uneven performances and superfluous characters, the importance of crafted storytelling will only grow in importance as animation becomes a broader, more accessible art form. Craft Notes for Animators analyses specific films - including Frozen and Despicable Me - to explain the secrets of creating truthful stories and believable characters. It is an essential primer for the for tomorrow's industry leaders and animation artists.

Design Computing will help you understand the rapidly evolving relationship between computing, designers, and the many different environments they create or work in. The book introduces the topic of design computing, and covers the basics of hardware and software, so you don't need to be an expert. Topics include the fundamentals of digital representation, programming and interfaces for design; the shifting landscape of opportunity and expectation in practice and pedagogy; placing sensors in buildings to measure performance; and the challenge of applying information effectively in design. The book also includes additional reading for those who wish to dig deeper into the subject. Design Computing will provide you with a greater awareness of the issues that permeate the field, opportunities for you to investigate, and perhaps motivation to push the boundaries.

This book provides a deep understanding of state-of-art methods for simulation of heterogeneous crowds in computer graphics. It will cover different aspects that are necessary to achieve plausible crowd behaviors. The book will be a review of the most recent literature in this field that can help professionals and graduate students interested in this field to get up to date with the latest contributions, and open problems for their possible future research. The chapter contributors are well known researchers and practitioners in the field and they include their latest contributions in the different topics required to achieve believable heterogeneous crowd simulation. Provides crowd simulation methodology to populate virtual environments, for video games or any kind of applications that requires believable multi-agent behavior Presents the latest contributions on crowd simulation, animation, planning, rendering and evaluation with detailed algorithms for implementation purposes Includes perspectives of both academic researchers and industrial practitioners with reference to open source solutions and commercial applications, where appropriate

Indie developers and other people who work on games for a living face all kinds of interesting income tax and small business formation issues that more traditional businesses simply don't: not being geographically bound, relying on alternative funding, long periods of time with no income, and having multiple options for tax treatment of game development costs. The Definitive Guide to Taxes for Indie Game Developers addresses income tax issues that the average indie game developer is most likely to encounter, in the context of the American Internal Revenue Code and types of taxes. Written by a former tax law practitioner turned game developer and industry consultant with a decade of tax and accounting experience, the newly revised Second Edition includes key provisions of the 2018 tax reform such as the new qualified business income deduction, R&D credit expansion, and permanent reduction to corporate income taxes. In-depth explanations and examples are provided along with references to Tax Court and Supreme Court cases relevant to each tax benefit. Key Features: Includes authoritative sources with relevant IRS publications, Revenue Rulings, and Tax Court cases. Features easy to read, accessible and humorous language No legalese! Approaches how business decisions as an indie developer affect personal finances. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of taxation's role in managing a game studio of any size and going indie with any lifestyle. The accompanying companion website is a valuable resource that is annually updated to keep current on any tax reforms.

While formal training and communication are a foundational approach to developing employees in the workplace, alternate reality games (ARGs) provide a framework for increased and sustained engagement within business organizations. ARGs are transmedia experiences designed to generate engagement and immersive learning beyond what is achieved in formal and conventional training and communication approaches. Alternate Reality Games: Gamification for Performance leads you through the fundamentals of ARGs. It includes a discussion of what is and is not an ARG, citing examples and identifying business challenges that can be addressed through ARGs. It presents case studies that illustrate the variety of forms that ARGs take and the issues to which they can be applied, such as improving performance and critical communication situations. It also gives guidelines for creating your own ARGs, reviewing the process and technological tools and considerations relevant to their creation. Presenting a thorough examination of the beneficial roles ARGs can play in the business environment as well as methods for creating effective ARGs, Alternate Reality Games: Gamification for Performance is an ideal reference for those approaching or considering ARGs for the first time as well as the training professional or professional game designer. It presents a comprehensive overview of the advantages of applying ARGs to the workplace as well as methods for designing and using them.

Gambling is both a multi-billion dollar international industry and a ubiquitous social and cultural phenomenon. It is also undergoing significant change, with new products and technologies, regulatory models, changing public attitudes and the sheer scale of the gambling enterprise necessitating innovative and mixed methodologies that are flexible, responsive and 'agile'. This book seeks to demonstrate that researchers should look beyond the existing disciplinary territory and the dominant paradigm of 'problem gambling' in order to follow those changes across territorial, political, technical, regulatory and conceptual boundaries. The book draws on cutting-edge qualitative work in disciplines including anthropology, history and media studies to explore the production and consumption of risk, risky places, risk technology, the gambling industry, and connections between gambling and other kinds of speculation such as financial derivatives. In doing so it addresses some of the most important issues in contemporary social science, including the challenges of studying deterritorialised social phenomena; globalizing technologies and local markets; regulation as it operates across local, regional and international scales; globalization, and the rise of games, virtual worlds, and social media.

Introduces the reader to the technical aspects of real-time visual effects. Built upon a career of over twenty years in the feature film visual effects and the real-time video game industries and tested on graduate and undergraduate students. Explores all real-time visual effects in four categories: in-camera effects, in-material effects, simulations and particles.

This book introduces the basics in game usability and overall game UX mindset and techniques, as well as looking at current industry best practices and trends. Fully updated for its second edition, it includes practical advice on how to include usability in already tight development timelines, and how to advocate for UX and communicate results to higher-ups effectively. The book begins with an introduction to UX strategy considerations for games, and to UX design, before moving on to cover core user research and usability techniques as well as how to fit UX practices into the business process. It provides considerations of player differences and offers strategies for inclusion as well as chapters that give platform and context specific advice. With a wealth of new interviews with industry leaders and contributions from the very best in game UX, the book also includes brand new chapters on: Accessibility Mobile Game Usability Data Science Virtual and Augmented Reality Esports This book will be vital reading for all professional game developers and game UX advocates, as well as those students aspiring to work in game development and game UX.

The Key to Fully Understanding the Basics of a 3D World Prominently used in games, movies, and on television, 3D graphics are tools of creation used to enhance how material and light come together to manipulate objects in 3D space. A game-changer written for the non-technical mind, Essential Skills for 3D Modeling, Rendering, and Animation examines the complexities of 3D computer-generated art, and outlines the basics of how things work and are used in 3D. This text describes the three cornerstones of 3D-modeling, rendering, and animation; focuses on common elements; and provides a full understanding of the foundational concepts involved. Detailing the skills and knowledge needed to become an accomplished 3D artist, it includes step-by-step instruction with ample examples, and allows absolute beginners to move at their own pace. Master Anything You Are Tasked to Model The author incorporates historical information-presenting a contextual understanding of the various techniques and methodologies in their historical place. Each chapter builds on the fundamentals of 3D computer graphics and augments skills based on the concepts, enabling the student to learn both theory and application simultaneously. The book highlights two basic geometry types, polygons and NURBS surfaces, showing the student basic modeling techniques with both. While more techniques are available, an artist can cover any model by grasping these basic techniques. Supplies examples that are specifically taken from Autodesk Maya Contains exercises that are meant to be used in conjunction with the training videos on the website Includes a documented history of computer graphics Essential Skills for 3D Modeling, Rendering, and Animation offers a fundamental understanding of the mechanics of 3D graphics to modelers, animators, texture artists, render artists, game developers, and production artists, as well as educators teaching an undergrad or tech course in 3D animation.

This book explores the effects of the Instagram platform on the making and viewing of art. Authors Lachlan MacDowall and Kylie Budge critically analyse the ways Instagram has influenced artists, art spaces, art institutions and art audiences, and ultimately contemporary aesthetic experience. The book argues that more than simply being a container for digital photography, the architecture of Instagram represents a new relationship to the image and to visual experience, a way of shaping ocular habits and social relations. Following a detailed analysis of the structure of Instagram - the tactile world of affiliation ('follows'), aesthetics ('likes') and attention ('comments') - the book examines how art spaces, audiences and aesthetics are key to understanding its rise. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, design, digital culture, cultural studies, sociology, education, business, media and communication studies.