Essential Programming for the Technical Artist


Book Description

This book is based on a successful curriculum designed to elevate technical artists with no programming experience up to essential programming competency as quickly as possible. Instead of abstract, theoretical problems, the curriculum employs familiar applications encountered in real production environments to demonstrate each lesson. Written with artists in mind, this book introduces novice programmers to the advantageous world of Python programming with relevant and familiar examples. Any digital artists (not just technical artists) will find this book helpful in assisting with day-to-day production activities. Concentrating upon subjects relevant to the creation of computer graphic assets, this book introduces Python basics, functions, data types, object-oriented programming, exception handling, file processing, graphical user interface creation, PEP 8 standards, and regular expressions. Programming within the SideFX Houdini 3D animation software provides a familiar environment for artists to create and experiment with the covered Python topics.




Unity in Action


Book Description

Summary Manning's bestselling and highly recommended Unity book has been fully revised! Unity in Action, Second Edition teaches you to write and deploy games with the Unity game development platform. You'll master the Unity toolset from the ground up, adding the skills you need to go from application coder to game developer. Foreword by Jesse Schell, author of The Art of Game Design Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Build your next game without sweating the low-level details. The Unity game development platform handles the heavy lifting, so you can focus on game play, graphics, and user experience. With support for C# programming, a huge ecosystem of production-quality prebuilt assets, and a strong dev community, Unity can get your next great game idea off the drawing board and onto the screen! About the Book Unity in Action, Second Edition teaches you to write and deploy games with Unity. As you explore the many interesting examples, you'll get hands-on practice with Unity's intuitive workflow tools and state-of-the-art rendering engine. This practical guide exposes every aspect of the game dev process, from the initial groundwork to creating custom AI scripts and building easy-to-read UIs. And because you asked for it, this totally revised Second Edition includes a new chapter on building 2D platformers with Unity's expanded 2D toolkit. What's Inside Revised for new best practices, updates, and more! 2D and 3D games Characters that run, jump, and bump into things Connect your games to the internet About the Reader You need to know C# or a similar language. No game development knowledge is assumed. About the Author Joe Hocking is a software engineer and Unity expert specializing in interactive media development. Table of Contents PART 1 - First steps Getting to know Unity Building a demo that puts you in 3D space Adding enemies and projectiles to the 3D game Developing graphics for your game PART 2 - Getting comfortable Building a Memory game using Unity's 2D functionality Creating a basic 2D Platformer Putting a GUI onto a game Creating a third-person 3D game: player movement and animation Adding interactive devices and items within the game PART 3 - Strong finish Connecting your game to the internet Playing audio: sound effects and music Putting the parts together into a complete game Deploying your game to players' devices




Essential Software Development Career + Technical Guide


Book Description

Master the skills and knowledge you need to succeed as a software engineer with this comprehensive guide. Whether you're new to the field or a seasoned professional, this book covers all the essential software development topics to help you stay up-to-date and excel in your role. This comprehensive guide covers essential topics in software engineering/software development. Read this book If: You want to start OR have started a career in software engineering. You want to know about all the technical topics you need to succeed. You want to understand the entire process of software engineering. You want to learn what they will NOT teach you in school. You want to understand coding, multithreading, testing, and more! You would like to learn the soft skills you need for promotions. You want to know why you are NOT getting promoted. You want to understand deep technical topics, i.e., encryption+crypto. If you think your company is doing Agile wrong. After reading the book, you will: · Understand how to have a successful career in software engineering. · Have the technical knowledge to know how and where to grow. · Have the soft skills framework to help get you promoted and do your job exceptionally. · Understand how to make the best decisions · Understand the technology and psychology to excel Don't wait! Buy this book now! The field of software engineering is so vast there is no way anyone can learn it all. With hundreds of languages and technologies, what you choose can make the difference between getting a job or not. From just thinking about a career in software engineering to senior level and beyond, this book has you covered. This book covers career, soft skills, processes, and deep technical details on coding, testing, architecture, and much more! Learn about software engineering and management career paths. Don't make mistakes that you can avoid with a little knowledge. Take your engineering knowledge to the next level to help you get the promotions you desire. If you are or plan to be a self-taught software engineer or plan on taking computer science/programming classes, you need this book to help you on your path. Get answers to: What classes should you take in high school/college? Should you become a software engineer? What do Software Engineers / Developers / Programmers do? What kind of computer do you need? What industry sector should you work in? What don't they teach you in school? Should you do consulting vs. full-time? Do you need certifications? Should you use a staffing firm? What do software engineers do? How do I get a job? How do I get promoted? How do I understand what hardware does? How to become a Senior Software Engineer, Staff Software Engineer and more? How do I become a manager? Learn about: Agile with Scrum, Multithreading, Source Control, Working with a team, Architecture, Algorithms / Data Structures, Networking, File Systems, Overviews of the web, Unicode, Dependency Injection, Security, Privacy, Object Oriented Languages, Message tracing, Floating point number processing, User Interface Design, Time Management, Cryptocurrency, Encryption, Recursion, Databases, Support, Testing, and much more! If you are looking for one of the best software engineering books, software development books, computer science books, or programming books, this is the right book for you. If you are or are planning to be a software engineer, software developer, application engineer, front end developer, tech career, or IT career, this is the book for you. If you find errors in the book, please don't leave that in a review. Please tell us directly. Go to the website mentioned at the end of the book. If you find errors visit our website.




Creative Code


Book Description

The creator of the designer website, maeda@media, explores the computer as an artistic medium, recounting how his students and he have rendered some of the most digitally sophisticated pieces of design in modern history, in a compilation that showcases some of the ACG's key achievements in the fields of digital typography, interaction design, education, and more. Original.




Selected Papers on Fun & Games


Book Description

Donald E. Knuth's influence in computer science ranges from the invention of methods for translating and defining programming languages to the creation of the TeX and METAFONT systems for desktop publishing. His award-winning textbooks have become classics that are often given credit for shaping the field, and his scientific papers are widely referenced and stand as milestones of development over a wide variety of topics. The present volume is the eighth in a series of his collected papers.




The Art of UNIX Programming


Book Description

The Art of UNIX Programming poses the belief that understanding the unwritten UNIX engineering tradition and mastering its design patterns will help programmers of all stripes to become better programmers. This book attempts to capture the engineering wisdom and design philosophy of the UNIX, Linux, and Open Source software development community as it has evolved over the past three decades, and as it is applied today by the most experienced programmers. Eric Raymond offers the next generation of "hackers" the unique opportunity to learn the connection between UNIX philosophy and practice through careful case studies of the very best UNIX/Linux programs.




Game Anim


Book Description

Game Anim teaches the technical and artistic fundamentals of video game animation and goes further to provide practical advice and industry insights to help you become a rounded and successful game animator. Covering every stage of game production from the animator’s perspective, it is packed with the lessons learned from working on a variety of game types in both in-game and cinematic roles in animator, lead, and director positions. These have been successful across multiple studios regardless of team, size and culture. The 2nd edition includes a new chapter on 2D and Pixel Art Animation, an enhanced mocap chapter covering the latest developments in Motion Matching, and even more interviews with top professionals in the field. Game Anim provides essential guidance to those looking to break into the industry and successful animators wishing to take the next step in their career. Key Features • 20 Years of Insight: Accumulated knowledge from 2 decades of experience in all areas of game animation. • The 5 Fundamentals: Reinterprets the classic 12 animation principles and sets out 5 new fundamentals for great game animation. • Animator Interviews: Notable game animators offer behind-the-scenes stories, tips, and advice. • Free Animation Rig: Free "AZRI" maya rig, tutorials and other resources on the accompanying website: www.gameanim.com/book




Real Time Visual Effects for the Technical Artist


Book Description

Visual effects (VFX) are one of the most complicated components of feature film and television creation. With advancements in such technologies as Ray Tracing and Virtual Reality, the visual quality of the real-time rendering engine is now rivaling feature film. Real-time rendering requires years of programming experience with advanced understanding in math and physics. As the power of the real-time rendering engine improves, so too do the interfaces for VFX creation. With limited technical understanding, artists can create VFX with the push of a button and tug of a slider. As powerful as the interfaces are, they can only expose a portion of the true potential of the rendering engine. Artists are limited by their understanding of the engine interface. Real Time Visual Effects for the Technical Artist is written for digital artists to explain the core concepts of VFX, common in all engines, to free them from interface bounds. Features: Introduces the reader to the technical aspects of real-time VFX Built upon a career of more than 20 years in the feature film VFX and the real-time video game industries and tested on graduate and undergraduate students Explores all real-time VFX in four categories: in-camera effects, in-material effects, simulations, and particles This book is written to complement undergraduate- or graduate-level courses focused on the fundamentals of modern real-time VFX. Chris Roda is a Technical Art instructor at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA), a graduate degree program in interactive, real-time application development at the University of Central Florida. Early in his career, Chris was a visual effects artist in the film and television industries where he contributed visual effects for films such as Spider-Man, Titanic, and The Fifth Element. Before coming to FIEA, Chris was a CG Supervisor at Electronic Arts, where he worked on video game titles such as NCAA Football and Madden NFL Football. In addition to teaching, Chris works on generating tools and pipelines for the creation of immersive experiences: the amalgamation of the narrative of films, the interactivity of video games, and the immersion of theme parks.




Generative Art


Book Description

Summary Generative Art presents both the technique and the beauty of algorithmic art. The book includes high-quality examples of generative art, along with the specific programmatic steps author and artist Matt Pearson followed to create each unique piece using the Processing programming language. About the Technology Artists have always explored new media, and computer-based artists are no exception. Generative art, a technique where the artist creates print or onscreen images by using computer algorithms, finds the artistic intersection of programming, computer graphics, and individual expression. The book includes a tutorial on Processing, an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions. About the Book Generative Art presents both the techniques and the beauty of algorithmic art. In it, you'll find dozens of high-quality examples of generative art, along with the specific steps the author followed to create each unique piece using the Processing programming language. The book includes concise tutorials for each of the technical components required to create the book's images, and it offers countless suggestions for how you can combine and reuse the various techniques to create your own works. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book. What's Inside The principles of algorithmic art A Processing language tutorial Using organic, pseudo-random, emergent, and fractal processes ========================================​========= Table of Contents Part 1 Creative Coding Generative Art: In Theory and Practice Processing: A Programming Language for ArtistsPart 2 Randomness and Noise The Wrong Way to Draw A Line The Wrong Way to Draw a Circle Adding Dimensions Part 3 Complexity Emergence Autonomy Fractals




Elements of Programming


Book Description

Elements of Programming provides a different understanding of programming than is presented elsewhere. Its major premise is that practical programming, like other areas of science and engineering, must be based on a solid mathematical foundation. This book shows that algorithms implemented in a real programming language, such as C++, can operate in the most general mathematical setting. For example, the fast exponentiation algorithm is defined to work with any associative operation. Using abstract algorithms leads to efficient, reliable, secure, and economical software.