Game Development Essentials: An Introduction


Jeannie Novak - 2004
    This book not only examines content creation and the concepts behind development, but it also give readers a background on the evolution of game development and how it has become what it is today. GAME DEVELOPMENT ESSENTIALS also includes chapters on project management, development team roles and responsibilities, development cycle, marketing, maintenance, and the future of game development. With the same engaging writing style and examples that made the first two editions so popular, this new edition features all the latest games and game technology. Coverage of new game-related technology, development techniques, and the latest research in the field make this an invaluable resource for anyone entering the exciting, competitive, ever-changing world of game development.

Game Boys: Professional Videogaming's Rise from the Basement to the Big Time


Michael Kane - 2008
    Red Sox. Lakers vs. Celtics. And now . . . Team 3D vs. CompLexity. That would be America’s next celebrated rivalry if the men in Game Boys had their way. 3D and CompLexity are two of the top professional “e-sports” teams in the U.S. Their battle for dominance, as juicy as any feud in “real” sports, leads the action in Michael Kane’s engaging and lively chronicle of the lifestyle and business of gaming. We’ve come a long way since Pac-Man. Today’s games are more elaborate, popular, and addictive than ever. For the elite players, gaming is a full-fledged career that pays big money in prizes and corporate sponsorships. Gamers win, lose, strategize, fight, sign with rival teams, get berated by sideline-pacing coaches. Some use performance-enhancing drugs. And now they’re going on TV. Are they really the “athletes” of tomorrow? They act like they are. Game Boys is a pioneering narrative of the rivalries, quirks, and dramas of a subculture on the cusp of big things. At its most personal, it’s a classic sports tale of victory and defeat, punched up for the millennial generation. It’s also an engrossing business-meets-popculture narrative that reveals the entrepreneurial ingenuity involved in bringing gaming onto broadcast TV, in the vein of the X-Games or televised poker. Game Boys is an engrossing read for technophiles, gamers, parents, and anyone interested in the business of sports and trends in pop culture.

Digital Lighting & Rendering


Jeremy Birn - 2000
    And no matter what software you use, your success in creating realistic-looking illumination, shadows and textures depends on your professional lighting and rendering techniques. In this lavishly illustrated new edition, Pixar's Jeremy Birn shows you how to:Master Hollywood lighting techniques to produce professional results in any 3D application Convincingly composite 3D models into real-world environments Apply advanced rendering techniques using subsurface scattering, global illumination, caustics, occlusion, and high dynamic range images Design realistic materials and paint detailed texture maps Mimic real-life camera properties such as f-stops, exposure times, depth-of-field, and natural color temperatures for photorealistic renderings Render in multiple passes for greater efficiency and creative control Understand production pipelines at visual effects and animation studios Develop your lighting reel to get a job in the industry

Building Scalable Web Sites


Cal Henderson - 2006
    Culled from the experience of the Flickr.com lead developer, Building Scalable Web Sites offers techniques for creating fast sites that your visitors will find a pleasure to use. Creating popular sites requires much more than fast hardware with lots of memory and hard drive space. It requires thinking about how to grow over time, how to make the same resources accessible to audiences with different expectations, and how to have a team of developers work on a site without creating new problems for visitors and for each other. Presenting information to visitors from all over the world Integrating email with your web applications Planning hardware purchases and hosting options to have as much as you need without breaking your wallet Partitioning and distributing databases to support large datasets and simultaneous transactions Monitoring your applications to find and clear bottlenecks * Providing services APIs and using services from other providers to increase your site's reach and capabilities Whether you're starting a small web site with hopes of growing big or you already have a large system that needs maintenance, you'll find Building Scalable Web Sites to be a library of ideas for making things work.

Fool's Crow: Wisdom and Power


Thomas E. Mails - 1980
    Nephew of Black Elk, and a disciplined, gentle, spiritual, and political leader, Fools Crow died in 1989 at the age of 99. Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power is the only book to reveal, often in his own words, the philosophy and practice of this historic leader.

Graphic Design School: The Principles and Practice of Graphic Design


David Dabner - 2013
    With examples from magazines, websites, books, and mobile devices, the Fifth Edition provides an overview of the visual communications profession, with a new focus on the intersection of design specialties. A brand-new section on web and interactivity covers topics such as web tools, coding requirements, information architecture, web design and layout, mobile device composition, app design, CMS, designing for social media, and SEO.

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop


Timothy Samara - 2003
    Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user not only to be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily. Making and Breaking the Grid is a comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that in order to effectively break the rules of grid-based design, one must first understand those rules and see them applied in real-world projects.Text reveals top designers' work in process and rationale. Projects with similar characteristics are linked through a simple notational system that encourages exploration and comparison of structure ideas. Also included are historical overviews that summarize the development of layout concepts, both grid-based and non-grid based, in modern design practice.

Your Idea Starts Here: 77 Mind-Expanding Ways to Unleash Your Creativity


Carolyn Eckert - 2016
    In Your Idea Starts Here, graphic designer Carolyn Eckert offers 77 specific questions, techniques, and exercises — cleverly combined with fascinating infographics and other visuals — to jump-start creative thinking.  Don’t know what you want your project to be? Make a list of things you don’t want it to be. Wondering where to start? Say one word that relates to your idea and invite a friend to say another word that relates to yours. See where five or ten rounds take you. Work within a time limit, look in unexpected places, think tiny, do the opposite, shuffle your papers, and explore your creativity to the fullest! There’s something here to inspire and strengthen every smart idea, all in an innovative little book that makes a perfect gift for anyone, including yourself.

Theatrical Design and Production: An Introduction to Scene Design and Construction, Lighting, Sound, Costume, and Makeup


J. Michael Gillette - 1987
    Health and safety precautions for the backstage crew appear throughout in boxes labeled Safety Tips, and Design I

Cowl Girls: The Neck's Big Thing to Knit


Cathy Carron - 2010
    Among the more than 35 patterns provided here are a cozy neck wrap featuring a built-in iPod holder, a lacy drawstring hood, and a woven necklace sparkling with Swarovski crystals.

Getting Started with Processing


Casey Reas - 2010
    Programming courses usually start with theory, but this book lets you jump right into creative and fun projects. It's ideal for anyone who wants to learn basic programming, and serves as a simple introduction to graphics for people with some programming skills.Written by the founders of Processing, this book takes you through the learning process one step at a time to help you grasp core programming concepts. You'll learn how to sketch with code -- creating a program with one a line of code, observing the result, and then adding to it. Join the thousands of hobbyists, students, and professionals who have discovered this free and educational community platform.Quickly learn programming basics, from variables to objectsUnderstand the fundamentals of computer graphicsGet acquainted with the Processing software development environmentCreate interactive graphics with easy-to-follow projectsUse the Arduino open source prototyping platform to control your Processing graphics

Breaking Ground


Daniel Libeskind - 2004
     Drawing on his uncommon background and global perspective, in Breaking Ground Daniel Libeskind explores ideas about tragedy and hope, and the way in which architecture can memorialize-and reshape-human experience. Born in 1946 to Holocaust survivors in Poland, Daniel Libeskind eventually emigrated to New York City in 1959. A virtuoso musician before studying architecture, Libeskind has designed iconic buildings around the world, including the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, England. In February 2003, Libeskind was chosen as the Master Plan Architect for the World Trade Center reconstruction. Full of the vitality, humor, and visionary spark that helped win him the Trade Center Commission, Breaking Ground invites readers to see architecture-and the larger world-through new perspectives.

The Designer's Guide To Marketing And Pricing: How To Win Clients And What To Charge Them


Ilise Benun - 2008
    Whether you're a freelancer, an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned small-business owner, you'll learn everything you need to know about how to market and price your services.This book shows you how to:learn which marketing tools are most effective and how to use themcreate a smart marketing plan that reflects your financial goalsplan small actionable steps to take in reaching those financial goalsdetermine who your ideal clients are and establish contact with themturn that initial contact into a profitable relationship for both of youtalk to clients about money and the design process - without fearfigure out a fair hourly rate and give an accurate estimate for a projectYou'll learn the ins and outs of creating and running a creative services business - the things they never taught you in school. Plus, there are useful worksheets throughout the book, so you can apply the principles and formulas to your own circumstances and create a workable business plan right away.

HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS (Visual QuickStart Guide)


Elizabeth Castro - 2002
    The task-based approach teaches readers how to combine HTML and CSS to create sharp and consistent Web pages.

Project Japan. Metabolism Talks...


Rem Koolhaas - 2011
    then the victors imposed democracy on the vanquished. For a group of apprentice architects, artists, and designers, led by a visionary, the dire situation of their country was not an obstacle but an inspiration to plan and think… although they were very different characters, the architects worked closely together to realize their dreams, staunchly supported by a super-creative bureaucracy and an activist state... after 15 years of incubation, they surprised the world with a new architecture—Metabolism—that proposed a radical makeover of the entire land... Then newspapers, magazines, and TV turned the architects into heroes: thinkers and doers, thoroughly modern men… Through sheer hard work, discipline, and the integration of all forms of creativity, their country, Japan, became a shining example... when the oil crisis initiated the end of the West, the architects of Japan spread out over the world to define the contours of a post-Western aesthetic....” —Rem Koolhaas / Hans Ulrich Obrist Between 2005 and 2011, architect Rem Koolhaas and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist interviewed the surviving members of Metabolism—the first non-western avant-garde, launched in Tokyo in 1960, in the midst of Japan’s postwar miracle. Project Japan features hundreds of never-before-seen images—master plans from Manchuria to Tokyo, intimate snapshots of the Metabolists at work and play, architectural models, magazine excerpts, and astonishing sci-fi urban visions—telling the 20th century history of Japan through its architecture, from the tabula rasa of a colonized Manchuria in the 1930s to a devastated Japan after the war, the establishment of Metabolism at the 1960 World Design Conference in Tokoy, to the rise of Kisho Kurokawa as the first celebrity architect, to the apotheosis of Metabolism at Expo ’70 in Osaka and its expansion into the Middle East and Africa in the 1970s. The result is a vivid documentary of the last moment when architecture was a public rather than a private affair.