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A handbook for game development with coverage of both team management topics, such as task tracking and creating the technical design document, and outsourcing strategies for contents, such as motion capture and voice-over talent. It covers various aspects of game development.
Game Design Foundations, Second Edition covers how to design the game from the important opening sentence, the "One Pager" document, the Executive Summary and Game Proposal, the Character Document to the Game Design Document. The book describes game genres, where game ideas come from, game research, innovation in gaming, important gaming principles such as game mechanics, game balancing, AI, path finding and game tiers. The basics of programming, level designing, and film scriptwriting are explained by example. Each chapter has exercises to hone in on the newly learned designer skills that will display your work as a game designer and your knowledge in the game industry.
Advanced JavaScript, Third Edition provides an in-depth examination of the most important features of JavaScript. Beginning with an overview of JavaScript, the book quickly moves into more advanced features needed for complex yet robust JavaScript scripts, such as objects, arrays, and date and time functions. Additionally, various features of JavaScript that are essential for modern web pages are discussed, including manipulating the status bar, creating dynamic calendars, and working with forms, images, and the Document Object Model. Numerous examples illustrate how to implement various techniques. Topics covered how to enhance your web pages with LED signs, banners, and images; implementing cookies to store and retrieve information; the structure of the Document Object Model and how it can be used to view, access, and change an HTML document; Security measures to protect private information while using the Internet.
Design Patterns demonstrates how software developers can improve the performance, maintainability, portability, and scalability of their code through the use of the Gang of Four design patterns. After a discussion of patterns methodology, reasons for using design patterns, the book delves into each of the 23 patterns. Each pattern section gives a detailed description of the pattern, refactored from either Boolean logic or simpler, less-maintainable code that you might encounter in the real world, and shows readers how to use the pattern in their code. The text walks readers through making the move from current code to the pattern, lists the benefits of using the pattern, and shows how the pattern performs after the refactoring effort, with a goal throughout of providing practical implementations.
Working on a project for most 3D artists means hitting the keyboard first without ever touching a pencil. But in the world of animation, the pencil is revered as the most powerful tool in the animation process, because it directly addresses the design aesthetic of an animated project. Production design is the process by which an artist establishes the tone for a particular film by offering a unique aesthetic vision that is in support of the story. As a 3D artist, to overlook design is to overlook the fundamental process that greatly influences not only the film itself but also your contributions as a professional. To combine the disciplines of traditional design and 3D animation is a choice that only you can make. The result of this choice is a broader artistic skill set that increases your creativity and consequently increases your worth as a professional. Plain and simple, Design First for 3D Artists is going to teach you easy-to-use design techniques that will make you a better designer and increase your worth as a 3D artist.
Polygonal modeling is the process of creating objects in a 3D environment. It is the foundation for the creation of all 3D graphics and the essential building block of a career in computer graphics. Polygonal Modeling: Basic and Advanced Techniques provides in-depth coverage of polygonal modeling, including practical lessons on topology construction, a focus on the fundamentals of subdivision workflow, and a discussion of the technical aspects of modeling organic and inorganic objects. The book includes illustrated quick start modeling guides to 3ds max and Maya. Explore and evaluate a variety of subdivision techniques. Learn about polygonal objects and their most common properties. Discover how to use the tools and operations found in major 3D packages for polygonal modeling. Follow along with the step-by-step illustrated exercises that demonstrate the process of character modeling.
This book describes in detail many of the AI techniques used in modern computer games, explicity shows how to implement these practical techniques within the framework of several game developers with a practical foundation to game AI.
This book gives hobbyists and professional programmers the knowledge necessary to create a real time strategy game of their own.
Part animation guide, part Flash manual, The Art of Flash Animation: Creative Cartooning provides a practical primer on classic, hand-drawn 2D screen animation as well as an introduction to using Flash for creating your own cartoons. Section I discusses the terms and techniques of hand-drawn animation, character design, and storyboards, while Section II covers scanning, digitizing your artwork into Flash, and setting up scenes. Topics include how to animate a walk cycle; recording and editing dialogue, sound effects, and music; how to use recyclable symbols to make the animation process more efficient; preparing your work for video or web download.