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Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right Jason Osipa | ISBN: 0471789208 | 2nd Edition | PDF | May 7, 2007 | 368 pages | 11.55 Mb Lips, brows, frown lines--they?re all in motion in an expressive face. Stop Staring analyzes facial structures and movements and shows animators how to enliven the faces of their characters. The author, whose own handsome head (in modeled form) graces the cover, is an experienced animator currently working on The Sims. He writes with a dry wit and a confidence born from experience. The book is friendly but also loaded with content and precise in its directions. "I am by no means God?s gift to animation, but I do pretty well at making a talking head look like a living one, not just a set of gums flapping." This is not a how-to manual, but a richly detailed guide to achieving the right movements for a given situation and emotion. The companion CD includes all the pieces readers will need in order to work along with the text: models (both realistic and stylized ?toon characters), lip-synching samples, finished Quicktime movies, and even a copy of Maya Personal LE. (More info and some movies can be found at jasonosipa dot com.) Readers move from "Getting to Know the Face," to synching audio, working on the mouth, eyes, and brows, and rigging. Osipa has created a methodology for facial animation that gets results and makes the process fun. The book can be used as a step-by-step guide for learning new skills or finessing techniques, or as a reference book for troubleshooting specific expressions (for example, "happy eyes," "frustration," and "sneers" are all in the index). Although the projects are presented using Maya, the concepts involved pertain to animation in general.
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| The Hidden Appeal of The Mona Lisa |
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The Hidden Appeal of The Mona LisaBarry Krusch | Pages: 135 | Format: PDF | 1 MB I have a lot of affection for this little work, but it's very difficult to try to explain exactly what it is. It might be helpful to explain the procedure by which I wrote it. For the last 20 years, I have been filling notebook after notebook (67 so far) with ideas that have popped into my mind. The first 39 volumes of these notebooks are on this CD. The remaining 28, however, are not, at least in their original form. One of the things I always wanted to do was to organize these ideas into some kind of logical order, as opposed to the chronological order they are currently in. The current book The Hidden Appeal Of The Mona Lisa is one such attempt. Basically, I went through the remaining 28 notebooks, and wrote down the most interesting and/or significant ideas I could find. Once I located the ideas, I then tried to arrange them in some sort of a semantic flow, where one idea would lead right into the other. In this way, I could show the ideas? essential unity, a unity not readily apparent when they are arranged in chronological and seemingly illogical form. So here it is. This book is meant to be read from start to finish in one sitting, to make its greatest impact.
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| Dave Barry: Is Not Taking This Sitting Down |
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Dave Barry: Is Not Taking This Sitting DownBallantine Books | ISBN 0345444094 | 2002-07 | PDF | 288 pages | 1 MB Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry is a pretty amiable guy. But lately, he?s been getting a little worked up. What could make a mild-mannered man of words so hot under the collar? Well, a lot of things?like bad public art, Internet millionaires, SUVs, Regis Philbin . . . and even bigger problems, like ? The slower-than-deceased-livestock left-lane drivers who apparently believe that the right lane is sacred and must never come in direct contact with tires ? The parent-misery quotient of last-minute school science fair projects ? Day trading and other careers that never require you to take off your bathrobe ? The plague of the low-flow toilets, which is so bad that even in Miami, where you can buy drugs just by opening your front door and yelling ?Hey! I want some crack,? you can?t even sell your first born to get a normal-flushing toilet Dave Barry is not taking any of this sitting down. He?s going to stand up for the rights of all Americans against ridiculously named specialty ??chino? coffees and the IRS. Just as soon as he gets the darn toilet flushed.
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Facing the Wild: Ecotourism, Conservation and Animal EncountersEarthscan Publications Ltd. | ISBN 1844071383 | 2005-02 | PDF | 288 pages | 1.69 MB * Reveals why we are so fascinated by wild animals, what they mean to us and how as ecotourists we may be loving animals to death * Richly illustrated with photographs and accompanied by annexes of original research * Essential and compelling reading for practitioners, students and academics in ecotourism, conservation, environment and cultural studies as well as ecotourists visiting animal encounter sites Ecotourism is the fastest growing segment of tourism, the world?s largest industry. Encounters with wild animals, be it swimming with dolphins, going on safari or bird watching, are at the core. Yet little is known about why people seek out these experiences and the meaning for the ecotourism industry, conservation efforts and society at large. Facing the Wild is the first serious empirical examination of why people seek out animals in their natural environment, what the desire for this experience tells us about the meanings of animals, nature, authenticity and wilderness in contemporary industrialized societies and whether visitors change their environmental perspectives and behaviour, as the custodians of parks would like them to. The book explores the contradictions and ambivalence that so many people experience in the presence of ?wild nature?--in loving it we may diminish it and in the act of wanting to see it we may destroy it. Ultimately the book makes a case for ?respectful stewardship? of a ?hybrid nature? and provides insight for both practitioners and ecotourists alike.
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