Packed with more than 350 techniques, this book delivers what you need to know-on the spot. Its concise presentation of professional techniques is suited to experienced artists whether you are:
*Migrating from another visual effects application
*Upgrading to Houdini 9
*Seeking a handy reference to raise your proficiency with Houdini
Houdini On the Spot presents immediate solutions in an accessible format. It clearly illustrates the essential methods that pros use to get the job done efficiently and creatively. Screenshots and step-by-step instructions show you how to:
*Navigate and manipulate the version 9 interface
*Create procedural models that can be modified quickly and efficiently with Surface Operators (SOPs)
*Use Particle Operators (POPs) to build complex simulations with speed and precision
*Minimize the number of operators in your simulations with Dynamics Operators (DOPs)
*Extend Houdini with customized tools to include data or scripts with Houdini Digital Assets (HDAs)
*Master the version 9 rendering options including Physically Based Rendering (PBR), volume rendering and motion blur
*Quickly modify timing, geometry, space and rotational values of your animations with Channel Operators (CHOPs)
*Create and manipulate elements with Composite Operators (COPs); Houdini's full-blown compositor toolset
*Make your own SOPs, COPs, POPs, CHOPs, and shaders with the Vector Expressions (VEX) shading language
*Configure the Houdini interface with customized environments and hotkeys
*Mine the treasures of the dozens of standalone applications that are bundled with Houdini
-Boost your efficiency and creativity
-Find immediatesolutions in an accessible format
-Unleash the power of Houdini with unpublished techniques

As the most popular and fastest growing form of media today, the podcast is a vital tool for creative writing courses in their bid to become more dynamic, interactive, inclusive, and multi-modal. Exploring the benefits of podcasting as both a pedagogical resource and as an important medium of expression for young writers, Digital Voices illuminates how podcasts can help every student forge personal connections to the content of their creative work and instruction they receive, no matter their background or experience. Beginning with the history of the podcast and the opportunities it affords today, this book moves through the benefits of bringing this popular medium into the workshop, demonstrating how it can aid in the creation of "Many Voices classrooms" and new metacognitive and introspective learning strategies, offer students new methods of evaluating creative products, and enhance inclusive access for a truly intersectional classroom. Other topics examined include the technical aspects of creating narrative fiction, poetry and nonfiction podcasts; how instructors might best curate podcasts for their classes; guidance on using podcasts to create scaffolding for teaching creative writing craft elements in different modes; and the ways of using author podcasts to demystify the writerly mystique. With each chapter featuring a section on practical application in the classroom, hints and tips from teacher-podcasters, and suggested student assignments, Digital Voices is an accessible primer, offering both a critical examination of the medium and a practical guide to putting the concepts discussed into practice.

Master the art and technique of blue and greenscreen compositing with this comprehensive how-to course in creating effective and realistic composited scenes in video formats. You get clear, understandable explanations of the different types of keying techniques and how they work, including real-world examples and tutorials. Topics include setting up a greenscreen studio, how to light the screen effectively, how to light the talent or foreground material, and matching lighting to the composited background plate. Complete tutorials of each of the major software keyers walk you through the process for creating a clean and accurate composite.

This book presents selected papers from the Sixteenth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, in conjunction with the Thirteenth International Conference on Frontiers of Information Technology, Applications and Tools, held on November 5-7, 2020, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It is divided into two volumes and discusses the latest research outcomes in the field of Information Technology (IT) including information hiding, multimedia signal processing, big data, data mining, bioinformatics, database, industrial and Internet of things, and their applications.

This timely text/reference presents the latest advances in various aspects of social media modeling and social media computing research. Gathering together superb research from a range of established international conferences and workshops, the editors coherently organize and present each of the topics in relation to the basic principles and practices of social media modeling and computing. Individual chapters can be also be used as self-contained references on the material covered. Topics and features: presents contributions from an international selection of preeminent experts in the field; discusses topics on social-media content analysis; examines social-media system design and analysis, and visual analytic tools for event analysis; investigates access control for privacy and security issues in social networks; describes emerging applications of social media, for music recommendation, automatic image annotation, and the analysis and improvement of photo-books.

Photoshop is the tool of the modern artist and provides everything you need to succeed as a designer in the popular and growing video games and movie industries. Featuring thorough guidance from the point of installing Photoshop to the creation of your very first concept, this reboot of the definitive beginner's guide to digital painting is sure to both educate and inspire. Photoshop is an expansive and daunting piece of software, but in-depth tutorials and insightful exercises will help even a complete novice build up the skills they need to bring their own imagination to life as digital concepts. This second edition of Beginner's Guide to Digital Painting in Photoshop is a complete resource for any artist wanting to start their adventure into the world of digital art.

This book presents selected papers from the Sixteenth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, in conjunction with the Thirteenth International Conference on Frontiers of Information Technology, Applications and Tools, held on November 5-7, 2020, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It is divided into two volumes and discusses the latest research outcomes in the field of Information Technology (IT) including information hiding, multimedia signal processing, big data, data mining, bioinformatics, database, industrial and Internet of things, and their applications.

Whether seeking deeper knowledge of LabVIEW(R)'s capabilities or striving to build enhanced VIs, professionals know they will find everything they need in LabVIEW: Advanced Programming Techniques. Updated to reflect the functionalities and changes made to LabVIEW Version 8.0, this second edition delves deeply into the enhancements that continue to make LabVIEW one of the most popular and widely used graphical programming environments across the engineering community.

LabVIEW's new features are by no means trivial and neither are the updates made to the new edition of this popular bestseller. The authors introduce the changes to the front panel controls, the Standard State Machine template, new drivers, the instrument I/O assistant, new error handling functions, hyperthreading, and Express VIs. A new chapter mirrors the introduction of the Shared Variables function in LabVIEW 8.0 and a new section explores the LabVIEW project view. The chapter on ActiveX was revised to include discussion of the Microsoft(TM) .NET(R) framework and new examples of programming in LabVIEW using .NET. Numerous illustrations and step-by-step explanations provide hands-on guidance.

Reflecting not only changes to LabVIEW but also to the programming environment in general, LabVIEW: Advanced Programming Techniques, Second Edition remains an indispensable resource to help programmers take their LabVIEW knowledge to the next level.

COLLADA, the digital entertainment industry's first standard interchange format for 3D graphics, defines an XML-based schema to enable 3D authoring applications to freely exchange digital assets without loss of information - enabling multiple software packages to be combined into extremely powerful tool chains. It was developed in a cooperative effort between the industry's leading developers of applications, games, and platforms to streamline the interchange process. This book, written by the two driving forces behind COLLADA, is a complete guide to the COLLADA 1.4 specification. It provides content developers, application developers, and tool providers with a unique insight into the design of COLLADA that will help them to: exchange and fully preserve asset data; package programmable shader effects; control real-time physics engines; and build powerful content creation pipelines that can automatically condition and scale 3D geometry and texture assets for real-time playback on a wide diversity of platforms. tool vendors and game developers and has been adopted as an official industry standard by the Khronos Group.

Real-World commercial projects presented in full color feature the work of renowned artists, Chris and Trish Meyer, Jayse Hansen, Mark Coleran, Ken Locsmandi and others. The tutorials are commercial projects that the artists created for a client budget of $10,000 or less, using only the plug-ins that come with the software. Special focus is given to the fundamental techniques that are important to novice motion graphic artists. The companion DVD contains the source files required for the reader to replicate the techniques as well as Apple QuickTime presentations of the final projects. The projects cover a wide range of practical applications including broadcast animation, big-screen film trailers, music video compositing, trade show presentations, DVD menu graphics, and cel animation with Flash.

This book describes various new computer based approaches which can be exploited for the (digital) reconstruction, recognition, restoration, presentation and classification of digital heritage. They are based on applications of virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence, to be used for storing and retrieving of historical artifacts, digital reconstruction, or virtual viewing. The book is divided into three sections: "Classification of Heritage Data" presents chapters covering various domains and aspects including text categorization, image retrieval and classification, and object spotting in historical documents. Next, in "Detection and Recognition of Digital Heritage Artifacts", techniques like neural networks or deep learning are used for the restoration of degraded heritage documents, Tamil Palm Leaf Characters recognition, the reconstruction of heritage images, and the selection of suitable images for 3D reconstruction and classification of Indian land mark heritage images. Lastly, "Applications of Modern Tools in Digital Heritage" highlights some example applications for dance transcription, architectural geometry of early temples by digital reconstruction, and computer vision based techniques for collecting and integrating knowledge on flora. This book is mainly written for researchers and graduate students in digital preservation and heritage, or computer scientists looking for applications of virtual reality, computer vision, and artificial intelligence techniques.

With crystal clarity, this book conveys the most current principles in digital image processing, providing both the background theory and the practical applications to various industries, such as digital cinema, video compression, and streaming media.
* Learn the role of human vision in image visualization
* Contains the MATLAB codes used to generate most of the figures and tables listed in the book, as well as a few MATLAB projects
* Case studies though out illustrate the practical application of the theory

In "Hands-On Guide to Webcasting," industry experts address the fastest-growing application for streaming media - broadcasting live audio and video on the Internet. Used in all industry verticals from corporate to entertainment, this book provides an end-to-end technical overview of the webcasting process. Providing you with step-by-step instructions from audio/video production, encoding and authoring to delivery and business issues, this guide provides both the depth and breadth necessary for mastery of the subject.
* Step-by-step instructions and advice unique to the technical and business challenges of webcasting
* Organized in the order which a webcast is executed, and divided into sections that correspond to the different components of a webcast
* Detailed data on pricing and what you should pay when outsourcing webcasting services

Packed with more than 350 techniques, this book delivers what you need to know - on the spot. If you create graphics for television, this book is for you. 'Broadcast Graphics on the Spot' show you how to produce more compelling TV graphics. From gathering images for use in broadcast graphics to working with fonts, mastering keying and rotoscoping, or working with logo motion, this book includes step-by-step procedures for creating over-the-shoulder graphics for news anchors, lower thirds, titles, and full-screens that can be used in everyday news productions.

Intellectual property owners who exploit new ways of reproducing, distributing, and marketing their creations digitally must also protect them from piracy. Multimedia Security Handbook addresses multiple issues related to the protection of digital media, including audio, image, and video content. This volume examines leading-edge multimedia security concepts including protection architectures, encryption, watermarking, fingerprinting, authentication, and various applications. Comprinsing 26 chapters, the Handbook begins by introducing security fundamentals and discussing the vulnerabilities of individual protection schemes. Part II focuses on multimedia encryption, detailing audio, image, and video encryption techniques. Part III examines watermarking techniques, reviewing current and future trends and discussing multidimensional, fragile, and robust watermarks. Part IV covers multimedia data hiding, fingerprinting, and authentication. The text concludes with chapters describing applications of multimedia protection schemes, presenting topics such as application taxonomy, digital rights management, and techniques for adult image filtering. The Handbook offers comprehensive reference material on advanced topics in the field. It delivers invaluable insight for researchers, practitioners, and engineers involved in designing and developing systems that protect digital multimedia content.

* Learn the end-to-end process, starting with capture from a video or audio source through to the consumer's media player
* A quick-start quide to streaming media technologies
* How to monetize content and protect revenue with digital rights management
For broadcasters, web developers, project managers implementing streaming media systems, David Austerberry shows how to deploy the technology on your site, from video and audio capture through to the consumer's media player.
The book first deals with Internet basics and gives a thorough coverage of telecommunications networks and the last mile to the home. Video and audio formats are covered, as well as compression standards including Windows Media and MPEG-4. The book then guides you through the streaming process, showing in-depth how to encode audio and video. The deployment of media servers, live webcasting and how the stream is displayed by the consumer's media player are also covered.
A final section on associated technologies illustrates how you can protect your revenue sources with digital rights management, looks at content delivery networks and provides examples of successful streaming applications.
The supporting website, www.davidausterberry.com/streaming.html, offers updated links to sources of information, manufacturers and suppliers.
David Austerberry is co-owner of the new media communications consultancy, Informed Sauce. He has worked with streaming media since the late nineties. Before that, he has been product manager for a number of broadcast equipment manufacturers, and formerly had many years with a leading broadcaster.
* Learn the end-to-end process, starting with capture from a video oraudio source through to the consumer's media player
* A quick-start guide to streaming media technologies
* Fully updated and revised to include a new chapter on streaming to wireless devices and up-to-date technology information for all streaming companies and products
* How to monetize content and protect revenue with digital rights management

Brace yourself for a fun challenge: build a photorealistic 3D renderer from scratch! It's easier than you think. In just a couple of weeks, build a ray-tracer that renders beautiful scenes with shadows, reflections, brilliant refraction effects, and subjects composed of various graphics primitives: spheres, cubes, cylinders, triangles, and more. With each chapter, implement another piece of the puzzle and move the renderer that much further forward. Do all of this in whichever language and environment you prefer, and do it entirely test-first, so you know it's correct. Recharge yourself with this project's immense potential for personal exploration, experimentation, and discovery. The renderer is a ray tracer, which means it simulates the physics of light by tracing the path of light rays around your scene. Each exciting chapter presents a bite-sized piece of the puzzle, building on earlier chapters and setting the stage for later ones. Requirements are given in plain English, which you translate into tests and code. When the project is complete, look back and realize you've built an entire system test-first! There's no research necessary -- all the necessary formulas and algorithms are presented and illustrated right here. Dive into intriguing topics from fundamental concepts such as vectors and matrices; to the algorithms that simulate the intersection of light rays with spheres, planes, cubes, cylinders, and triangles; to geometric patterns such as checkers and rings. Lighting and shading effects, such as shadows and reflections, make your scenes come to life, and constructive solid geometry (CSG) enables you to combine your graphics primitives in simple ways to produce complex shapes. Play and experiment as you discover the fun of writing a ray tracer. Accept the challenge today! What You Need: Aside from a computer, operating system, and programming environment, you'll need a way to display PPM image files. On Windows, programs like Photoshop will work, or free programs like IrfanView. On Mac, no special software is needed, as Preview can open PPM files

Shading, as part of the creation of realistic computer-generated images, is currently bringing major advances to computer graphics, with important practical applications in computer game design and animation. Shaders are a more sophisticated way of making 3D objects look more realistic. While most shaders are created using proprietary shading languages, Sh, a new open-source system, simplifies the shader programming process by making it part of the C++ language. This book introduces Sh and describes how to program a GPU using C++ to implement both basic and advanced shading techniques. Readers of this book will be able to start writing advanced, modular shaders using Sh within a day

This volume comprises six well-versed contributed chapters devoted to report the latest fi ndings on the applications of machine learning for big data analytics. Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing application software is inadequate to deal with them. The possible challenges in this direction include capture, storage, analysis, data curation, search, sharing, transfer, visualization, querying, updating and information privacy. Big data analytics is the process of examining large and varied data sets - i.e., big data - to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, market trends, customer preferences and other useful information that can help organizations make more-informed business decisions. This volume is intended to be used as a reference by undergraduate and post graduate students of the disciplines of computer science, electronics and telecommunication, information science and electrical engineering. THE SERIES: FRONTIERS IN COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE The series Frontiers In Computational Intelligence is envisioned to provide comprehensive coverage and understanding of cutting edge research in computational intelligence. It intends to augment the scholarly discourse on all topics relating to the advances in artifi cial life and machine learning in the form of metaheuristics, approximate reasoning, and robotics. Latest research fi ndings are coupled with applications to varied domains of engineering and computer sciences. This field is steadily growing especially with the advent of novel machine learning algorithms being applied to different domains of engineering and technology. The series brings together leading researchers that intend to continue to advance the fi eld and create a broad knowledge about the most recent research.

This book presents applications of machine learning techniques in processing multimedia large-scale data. Multimedia such as text, image, audio, video, and graphics stands as one of the most demanding and exciting aspects of the information era. The book discusses new challenges faced by researchers in dealing with these large-scale data and also presents innovative solutions to address several potential research problems, e.g., enabling comprehensive visual classification to fill the semantic gap by exploring large-scale data, offering a promising frontier for detailed multimedia understanding, as well as extract patterns and making effective decisions by analyzing the large collection of data.