Thursday, December 3, 2009

CISA Prep Guide or 3 D Human Modeling and Animation 2nd Edition

CISA Prep Guide: Mastering the Certified Information Systems Auditor Exam

Author: John Kramer



• This is the first commercially available book to offer CISA study materials

• The consulting editor, Ronald Krutz, is the co-author of The CISSP Prep Guide (0-471-26802-X)

• Provides definitions and background on the seven content areas of CISA

• Includes many sample test questions and explanations of answers

• More than 10,000 people registered for the CISA exam in 2002

• CD-ROM contains annual updates to the exam so the book remains current for a number of years




New interesting textbook: Pour Your Heart into It or Busting Loose From the Money Game

3-D Human Modeling and Animation, 2nd Edition

Author: Peter Ratner

All the tools and know-how to create digital characters that can move, express emotions, and talk

3-D Human Modeling and Animation demonstrates how you can use your artistic skills in figure drawing, painting, and sculpture to create animated human figures using the latest computer technology. This easy-to-follow book guides you through all the necessary steps to create and animate digital humans. Students and professional 3-D artists will find this book to be an invaluable resource.

This Second Edition combines detailed, practical information about creating and animating 3-D human models. More than 400 images, interactive files, and exciting animations included on the CD-ROM detail the modeling and animation processes for both male and female figures. Chapter objectives and exercises are tied to the CD-ROM, which also provides color example images, sample models, modeling templates, textures, lesson plans, and relevant animation movies that allow you to start modeling and animating right away!

Computer Arts Special

With the advent of apps such as Poser, creating 3D human figures has been greatly automated. In this detailed course you're shown how the human form can be constructed from scratch with splines and NURBS, to produce a believable model that will animate with realism.

Profusely illustrated, each element of the figure is covered in detail. Not intended to be program specific, users of LightWave 3D though, will find that many of the techniques, and much of the advice, is relevant to their software.

Beginning with a discussion of the creation of modeling primitives, the supporting tutorials on spline and NURB construction are concise and lead to more detailed information on the use of texture mapping. Concluding with two chapters on preparing your figure for animation, and how the human figure behaves when in motion, this book is thorough, comprehensive, and flexible.

Overall, this is an excellent guide to creating the human form with your favorite 3D modelling package; especially when you need more control over the modeling structure as detailed advice is given on Metaball, polygonal, lattice deformations, as well as seamless spline based modeling.

Library Journal

This how-to art book covers the basics and theory of 3-D modeling and animation. It is not a book about using any particular application. Ratner explains general design approaches for complete figure building, from seamless models and body construction to preparation for animation and creating human motion. Liberal graphics include 40 full-color illustrations of models. This book will have a wide audience and a long shelf life; a first choice along with Callihan.

What People Are Saying

Nick Pavlovic
3-D Human Modeling and Animation fills a tremendous void that has become even more evident with the successful use of 3-D in movies like Disney's Toy Story. While there has been much written about drawing the human form in relation to art, commercial design, and 2-D cartooning, the subject of 3-D modeling and animation of the human form has been neglected at the same time that the use of 3-D tools has been exploding. It is my judgment that [this] book will become the reference that professional and student artists and animators turn to in order to master one of the most challenging yet exciting subjects to model and animate the human form.
(Nick Pavlovic, CEO, Visual Information Development, Inc., Monrovia, CA)




Table of Contents:
Preface
About the CD-ROM
Ch. 1Beginning Modeling Techniques1
Ch. 2Intermediate Modeling Techniques25
Ch. 3Anatomy of the Human Figure55
Ch. 4Advanced Modeling Techniques, Part 181
Ch. 5Advanced Modeling Techniques, Part 297
Ch. 6Advanced Modeling Techniques, Part 3111
Ch. 7Advanced Modeling Techniques, Part 4131
Ch. 8Advanced Modeling Techniques, Part 5151
Ch. 9Setting Up the Human Model for Animation183
Ch. 10Surfacing and Lighting Details215
Ch. 11Fundamentals of Human Animation243
Ch. 12Human Animation Principles271
Bibliography311
Index313
About the Author317

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Skype or Real Time Collision Detection

Skype(tm): The Definitive Guide

Author: Harry Max

Learn how to make free phone calls to more than 75 million people, and dirt-cheap phone calls to practically everyone else, anywhere on Earth! You can do it with Skype. This book will help you get started fast, with any computer: Windows, Mac, Linux, even Pocket PC. Then, take Skype to the limit, with SkypeIn, SkypeOut, instant messaging, secure file transfer, even video calling.

 

  • Set up and customize Skype in just minutes

    Interesting textbook: Rich Dads Guide to Becoming Rich Without Cutting Up Your Credit Cards or Currency Trading for Dummies

    Real-Time Collision Detection

    Author: Christer Ericson

    Today's sophisticated 3D games, virtual reality applications, and physical simulators involve rich graphical environments of millions of polygons. In these worlds, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of detailed animated objects may be interacting not only with these complex environments but also amongst themselves. With a typical update rate of 60 frames per second, a minimal amount of time is available for determining the intersection status of all objects in the world at a given time in order to maintain a believable simulation. Real-Time Collision Detection is a comprehensive, in-depth survey of the data structures and algorithms that make this possible. Taking a practical approach, the book discusses all the important components of an efficient real-time collision detection system. Topics covered include object representations, intersection tests, and distance queries, and the mathematics behind them: hierarchical and spatial partitioning methods, numerical and geometrical robustness issues, hardware acceleration methods, and advanced optimization for modern computer architectures. This book extends and broadens the discussion of collision detection in Collision Detection in Interactive 3D Environments.



    Table of Contents:
    Ch. 1Introduction1
    Ch. 2Collision detection design issues7
    Ch. 3A math and geometry primer23
    Ch. 4Bounding volumes75
    Ch. 5Basic primitive tests125
    Ch. 6Bounding volume hierarchies235
    Ch. 7Spatial partitioning285
    Ch. 8BSP tree hierarchies349
    Ch. 9Convexity-based methods383
    Ch. 10GPU-assisted collision detection413
    Ch. 11Numerical robustness427
    Ch. 12Geometrical robustness465
    Ch. 13Optimization511

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Easy Scrapbooking or When Pancakes Go Bad

Easy Scrapbooking: Use Your Home Computer to Create Stylish Layouts for Weddings, Holidays and Other Occasions

Author: Patty Hoffman Brah

Bonus CD includes fonts, graphics, borders and patterns.

New and experienced scrapbookers alike will adore the stylish layouts and innovative approach offered by this exciting new book. Expanding on Quarry's Easy Invitations, Easy Scrapbooking teaches readers how to use their home computers as creative tools for easy printing of photos, titles, journals, borders and stickers. Easy Scrapbooking helps scrapbookers bridge the digital divide by introducing a new approach called "computer-assisted scrapbooking." Readers will learn ways to combine easy digital and printing techniques with traditional cutting and pasting to save time while producing stylish pages. Chapters and layouts are grouped by life events, including weddings, babies, birthdays, holidays, celebrations, travel and everyday memories. Each chapter presents scrapbook design techniques, including photo cropping, journaling, layout, and use of patterns, color, embellishments and fonts. Advanced techniques include text on a curve, patterned text, photo re-coloring, photo border design, pattern design, and electronic sharing via email and websites.



Read also Pasta or 101 Things to Do with Meatballs

When Pancakes Go Bad: Optical Delusions with Photoshop

Author: Avi Muchnick

If you've ever found yourself looking at funny images and thinking "Hey, how'd they do that?", this is the book that will give you the answer! You'll learn how to have fun with photos, such as taking still images and making the characters in them invisible while leaving the clothes untouched and combining images of animals to produce unrealistic characters. With the growing use of digital cameras, this kind of photographic humor is growing in popularity among average digital camera users who like cartoon collections as well as those looking to learn Adobe Photoshop. While taking a humorous approach, "When Pancakes Go Bad" is also very educational. The end-of-chapter tutorials are tongue-in-cheek, yet contain useful, easy-to-understand information. Organized into chapters by the general theme of the images, this book is packed with fun and interesting photos that will keep you entertained until the end.