Taking Blender to the Next Level. Implement advanced workflows such as geometry nodes, simulations, and motion tracking for Blender production pipelines

Ruan Lotter

If you're ready to start exploring the more advanced workflows and processes in Blender to create intricate 3D models, then Taking Blender to the Next Level is for you.This book focuses on a few different VFX-related workflows such as geometry nodes, organic modeling, 3D camera tracking, photogrammetry, sculpting, compositing, and physics simulations. You’ll learn how to use geometry nodes to create dynamic motion graphic scenes as well as perform 3D scanning of real-world objects using photogrammetry. You’ll also find out how to model, rig, and animate your own 3D characters from scratch. Next, you’ll progress to using simulations to break objects apart and then use cloth and hair simulations to add realism to your 3D creations. Finally, you’ll go over the final render settings and export your 3D animation masterpiece as a video.By the end of this Blender book, you’ll be able to model your own 3D characters, objects, and landscapes; rig, animate, and texture your characters; 3D track live-action footage; and composite your 3D characters into live-action scenes.

Blender 2.6 Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook. With this book you'll be able to explore and master all that the Cycles rendering engine is capable of. From the basics right through to refining, this is a must-read if you're serious about the realism of your materials and textures

Ton Roosendaal, Enrico Valenza

Cycles is Blender's new, powerful rendering engine. Using practical examples, this book will show you how to create a vast array of realistic and stunning materials and texture effects using the Cycles rendering engine.Blender 2.6 Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook is a practical journey into the new and exciting Cycles rendering engine for Blender. In this book you will learn how to create a vast array of materials and textures in Cycles, including glass, ice, snow, rock, metal and water. If you want to take your 3D models to the next level, but don't know how, then this cookbook is for you!In this practical cookbook, you will learn how to create stunning materials and textures to really bring your 3D models to life! Diving deep into Cycles you will learn Cycle's node-based material system, how to set-up a 3D scene for rendering, how to create a natural and man-made materials as well as the correct organization and re-use of Cycles materials to save you time and effort.To ensure that your creations look stunning you will learn how illumination works in Cycles, improve the quality of the final render and to avoid the presence of noise and fireflies. Each chapter of Blender 2.6 Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook builds on the complexity of the last so that by the end of this book you will know how to create an impressive library of realistic-looking materials and textures.

Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Apps. Learn best practices, architecture, tools, techniques, and more - Second Edition

JJ Yadav, Sandeep Shukla, Rahul Mohta, Yogesh Kasat

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is a modern cloud ERP platform that adopts a mobile-first approach suitable for medium-to-large enterprises. This book covers the entire implementation process of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operation Apps, including post-implementation and business transformation. The updated second edition starts with an introduction to Microsoft Dynamics 365, describing different apps and tools under it. You will learn about different implementation methodologies such as Waterfall and Agile, for your projects. We will cover various application components and architectures of Dynamics such as requirements processing, development, reports and analytics, and integration. With the help of tips, techniques, and best practices, you’ll explore strategies for managing configurations and data migrations. As you read further, you’ll discover development tools and processes in Dynamics for building customized solutions in Dynamics. The book will also demonstrate analytics and financial reporting options such as Power BI and Cortana Intelligence. Finally, you’ll learn the importance of testing and explore various automated testing strategies. By the end of this book, you will have gained the necessary knowledge to implement Microsoft business solutions with Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Apps.

Security+(R) Practice Tests. Prepare for, practice, and pass the CompTIA Security+ exam

Mike Chapple

Security+ certification is the most popular entry-level certification for cybersecurity professionals. It has no work experience requirement, making it accessible to everyone willing to put in the time to prepare for the exam. Security+? Practice Tests are the perfect tools to prepare for the CompTIA Security+ exam.The first six chapters each cover one of the six Security+ domains. Each of those chapters contains around 100 practice test questions covering the material from that domain. The last two chapters each contain a full-length Security+ practice test that’s designed to assess your readiness to take the actual test. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find the answers to all of the questions along with detailed explanations to help reinforce your learning of the material.By the end of the book, you’ll have enough practice to easily ace the CompTIA Security+ exam.

Learning RSLogix 5000 Programming. Building PLC solutions with Rockwell Automation and RSLogix 5000

Austin Scott, Austin Scott

RSLogix 5000 and Studio 5000's Logix Designer are user-friendly interfaces used for programming the current generation of Rockwell Automation Controllers including ControlLogix, CompactLogix, and SoftLogix. When engineering automation solutions using Logix, it is important to study the changes to the platform introduced with Studio 5000 and the various controllers, modules, and form factors available today. RSLogix 5000 programming packages help you maximize performance, save project development time, and improve productivity.This book provides a detailed overview of the Logix platform including ControlLogix, CompactLogix, and SoftLogix and explains the significant changes introduced in Studio 5000. A clear understanding of the recent Logix platform changes is critical for anyone developing a Rockwell Automation solution. It provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach to learning the essential Logix hardware and software components and provides beginners with a solid foundation in the Logix platform features and terminology. By the end of this book, you will have a clear understanding of the capabilities of the Logix platform and the ability to navigate the Rockwell Automation Literature Library Resources.

Coding with ChatGPT and Other LLMs. Navigate LLMs for effective coding, debugging, and AI-driven development

Dr. Vincent Austin Hall

Keeping up with the AI revolution and its application in coding can be challenging, but with guidance from AI and ML expert Dr. Vincent Hall—who holds a PhD in machine learning and has extensive experience in licensed software development—this book helps both new and experienced coders to quickly adopt best practices and stay relevant in the field.You’ll learn how to use LLMs such as ChatGPT and Bard to produce efficient, explainable, and shareable code and discover techniques to maximize the potential of LLMs. The book focuses on integrated development environments (IDEs) and provides tips to avoid pitfalls, such as bias and unexplainable code, to accelerate your coding speed. You’ll master advanced coding applications with LLMs, including refactoring, debugging, and optimization, while examining ethical considerations, biases, and legal implications. You’ll also use cutting-edge tools for code generation, architecting, description, and testing to avoid legal hassles while advancing your career.By the end of this book, you’ll be well-prepared for future innovations in AI-driven software development, with the ability to anticipate emerging LLM technologies and generate ideas that shape the future of development.

Teaching with iPad How-To. Use your iPad creatively for everyday teaching tasks in schools and universities with this book and

Sumit Kataria, Shubhangi Harsha

The iPad is a great teaching tool. It is an amazing eReader for accessing textbooks and journals. It is also great for multimedia content like videos, audio, presentations, and 3D animations. Most importantly Apple's app ecosystem makes it very powerful. You can find apps for almost any teaching task in app store and use them instantly.You will start with simple tasks like creating presentations and visualizations. Soon you will be making interactive books and resources as well as teaching practical lessons such as music and art! Teaching with iPad How-to starts with the most basic task of planning your lessons. As you go through the book you will learn how to 'carry' your textbooks on Little Books, create your own resources and finally publish your courseware.Be it organizing your notes, creating charts and presentations, or just recording attendance, this book will help you do all these tasks very efficiently on your iPad. In this book, you will also learn to create and distribute timetables, create your own textbooks and make your classes interesting and full of information by using the iPad's 3D and subject-specific resources.You will learn to make your teaching job interesting and engaging for your students by using iPad as your teaching and organizing tool.

Mastering SQL Queries for SAP Business One. Exploit one of the most powerful features of SAP Business One with this practical guide to mastering SQL Queries. With the skills to quickly acquire business intelligence, your enterprise can gain the competitive edge

Guang Hui Du, Gordon Du

SAP Business One is an integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software which offers an ideal solution for growing small to midsized businesses. For such companies, retrieving the most relevant information from their business data can be key to standing out from the competition. SAP Business One is a rapidly growing software package and this book is timely in giving those businesses an advantage in the area of Business Intelligence. Having SQL query skills in- house is the most important and cost-effective move you can make in this growing field.This practical guide will provide you with the skills to gain more specific business information from SAP Business One by using SQL queries. It will provide you with solutions for solving complicated report related problems, covering basic tools like the Query Generator and Query Wizard. More advanced content like using queries with Crystal Reports will also be delved into.SQL query is one of the advanced tools available in SAP Business One which is easily learned and quickly utilized. By referring back to and applying the many examples in this book, you will be able to create and run correct, and therefore effective, SQL queries to help your business.The book begins by teaching a clear definition of the SQL query, and covers the data dictionary and table links. Coverage will then jump to a higher level of complex SQL queries, discussing features like FMS. Along the way more advanced SQL Query topics will be covered, such as extending the scope of basic SQL queries for more complicated cases. You will ultimately gain in depth query knowledge to bring more Business Intelligence into SAP Business One.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Implementation Guide. Your all-in-one guide to exploring and implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX

Yogesh Kasat, JJ Yadav

Microsoft Dynamics AX is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that supports multi-site operations across various countries, providing international processing within the company. It is an ERP solution with a lot of features and functionality, and it provides support across the fields of financial, distribution, supply chain, project, customer relationship, HR, and field service management.This book is all about simplifying the overall implementation process of Dynamics AX. The purpose of this book is to help IT managers and solution architects implement Dynamics AX to increase the success rate of Dynamics AX projects.This all-in-one guide will take you through an entire journey of a Dynamics AX implementation, ensuring you avoid commonly-made mistakes during implementation. You’ll begin with the installation of Dynamics AX and the basic requirements. Then, you’ll move onto data migration, reporting, functional and technical design, configuration, and performance tuning. By the end of the book, you will know how to plan and execute Dynamics AX right, on your first attempt, using insider industry knowledge and best practices.

Data Science for Decision Makers. Enhance your leadership skills with data science and AI expertise

Jon Howells

As data science and artificial intelligence (AI) become prevalent across industries, executives without formal education in statistics and machine learning, as well as data scientists moving into leadership roles, must learn how to make informed decisions about complex models and manage data teams. This book will elevate your leadership skills by guiding you through the core concepts of data science and AI.This comprehensive guide is designed to bridge the gap between business needs and technical solutions, empowering you to make informed decisions and drive measurable value within your organization. Through practical examples and clear explanations, you'll learn how to collect and analyze structured and unstructured data, build a strong foundation in statistics and machine learning, and evaluate models confidently. By recognizing common pitfalls and valuable use cases, you'll plan data science projects effectively, from the ground up to completion. Beyond technical aspects, this book provides tools to recruit top talent, manage high-performing teams, and stay up to date with industry advancements.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to characterize the data within your organization and frame business problems as data science problems.

ASP.NET 3.5 CMS Development. Build, Manage, and Extend your own Content Management System

Jeff Cochran, Curt Christianson

ASP.NET 3.5 is equipped with a built-in security system, standard design templates, and easy configurations for database connections, which make it the ideal language for building a content management system. With the strong community support for the ASP.NET platform, you can be assured that what you write today will be around and supported for years to come. You can imagine how easy it is to get lost in the myriad features especially if you are a newcomer.This book shows you how to make use of ASP.NET's features and create a functional Content Management System quickly and conveniently. You will learn how to build your site and see the different ways in which you can customize your code to fit your needs. With this book in hand, you can easily set up users and groups, create valuable content for your users, and manage the layout of your site efficiently. All you need is a basic understanding of coding and a desire to learn, and this book will take care of the rest.This book will teach you to get your site up and running quickly, and maintain its content even if you have little or no web design or programming experience. It will give you all the knowledge you need to use the tools as well as the code required to make yourself a strong developer far beyond your site. It begins with setting up your programming environment and coding a Content Management System. You will learn how to install and configure a database and connect it to your CMS. You will be able to create content and manage the layout of your site, and also make it available beyond the browser. At the end of this book, you will have designed and built a CMS that allows you to administer an Articles section, Images and Files sections, as well as a full set of Administrator tools for your site.

Mastering Kubernetes. Large scale container deployment and management

Gigi Sayfan

Kubernetes is an open source system to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. If you are running more than just a few containers or want automated management of your containers, you need Kubernetes.This book mainly focuses on the advanced management of Kubernetes clusters. It covers problems that arise when you start using container orchestration in production. We start by giving you an overview of the guiding principles in Kubernetes design and show you the best practises in the fields of security, high availability, and cluster federation. You will discover how to run complex stateful microservices on Kubernetes including advanced features as horizontal pod autoscaling, rolling updates, resource quotas, and persistent storage back ends. Using real-world use cases, we explain the options for network configuration and provides guidelines on how to set up, operate, and troubleshoot various Kubernetes networking plugins. Finally, we cover custom resource development and utilization in automation and maintenance workflows. By the end of this book, you’ll know everything you need to know to go from intermediate to advanced level.

Learning Cypher. Write powerful and efficient queries for Neo4j with Cypher, its official query language

Onofrio Panzarino

Getting Started with PowerShell. Learn the fundamentals of PowerShell to build reusable scripts and functions to automate administrative tasks with Windows

Mike Shepard, Sherif Talaat, EDRICK GOAD, Vinith Menon, ...

Mastering PostgreSQL 17. Elevate your database skills with advanced deployment, optimization, and security strategies - Sixth Edition

Hans-Jürgen Schönig

Starting with new features introduced in PostgreSQL 17, the sixth edition of this book provides comprehensive insights into advanced database management, helping you elevate your PostgreSQL skills to an expert level. Written by Hans-Jürgen Schönig, a PostgreSQL expert with over 25 years of experience and the CEO of CYBERTEC PostgreSQL International GmbH, this guide distills real-world expertise from supporting countless global customers. It guides you through crucial aspects of professional database management, including performance tuning, replication, indexing, and security strategies.You’ll learn how to handle complex queries, optimize execution plans, and enhance user interactions with advanced SQL features such as window functions and JSON support. Hans equips you with practical approaches for managing database locks, transactions, and stored procedures to ensure peak performance. With real-world examples and expert solutions, you'll also explore replication techniques for high availability, along with troubleshooting methods to detect and resolve bottlenecks, preparing you to tackle everyday challenges in database administration.By the end of the book, you'll be ready to deploy, secure, and maintain PostgreSQL databases efficiently in production environments.

A Developer's Essential Guide to Docker Compose. Simplify the development and orchestration of multi-container applications

Emmanouil Gkatziouras

Software development is becoming increasingly complex due to the various software components used. Applications need to be packaged with software components to facilitate their operations, making it complicated to run them. With Docker Compose, a single command can set up your application and the needed dependencies.This book starts with an overview of Docker Compose and its usage and then shows how to create an application. You will also get to grips with the fundamentals of Docker volumes and network, along with Compose commands, their purpose, and use cases. Next, you will set up databases for daily usage using Compose and, leveraging Docker networking, you will establish communication between microservices. You will also run entire stacks locally on Compose, simulate production environments, and enhance CI/CD jobs using Docker Compose. Later chapters will show you how to benefit from Docker Compose for production deployments, provision infrastructure on public clouds such as AWS and Azure, and wrap up with Compose deployments on said infrastructure.By the end of this book, you will have learned how to effectively utilize Docker Compose for day-to-day development.