From a steamy jungle to a modern city, or even a sci-fi space station, 3D Game Environments is the ultimate resource to help you create AAA quality art for a variety of game worlds. Primarily using Photoshop and 3ds Max, students will learn to create realistic textures from photo source and a variety of techniques to portray dynamic and believable game worlds. With detailed tutorials on creating 3D models, applying 2D art to 3D models, and clear concise advice on issues of efficiency and optimization for a 3D game engine, Luke Ahearn gives you everything students need to make their own realistic game environments. Key Features The entire game world development process; from planning to 3D modeling, UV layout, and creating textures. Exercises and projects to practice with; each section includes projects to guide you through creating different world genres. The updated companion website-www.lukeahearn.com/textures/ now includes video tutorials in addition to updated sample textures, shaders, materials, actions, brushes, program demos, plug-ins and all art from the book-all the tools you need in one place.

Can we learn through play? Can we really play while learning? Of course! But how?! We all learn and educate others in our own unique ways. Successful educational games adapt to the particular learning needs of their players and facilitate the learning objectives of their designers. Educational Game Design Fundamentals embarks on a journey to explore the necessary aspects to create games that are both fun and help players learn. This book examines the art of educational game design through various perspectives and presents real examples that will help readers make more informed decisions when creating their own games. In this way, readers can have a better idea of how to prepare for and organize the design of their educational games, as well as evaluate their ideas through several prisms, such as feasibility or learning and intrinsic values. Everybody can become education game designers, no matter what their technical, artistic or pedagogic backgrounds. This book refers to educators and designers of all sorts: from kindergarten to lifelong learning, from corporate training to museum curators and from tabletop or video game designers to theme park creators!

We are witnessing a revolution in storytelling. Publications all over the world are increasingly using immersive storytelling-virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality-to tell compelling stories. The aim of this book is to distill the lessons learned thus far into a useful guide for reporters, filmmakers and writers interested in telling stories in this emerging medium. Examining ground-breaking work across industries, this text explains, in practical terms, how storytellers can create their own powerful immersive experiences as new media and platforms emerge.

A pro isn't just a person who can do it well. It's a person who can do it well every time, on demand and on deadline; which is why the key to being a professional creative is having a great creative process. Whether it's writing a book, animating a shot, designing a game level or composing a soundtrack-ultimately, we're all facing similar challenges. Since we share challenges, we can also share solutions. This book is a practical guide, featuring a universal creative process that can streamline any serious creative work, on any scale. Key Features Universal approach: applies to any process that starts with an idea and ends with a refined product. Profound and light: combines conceptual ideas with practical tips and fun anecdotes. Caricatures and samples: helps visually clarify ideas and processes. Variety of creative fields: draws on examples from writing, animation, game design, 3D modeling, music, sculpting and more Printable summaries: provides visual outlines that can be used as cheat-sheets.

This book explains the creation of animation from concept to production. Instead of focusing on singular aspects of animation production, talented animators can learn to make better films by understanding the process as a whole. Veteran independent filmmaker Hannes Rall teaches you how to develop an animation project from the very start of conceptual exploration though to completed production. Subjects like script, storyboarding, character and production design illuminate the pre-production process; later chapters explain the production process applied to different animation techniques like 2D animation, 3D computer animation and stop motion. This book is just the right mix of practical advice, lavish illustrations, and industry case studies to give you everything you need to start creating animation today. Key Features Learn the concepts of film animation production from an expert instructor Interviews with legends Andreas Deja, Hans Bacher and Volker Engel Robust coverage of the pre-production process, from script to storyboarding and visual development Includes a glossary and further reading recommendations

This book explains the creation of animation from concept to production. Instead of focusing on singular aspects of animation production, talented animators can learn to make better films by understanding the process as a whole. Veteran independent filmmaker Hannes Rall teaches you how to develop an animation project from the very start of conceptual exploration though to completed production. Subjects like script, storyboarding, character and production design illuminate the pre-production process; later chapters explain the production process applied to different animation techniques like 2D animation, 3D computer animation and stop motion. This book is just the right mix of practical advice, lavish illustrations, and industry case studies to give you everything you need to start creating animation today. Key Features Learn the concepts of film animation production from an expert instructor Interviews with legends Andreas Deja, Hans Bacher and Volker Engel Robust coverage of the pre-production process, from script to storyboarding and visual development Includes a glossary and further reading recommendations

Punk Playthings Provocations for 21st Century Game Makers "Punk was an attitude. It was never about having a Mohican haircut or wearing a ripped T-shirt. It was all about destruction, and the creative potential within that." Malcolm Mclaren Warning: If you want a silver bullet solution for efficient game making or a step-by-step guide to receiving Indie Game Dev hero worship, you're in the wrong place. Put the book back on the shelf. Punk Playthings is an antidote to complacency and orthodoxy. Packed with probes and provocations that explore game making through fresh lenses for uncertain times, it challenges gaming monoculture by constructing a trading space for ideas and learning from across domains and cultures. Punk Playthings has zero respect for boundaries between mediums, industries, sectors, specialisms or disciplines. Instead, it challenges you to expand your cultural capital, think laterally and make new connections. Punk Playthings advocates a truly independent mindset and DIY approach for creating playful experiences with cultural resonance. It proclaims creative entrepreneurship as the true legacy of punk. Punk Playthings is not for everyone. But it might be for you.

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.

Situational Design lays out a new methodology for designing and critiquing videogames. While most game design books focus on games as formal systems, Situational Design concentrates squarely on player experience. It looks at how playfulness is not a property of a game considered in isolation, but rather the result of the intersection of a game with an appropriate player. Starting from simple concepts, the book advances step-by-step to build up a set of practical tools for designing player-centric playful situations. While these tools provide a fresh perspective on familiar design challenges as well as those overlooked by more transactional design paradigms. Key Features Introduces a new methodology of game design that concentrates on moment-to-moment player experience Provides practical design heuristics for designing playful situations in all types of games Offers groundbreaking techniques for designing non-interactive play spaces Teaches designers how to create games that function as performances Provides a roadmap for the evolution of games as an art form.

This book will explore the creative, educational, technical and critical issues at stake in 're-imagining animation'. The moving image pieces will be presented as a range of case studies looking at the production process from the initial choice and selection of the creative stimulus, through the discussion and decision informing the aesthetic and technical facilitation of the work, to the final outcome. These will then be analysed in meaning, purpose, and affect, and as part of a wider engagement with moving image culture. These case studies will represent a detailed evaluation of experimental work as it moves from 'script to screen', simultaneously addressing the interfaces between animation, film, graphic design and art-making in general, and it is this which essentially constitutes the 'advanced' level of the book in not merely foregrounding progressive contemporary work, but stressing innovative approaches to pedagogy and production. This book is suitable for students of animation, established professional animators, and anyone with an interest in animation.

Game AI Pro3: Collected Wisdom of Game AI Professionals presents state-of-the-art tips, tricks, and techniques drawn from developers of shipped commercial games as well as some of the best-known academics in the field. This book acts as a toolbox of proven techniques coupled with the newest advances in game AI. These techniques can be applied to almost any game and include topics such as behavior trees, utility theory, path planning, character behavior, and tactical reasoning. KEY FEATURES Contains 42 chapters from 50 of the game industry's top developers and researchers. Provides real-life case studies of game AI in published commercial games. Covers a wide range of AI in games, with topics applicable to almost any game. Includes downloadable demos and/or source code, available at http://www.gameaipro.com SECTION EDITORS Neil Kirby General Wisdom Alex Champandard Architecture Nathan Sturtevant Movement and Pathfinding Damian Isla Character Behavior Kevin Dill Tactics and Strategy; Odds and Ends

Whether trying to land that first big gig or working to perfect the necessary skills to fill a game world with sound, Aaron Marks' Complete Guide to Game Audio 3rd edition will teach the reader everything they need to know about the audio side of the multi-million dollar video game industry. This book builds upon the success of the second edition with even more expert advice from masters in the field and notes current changes within the growing video game industry. The tools of the trade excerpts will showcase what professionals, like Marty O'Donnell, Richard Jacques and Tom Salta, use to create their work and to help newcomers in the field prepare their own sound studios. Sample contracts are reviewed within the text as well as helpful advice about contractual terms and negotiable points. These sample contracts can also be found as a downloadable zip for the reader's convenience. Aaron Marks also explores how to set your financial terms and network efficiently along with examples of how projects can go completely awry and achieving the best results in often complicated situations. Aaron Marks' Complete Guide to Game Audio serves as the ultimate survival guide to navigating an audio career in the video game industry. Key Features New, full color edition with a complete update of information. Added and expanded coverage of field recording for games, creating voiceovers, adaptive and interactive audio and other cutting edge sound creation and implementation techniques used within games. Update/Replacement of interviews. Include interviews/features on international game audio professionals New and expanded interview features from game composers and sound designers of every experience level such as Keith Arem, Bradley Meyer, Christopher Tin and Rodney Gates including many international professionals like Pasi Pitkanen, Henning Nugel and Christos Panayides. Expanded and updated game console coverage of the Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4. Includes new scripting and middleware concepts and techniques and review of powerful tools such as FMOD and Wwise.

This book explores 'spatial practices', a loose and expandable set of approaches that embrace the political and the activist, the performative and the curatorial, the architectural and the urban. Acting upon and engaging with the public realm, the field of spatial practices allows people to reconnect with their own sense of agency through engagement in space and place, exploring and prototyping alternative futures in the here and now. The 24 chapters contain essays, visual essays and interviews, featuring contributions from an international set of experimental practitioners including Jeanne van Heeswijk (Netherlands), Teddy Cruz (Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, San Diego), Hector (USA), The Decorators (London) and OOZE (Netherlands). Beautifully designed with full colour illustrations, Spatial Practices advances dialogue and collaboration between academics and practitioners and is essential reading for students, researchers and professionals in architecture, urban planning and urban policy.

Game development is one of the most rewarding crafts of modern times. Not only is making games a wonderful lifelong hobby, but employment opportunities exist at many levels. Learn to Implement Games with Code guides you through the development process as you put together a release-ready game. It is written in a friendly and conversational tone, which is suitable for a wide audience of aspiring game developers, such as yourself. You will gain practical, hands-on experience with implementing game components using code. Gradually, you will build a complete game that you can be proud of. After finishing this book, you will be prepared to start making games of your very own design.

Why take months to learn every button in 3ds Max when you can create great visuals with just a few key tools? Utilize the tool of choice, 3ds Max 2015, for generating realistic environments, seamless CG effects, and jaw dropping games in a matter of hours. You can use the memory-hogging methods that choke your display and take forever to render, or you can get it done quickly and efficiently.

Michael McCarthy offers a goldmine of artistic inspiration, timesaving tips & tricks, and step-by-step walkthroughs—you’ll wonder how you every got by without it! This new edition has been completely revamped for 3ds Max 2015. Start animating today with detailed tutorials, source files, bitmaps, and video demonstrations—all featured on the companion website.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Modeling

Chapter 2: Character Modeling

Chapter 3: Materials and Mapping

Chapter 4: Lighting and Shadows

Chapter 5: Reflections

Chapter 6: Glass

Chapter 7: Animation

Chapter 8: Character Animation

Chapter 9: Rendering

Chapter 10: Parameter Wiring

Chapter 11: Special Effects

Chapter 12: Particles and Physics

Chapter 13: Scene Management

Appendix

Additional Resources

Computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a special genre of computer games that bring the tabletop role-playing experience of games such as Dungeons & Dragons to the computer screen. Thisnew edition inlcudes two new chapters: The Modern Age, and a chapter on Indies and Mobile CRPGs. The new modern age chapter will cover, among other topics, Kickstarter/FIG crowdfunded projects such as Torment: Tides of Numenera and Pillars of Eternity. It'll also bring the book up to date with major games such as Dragon Age, Witcher, Skyrim. Expanded info in first chapter about educational potential of CRPGs. Color figures will be introduced for the first time. Key Features gives reviews of hundreds of games across many platforms. comprehensive book covering the history of computer RPGs. comprehensive index at the back, letting you quickly look up your favourite titles

This book explores the Czech composer Vaclav Trojan (1907-1983) and his compositions for Jiri Trnka's films, a very influential puppet stop-motion animator. Trnka is regarded as one of the finest outcomes of Czech art in the aftermath of the Second World War and inspiration for contemporary directors like Tim Burton and companies such as Aardman or Laika. Trojan's music for animation sets a great artistic model in European animation, at least as meaningful as Carl Stalling's music for Warner Bros. cartoons in the USA. Trojan was an eclectic artist, which encompassed folk songs, jazz and blues influences, neoclassical symphonic and chamber works, opera and more. Key Features: A historical overview of the origins and early development of Czech animation Biographical sketches and stylistic outline of both Trnka and Trojan An audiovisual analysis of all the available Trnka films Trojan wrote music for Filmography and bibliography

Expert Guidance on the Math Needed for 3D Game ProgrammingDeveloped from the authors' popular Game Developers Conference (GDC) tutorial, Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications, Third Edition illustrates the importance of mathematics in 3D programming. It shows you how to properly animate, simulate, and render scenes and discusses the mathematics behind the processes. New to the Third EditionCompletely revised to fix errors and make the content flow better, this third edition reflects the increased use of shader graphics pipelines, such as in DirectX 11, OpenGL ES (GLES), and the OpenGL Core Profile. It also updates the material on real-time graphics with coverage of more realistic materials and lighting. The Foundation for Successful 3D ProgrammingThe book covers the low-level mathematical and geometric representations and algorithms that are the core of any game engine. It also explores all the stages of the rendering pipeline. The authors explain how to represent, transform, view, and animate geometry. They then focus on visual matters, specifically the representation, computation, and use of color. They also address randomness, intersecting geometric entities, and physical simulation. An Introduction to Creating Real and Active Virtual WorldsThis updated book provides you with a conceptual understanding of the mathematics needed to create 3D games as well as a practical understanding of how these mathematical bases actually apply to games and graphics. It not only includes the theoretical mathematical background but also incorporates many examples of how the concepts are used to affect how a game looks and plays. Web ResourceA supplementary website contains a collection of source code, supporting libraries, and interactive demonstrations that illustrate the concepts and enable you to experiment with animation and simulation applications. The site also includes slides and notes from the authors' GDC tutorials.

Wolfgang Engel's GPU Pro 360 Guide to 3D Engine Design gathers all the cutting-edge information from his previous seven GPU Pro volumes into a convenient single source anthology that covers the design of a 3D engine. This volume is complete with articles by leading programmers that focus on various aspects of 3D engine design such as quality and optimization as well as high-level architecture. GPU Pro 360 Guide to 3D Engine Design is comprised of ready-to-use ideas and efficient procedures that can help solve many computer graphics programming challenges that may arise. Key Features: Presents tips & tricks on real-time rendering of special effects and visualization data on common consumer software platforms such as PCs, video consoles, mobile devices Covers specific challenges involved in creating games on various platforms Explores the latest developments in rapidly evolving field of real-time rendering Takes practical approach that helps graphics programmers solve their daily challenges

CINEMA 4D is a fully integrated 3D modeling, animation, and rendering package used extensively in the film, television, science, architecture, and engineering industries. Generally ranked as the 3rd most widely used 3D application, CINEMA 4D is widely praised for its stability, speed, and ease of use. Recent film and broadcast productions that have used CINEMA 4D include Beowulf, The Golden Compass, Spider-Man 3, Open Season, Monster House, Superman Returns, Polar Express, and Monday Night Football. This 3e of CINEMA 4D is updated to address the latest release of the application as well as its critically acclaimed MoGraph module. Packed with full-color illustrations that engage and inspir novice and seasoned users alike, this artist's project sourcebook teaches how to use the application with a tutorial approach that gets the reader creating 3D objects in the very first pages and builds skills progressively as they proceed to learn the complete toolset.

Cypherpunk Ethics explores the moral worldview of the cypherpunks, a movement that advocates the use of strong digital cryptography-or crypto, for short-to defend individual privacy and promote institutional transparency in the digital age. Focusing on the writings of Timothy May and Julian Assange, two of the most prolific and influential cypherpunks, the book examines two competing paradigms of cypherpunk philosophy-crypto anarchy and crypto justice-and examines the implications of cypherpunk ethics for a range of contemporary moral issues, including surveillance, privacy, whistleblowing, cryptocurrencies, journalism, democracy, censorship, intellectual property, and power. Rooted in theory but with very real applications, this volume will appeal not only to students and scholars of digital media, communication, journalism, philosophy, political science, critical data studies, sociology, and the history of technology but also to technologists and activists around the world.

This book is geared towards both students as well as professionals who are looking to enter the mobile (tablet/smartphone) and PC (personal computer) industry as concept artists (for both 2D and 3D production pipelines) or 2D production artists (game-ready assets). This book is not specifically focused on game design or game development and is also not a 3D modeling or animation guide. However, certain aspects of game design, game development, and 3D modeling and animation will impact the visual development and art creation process. So, at points throughout we will explore topics such as game engine performance and game mechanics, though at a very high-level, bird's-eye, vantage point and only as they pertain to the visual development of the various assignments throughout this book. Through the completion of the exercises and assignments contained within Visual Development for Web & Mobile Games readers will be guided through the visual development process and execution of a variety of concepts and assets (final game art). This includes categories such as characters, props, and backgrounds, within an isometric design template. The categories themselves will relate more to their function within a very simple game design template than their completed visual representation (e.g., the "big build-able" category could be anything from a town square to a fire breathing dragon as long as it fits within the bare bones parameters of the asset types functionality). The concept, theme, and style of these assets, as well as the world they inhabit, will be completely up to the individual artist. Key Features Weaves knowledge of classic visual development principles and web/mobile game art production practices. Assignments and exercises at the end of every chapter allow the reader to create a game art project from start to finish. Examines both 2D/3D game art pipelines. Includes a companion website with project files, asset downloads & author created video tutorials.

**How to Cheat in 3ds Max - updated for latest rev of Max** Need to get results with 3ds max fast? Why take months to learn every button in 3ds max when you can create great visuals with just a few key tools? Learn to create quick yet stunning special effects, and animated characters with the fastest techniques possible. Need convincing grass, trees, water, shadows? You can use the memory-hogging methods that choke your display and take forever to render, or you can get it done bing-bang with this book. When you need an animated character you can spend days fiddling with polygons, or you can use this book to put it together in minutes and get the entire project done in a day. How to Cheat in 3ds max includes a host of time-saving techniques as well as little-known tools that will make you look like an expert in no time flat. This book is for busy professionals who need to get it done right, but also need it done fast. This rev of the book will have higher-end cheats (for Intermediate users) and ALL NEW or UPDATED content on: new modelling and material tools, mental ray, special effects, particle systems, and scripting. The web site offers scene files and bitmaps used to illustrate the cheats, also music files, organizational samples, and instructional Camtasia movies of Michele where Michele showing some of the trickier techniques.

This is not a book about Maya software with a few animation pointers thrown in here and there. This is a guide to Maya software written by professional animators. This book provides you with complete, set-by-step walkthroughs of essential animation techniques that increase your speed and efficiency while using Maya 2017 for character animation. From curves to constraints, this book covers all of the methods available in the latest version of Maya. Featuring gold-mine coverage this book teaches you new techniques for working with characters in animation tests and short films. Accompanied by a companion site, this is the one and only guide to get you up to speed. Key Features Complete step-by-step, walkthroughs of essential techniques every animator needs to know. Features interviews with leading experts and experienced animation leads. Companion web site including all exercise/example scene files and extras such as video tutorials and animation files. Interlude articles covering everything from Reference Video to Resumes.

Computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a special genre of computer games that bring the tabletop role-playing experience of games such as Dungeons & Dragons to the computer screen. Thisnew edition inlcudes two new chapters: The Modern Age, and a chapter on Indies and Mobile CRPGs. The new modern age chapter will cover, among other topics, Kickstarter/FIG crowdfunded projects such as Torment: Tides of Numenera and Pillars of Eternity. It'll also bring the book up to date with major games such as Dragon Age, Witcher, Skyrim. Expanded info in first chapter about educational potential of CRPGs. Color figures will be introduced for the first time. Key Features gives reviews of hundreds of games across many platforms. comprehensive book covering the history of computer RPGs. comprehensive index at the back, letting you quickly look up your favourite titles