Howdy folks. This book is your guide to learning Blender 2.6. It assumes no previous knowledge of Blender, although old Blender users will find a lot to learn here too. Some beginner texts are dressed-up reference manuals, while some try to teach everything and end up teaching nothing. This book will teach you how to use Blender 2.6,...

Not all features are created equal. This chapter goes over the fundamentals of 3ds Max with an eye toward the most important tools and how you...

Animation has got to be the greatest job in the world. When you get started, you just want to do everything, all at once, but can’t decide on one thing to start with. You animate a walk, you animate a run, maybe even a skip or jump, and it’s all gratifying in a way people outside of animation may never be lucky enough to...

With more than 400 million active users and growing, it’s hard to ignore the buzz about Facebook. It’s a hot topic these days, and shows no signs of letting up. If you’re ready to get to the bottom of this Internet sensation and find out how to use this social networking phenomenon for yourself,...

In early 2004, DTrace remained nascent; while Mike Shapiro, Adam Leventhal, and I had completed our initial implementation in late 2003, it still had substantial gaps (for example, we had not yet completed user-level instrumentation on x86), many missing providers, and many features yet to...

In this age of universal electronic connectivity, of viruses and hackers, of electronic eavesdropping and electronic fraud, there is indeed no time at which security does not matter.Two trends have come together to make the topic of this book of vital interest. First, the explosive growth in computer systems and their interconnections...

The release of InDesign CS5 is nothing short of revolutionary. Now you can apply all the tools that have made InDesign the industry standard for print, to design for interactive electronic media too. With the release of Creative Suite 5, InDesign has evolved from print to “printeractive!” Designers expected to meet the demands of...

SketchUp is both simple and intuitive; there is no doubt about that. It usually takes a couple of hours to get grips on it and to create your first 3D models. But when you are using it for a professional project – with all the attendant time and quality constraints – you have to get a few things straight first to avoid the...

Visual QuickStart Guides, designed in an attractive tutorial and reference format, are the quickest, easiest, and most thorough way to learn applications, tasks, and technologies. The Visual QuickStart Guides are a smart choice and guide the learner in a friendly and respectful tone. Visually presented with copious screenshots, the focused...

If your website content is out of date, off-brand, and out of control, you're missing a huge opportunity to engage, convert, and retain customers online. Redesigning your home page won't help. Investing in a new content management system won't fix it, either. So, where do you start?   Without meaningful content, your...

In 2010, Pixologic celebrated the 10th anniversary of the debut of ZBrush. ZBrush was introduced to the world as an experimental art application with a unique technology that allowed users to create illustrations in two and a half dimensions. I remember seeing the Pixologic booth at a Macworld in New York in the summer of 2000. The...

My guess is that whichever smartphone you pictured—regardless of the brand or manufacturer—it has a touchscreen, a built-in accelerometer,...