This book is written by a professional instructor and founder of CartoonSmart.com, a company specializing in new media tutorials for nearly a decade. The book is a start-to-finish guide for anyone looking to begin iOS development using Cocos2d and Xcode and submit their finished app to Apple. Even if you haven't read code before, you can begin with this book. This book is a handy reference guide, with easy to look-up sections of code snippets, pictures and links to video examples. Features: Code Video examples 5 hours of tutorial videos on Box2d, which can take the reader even further beyond what they learned in the book

Holistic Mobile Game Development with Unity: An All-In-One Guide to Implementing Mechanics, Art Design and Programming for iOS and Android Games Master mobile game design and development in this all-in-one guide to creating iOS and Android games in the cutting-edge game engine, Unity. By using Penny de Byl s holistic method, you will learn about the principles of art, design, and code and gain multidisciplinary skills needed to succeed in the independent mobile games industry. In addition, hands-on exercises will help you throughout the process from design to publication in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Over 70 practical step-by-step exercises recreating the game mechanics of contemporary mobile games, including Angry Birds, Temple Run, Year Walk, Minecraft, Curiosity Cube, Fruit Ninja, and more. Design principles, art, and programming in unison the one-stop shop for indie developers requiring interdisciplinary skills in their small teams. An introduction to essential two- and three-dimensional mathematics, geometry and physics concepts. A portfolio of royalty free reusable game mechanics and assets. Accompanying website, www.holistic3d.com, features project source code, instructional videos, art assets, author blog, and teaching resources. Challenge questions and lesson plans are available online for an enhanced learning experience.

Master the art of linear perspective. If you re an animator, illustrator, comic book artist, game artist or anything in between, you need to be able to create images that accurately and realistically show space, dimension and form. Simplifying Perspective is the one and only guide that thoughtfully and clearly breaks down the principles of perspective into something that s easy to understand and use. With approachable lessons and clear visual step-by-step instruction, Robert Pastrana provides you with powerful techniques that help you turn a troubled drawing into a living, breathing, dimensional scene. With Simplifying Perspective, you ll never have to wade through dense, complex technical manuals again this comprehensive guide to perspective is tailored specifically for artists who need to learn the ins and outs of one, two, and three-point perspective, measuring, shadows, reflections, and more. Simplifying Perspective presents complex drawing concepts in an easy-to-follow, approachable manner so you can finally learn the essentials of perspective without the anticipated frustration. Provides clarity, depth, and a wealth of examples this is your must-have guide to understanding and using linear perspective Detailed visual instruction includes hundreds of color coded, step-by-step diagrams that allow you to easily follow the technical process of each construction Comprehensive companion website includes additional resources on perspective with a range of work to help further your skills

Get ahead of the game with Unity 4. The Unity engine is the tool of choice for many indie and AAA game developers. Unity 4 Fundamentals gives readers a head start on the road to game development by offering beginners a comprehensive, step by step introduction to the latest Unity 4 engine. The author takes a theory-to-practice approach to demonstrate what Unity 4 has to offer which includes: Asset management tools Real-time lighting and lightmapping Particle systems Navigation and pathfinding

Are you an animator looking to get your foot in the door of the top studios? Break it down with Reel Success. It's tough to get a job in the animation industry if you don't have a demo reel and portfolio that reflects your unique style and incredible talents. The reception of that reel will make or break you; so it's no wonder that creating a demo reel can be such a daunting task. Reel Success by Cheryl Cabrera can help. This book guides you through putting the right content into your portfolio, how to cater to the right audience, and how to harness the power of social media and network effectively. Accompanied by case studies of actual students' demo reels, this book teaches how to develop a critical eye toward effective and ineffective demo reels. Reel Success offers you real successful: Best practices for animators looking to get their foot in the door or remain active in a competitive market. Examples of demo reels, featuring techniques beyond just animation for Concept, Story, Layout, Modeling, and Effects Lighting Actual student experiences, professional animator's techniques, and recruiter insights to help you get the inside track in the animation industry.

Explore Disney's 12 principles of animation, while learning how to animate in Maya. You can develop your own leading digital techniques rooted to traditional workflows. From squash and stretch to timing and appeal, you will enhance your creative toolset with strong classics training and cutting edge techniques. Trusted Maya Authority, Lee Montgomery offers the only artistic guide to applying the principles of traditional animation with Maya's tools, which are used in production by the best animators and VFX artists today. Add another webpage to your favourites and expand your digital workflow to include the practical resources of the Tradigital Maya with the robust companion web site that include demonstrations, project files, links to further resources, available at www.tradigitalmaya.com.

Animating with Stop Motion Pro is comprehensive, hands-on guide to achieving professional results with Stop Motion Pro 7.0 software. Gone are the days of stop motion guesswork and waiting to see the finalized result of your meticulous, labor intensive animations. With the push of a mouse button and the Stop Motion Pro software, animators have ten times the capability of simple camera stop motion capture. Re-visualize stop motion character movements, graph these movements and composite characters into a flawless animations with the techniques and step by step tutorials featured in Animating with Stop Motion Pro. Create professional stop motion animation immediately with detailed exercises at the companion website: www.focalpress.com/cw/sawicki-9780240812199/. Integrate classic stop motion animation techniques with the latest stop motion software features.

We are on the verge of creating an exciting new kind of interactive story form that will involve audiences as active participants. This book provides a solid foundation in the fundamentals of classical story structure and classical game structure and explains why it has been surprisingly difficult to bring these two activities together. With this foundation in place, the book presents several ideas for ways to move forward in this appealing quest. The author has a conversational and friendly style, making reading a pleasure.

Vintage Game Consoles tells the story of the most influential videogame platforms of all time, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Sony PlayStation, and many more. It uncovers the details behind the consoles, computers, handhelds, and arcade machines that made videogames possible. Drawing on extensive research and the authors own lifelong experience with videogames, Vintage Game Consoles explores each system s development, history, fan community, its most important games, and information for collectors and emulation enthusiasts. It also features hundreds of exclusive full-color screenshots and images that help bring each system s unique story to life. Vintage Game Consoles is the ideal book for gamers, students, and professionals who want to know the story behind their favorite computers, handhelds, and consoles, without forgetting about why they play in the first place the fun! Bill Loguidice is a critically acclaimed technology author who has worked on over a dozen books, including CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy s Underdog Computer, written with Boisy G. Pitre. He s also the co-founder and Managing Director for the popular Website, Armchair Arcade. A noted videogame and computer historian and subject matter expert, Bill personally owns and maintains well over 400 different systems from the 1970s to the present day, including a large volume of associated materials. Matt Barton is an associate professor of English at Saint Cloud State University in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife Elizabeth. He s the producer of the "Matt Chat," a weekly YouTube series featuring in-depth interviews with notable game developers. In addition to the original Vintage Games, which he co-authored with Bill, he s author of Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games and Honoring the Code: Conversations with Great

You've got the cheats, tutorials, and how-tos. What else do you need? Go above and beyond those stop-gaps and step-by-steps with Pushing Pixels, the real-world guide to developing dynamic and fun content from conception to deployment. Whether you are animating for a short, a fun cartoon, or a mobile game, renowned Flash expert Chris Georgenes will show you his approach with various types of animation projects, from start to finish. Providing in-depth knowledge of the little-known secrets used by the pros to produce creative, professional animations, this is the go-to source for anyone looking to create great animation.

Expand your animation toolkit with foundational animation techniques, software expertise, professional best-practices, proven and time-tested work flows. Roland Hess, a leading Blender artist and instructor, expertly navigates you through Blender's character animation systems and controls, with a focus on each of the classical principles of animation like timing, anticipation, appeal, staging, exaggeration, squash and stretch and much more. Unique from other software titles, the Tradigital series offers a specific tool-set of practical instruction and foundational knowledge that all great animators will need to know. Expand your digital workflow to include the practical resources with the robust companion web site that include demonstrations, project files, links to further resources, available at http://www.focalpress.com/cw/hess-9780240817576/.

Blender Foundations is the definitive resource for getting started with 3D art in Blender, one of the most popular 3D/Animation tools on the market . With the expert insight and experience of Roland Hess, noted Blender expert and author, animators and artists will learn the basics starting with the revised 2.6 interface, modeling tools, sculpting, lighting and materials through rendering, compositing and video editing. Some of the new features covered include the completely re-thought interface, the character animation and keying system, and the smoke simulator. More than just a tutorial guide, "Blender Foundations" covers the philosophy behind this ingenious software that so many 3D artists are turning to today. Start working today with Blender with the accompanying web site which includes all of the projects and support files alongside videos, step-by-step screenshots of the trickier tutorials, as well as a direct links to official resources like the Blender download site and artist forums.

Finally bridge the gap between software-specific instruction and the world of classical animation with this easy to utilize, one-of-a-kind reference guide. With great relevance for today's digital workflows, Richard Lapidus presents innovative 3ds Max controls to the classical principles of animation like squash and stretch, anticipation, staging and more. Move beyond these fundamental techniques and explore both the emotion and technical sides of animation with character appeal and rigging. Features a robust companion web sites that include demonstrations, project files, links to further resources, available at http://www.focalpress.com/cw/lapidus-9780240817309/.

Revitalize your architectural visualizations by bringing new levels of realism to them with an enhanced command of the mental ray toolset in 3ds Max. Full-color step-by-step tutorials give you a firm understanding of the processes and techniques needed to create impressive interior and exterior visualizations. You'll learn how to prepare materials, light a daytime interior scene, use mr Physical Sky, and how to save time during complex renders. The companion website includes all of the tutorial files and sample files from the book. Plus find more information at http://jamiecardoso-mentalray.blogspot.com/.

Expand your animation toolkit and remain competitive in the industry with this leading resource for 2D and 3D character animation techniques. Apply the industry's best practices to your own workflows and develop 2D, 3D and hybrid characters with ease. With side by side comparisons of 2D and 3D character design, improve your character animation and master traditional principles and processes including weight and balance, timing and walks. Develop characters inspired by humans, birds, fish, snakes and four legged animals. Breathe life into your character and develop a characters personality with chapters on acting, voice-synching and facial expressions. Expertly integrate core animation techniques with your software of choice featuring step-by-step tutorials, highlighting 3ds Max, Maya and Blender workflows. Adapt the tips, tricks and techniques for unique projects like character design for rotoscoping and motion capture. Advance beyond the fundamentals of 2D and 3D character animation with the companion website which includes short demonstration movies, 2D and 3D exercises and fully rigged character models.

Artist imaginations continue to grow and stretch the boundaries of traditional animation. Successful animators adept and highly skilled in traditional animation mediums are branching out beyond traditional animation workflows and will often use multiple forms of animation in a single project. With the knowledge of 3D and 2D assets and the integration of multiple animation mediums into a single project, animators have a wealth of creative resources available for a project that is not limited to a specific animation medium, software package or workflow processs. Enhance a poignant scene by choosing to animate the scenic background in 2D while the main character is brought to life with 3D techniques. Balance the budget demands of a project by choosing to integrate a 2D or 3D asset to save time and expense. Choose which medium Hybrid Animation, learn the systematic development of the 2D and 3D assets and the issues surrounding choices made during the creative process.

Action Analysis is one of the fundamental princples of animation that underpins all types of animation: 2d, 3d, computer animation, stop motion, etc. This is a fundamental skill that all animators need to create polished, believable animation. An example of Action Analysis would be Shrek's swagger in the film, Shrek. The animators clearly understood (through action analysis) the type of walk achieved by a large and heavy individual (the real) and then applied their observations to the animated character of an ogre (the fantastic). It is action analysis that enabled the animation team to visually translate a real life situation into an ogre's walk, achieving such fantastic results.Key animation skills are demonstrated with in-depth illustrations, photographs and live action footage filmed with high speed cameras. Detailed Case Studies and practical assignments ground action analysis methodology with real life examples. Action Analysis for Animators is a essential guide for students, amateurs and professionals.

Create the Gotham for your Batman, the African savannah for your Simba, or the bustling newsroom for your Clark Kent. Background, setting, environment.whatever you call it, it is the silent character in the visual story, and a dynamic and compelling setting can define and hone the action and drama of your story. If you're in the habit of creating disembodied characters or adding backgrounds as an afterthought, Set the Action! will help you understand and utilize the importance of the setting in your narrative. Understand perspective, blocking, and color-and focus your narrative by establishing and designing your setting to interact with characters and story.

Is the art for your video game taking too long to create? Learning to create Pixel Art may be the answer to your development troubles. Uncover the secrets to creating stunning graphics with Pixel Art for Game Developers. The premier how-to book on Pixel Art and Pixel Art software, it focuses on the universal principles of the craft.The book provides an introduction to Pixel Art, its utility, foundational elements, and concepts such as light and shadow. It offers tutorials on creating animations and serves as a functional guide for the most common methodology in 2D game development.Gamers love the retro feel of Pixel Art, and lucky for you it is easy to create. You'll love the tiny file sizes that will reduce compile times and help your game run faster. Providing you with the skills to create the characters and environments needed for 2D games, this book will help you: Create tilesets to build game environments Understand light and shadow Work efficiently with pixels Use atmospheric and linear perspective Create professional-quality Pixel Art This book has chapters dedicated to theory as well as step-by-step tutorials, both of which describe the process explicitly. Whether you are an artist, programmer, indie developer, or certified public accountant, after reading this book, you'll understand the steps necessary to create production-quality Pixel Art graphics.Praise for the Book:Pixel Art and Pixel Art games are very popular and the technique is a great way for independent creators to create very good-looking games with limited resources. It's frankly shocking that there hasn't been a resource like this before ... a very timely book.Chris Totten, George Mason University, Washington, DC, USA

See Why Blender Is Right for Your Studio's Pipeline Blender for Animation and Film-Based Production explores why Blender is ideal for animation films. It demonstrates Blender's capability to do the job in each production department. Whether you are a beginner or more advanced user, you'll see why Blender should be taken into consideration in animation and film production. This Blender reference will help you: Manage your projects from start to finish Understand the different stages in any animation production See how studios work and develop their animation projects Describing the versatility and power of Blender, the book shows you why studios should incorporate Blender in their pipeline. It avoids tedious tutorials and incomprehensible examples. Instead, the book guides you toward finding efficient solutions for issues with your production files or pipeline. It familiarizes you with the animation industry and explores the risks involved in choosing Blender as a primary tool in animation studios.

The book is concerned with narrative in digital media that changes according to user input-Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN). It provides a broad overview of current issues and future directions in this multi-disciplinary field that includes humanities-based and computational perspectives. It assembles the voices of leading researchers and practitioners like Janet Murray, Marie-Laure Ryan, Scott Rettberg and Martin Rieser. In three sections, it covers history, theoretical perspectives and varieties of practice including narrative game design, with a special focus on changes in the power relationship between audience and author enabled by interactivity. After discussing the historical development of diverse forms, the book presents theoretical standpoints including a semiotic perspective, a proposal for a specific theoretical framework and an inquiry into the role of artificial intelligence. Finally, it analyses varieties of current practice from digital poetry to location-based applications, artistic experiments and expanded remakes of older narrative game titles.

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, anima

The Essential Guide to Game Audio: The Theory and Practice of Sound for Games is a first of its kind textbook and must-have reference guide for everything you ever wanted to know about sound for games. This book provides a basic overview of game audio, how it has developed over time, and how you can make a career in this industry. Each chapter gives you the background and context you will need to understand the unique workflow associated with interactive media. The practical, easy to understand interactive examples provide hands-on experience applying the concepts in real world situations.

Creative solutions without the filler. That is what you get from this practical guide to enhancing your titles, motion graphics and visual effects with Motion. Step-by-step instruction is concisely described and lavishly illustrated. The downloadable resources show the techniques at work so you can take them and run.

Focusing on mathematical methods in computer tomography, Image Processing: Tensor Transform and Discrete Tomography with MATLAB (R) introduces novel approaches to help in solving the problem of image reconstruction on the Cartesian lattice. Specifically, it discusses methods of image processing along parallel rays to more quickly and accurately reconstruct images from a finite number of projections, thereby avoiding overradiation of the body during a computed tomography (CT) scan. The book presents several new ideas, concepts, and methods, many of which have not been published elsewhere. New concepts include methods of transferring the geometry of rays from the plane to the Cartesian lattice, the point map of projections, the particle and its field function, and the statistical model of averaging. The authors supply numerous examples, MATLAB (R)-based programs, end-of-chapter problems, and experimental results of implementation. The main approach for image reconstruction proposed by the authors differs from existing methods of back-projection, iterative reconstruction, and Fourier and Radon filtering. In this book, the authors explain how to process each projection by a system of linear equations, or linear convolutions, to calculate the corresponding part of the 2-D tensor or paired transform of the discrete image. They then describe how to calculate the inverse transform to obtain the reconstruction. The proposed models for image reconstruction from projections are simple and result in more accurate reconstructions. Introducing a new theory and methods of image reconstruction, this book provides a solid grounding for those interested in further research and in obtaining new results. It encourages readers to develop effective applications of these methods in CT.