Reimagining Characters with Unreal Engine's MetaHuman Creator. Elevate your films with cinema-quality character designs and motion capture animation

Brian Rossney, Ciaran Kavanagh

MetaHuman Creator (MHC) is an online, user-friendly 3D design tool for creating highly realistic digital humans that can be animated within Unreal Engine (UE) and enhanced with motion capture technology. This means that filmmakers and game developers now have access to a high quality, affordable solution that was previously only available to specialist studios.This book will focus on using UE5 and MHC from a filmmaker angle. Firstly, you’ll understand how to use the online MHC to create a digital character, changing its facial structure, body type, and clothing. After that, you’ll learn all the necessary steps to bring the character into UE5 and set it up for animation. Then, using an iPhone and a webcam to capture face and body movements, you’ll mix these motion capture files, refine the animations using the MetaHuman Control Rig, and save these takes to be reused and edited again within the Level Sequencer. On top of that, you’ll learn how to create a rendered video file for film production using both the Level Sequencer and a VR Cinematic Camera. By the end of this book, you’ll have created your own MetaHuman character, as well as face and body motion capture data, and learned the necessary skills to give your future projects further realism and creative control.

UiPath Administration and Support Guide. Learn industry-standard practices for UiPath program support and administration activities

Arun Kumar Asokan

UiPath administration, support, maintenance, monitoring, and deployment activities are mandatory and more challenging than developing bots. This is a major issue for many firms that are looking to scale their RPA programs.This book will help in training new UiPath users/resources involved in administration and support tasks to address existing skill gaps in RPA market. The book starts with an introduction to the UiPath Platform. You'll learn how to set up UiPath Platform administration, support, monitoring, reporting, deployment, and maintenance. After that, you’ll cover advanced topics, such as, using the orchestrator API for support operations, security, and risk management. In addition to this, best practices for each of the topics will be covered.By the end of this book, you will have the knowledge you need to work on the support and monitoring of UiPath programs of any size.

The Music Producer's Ultimate Guide to FL Studio 20. Create production-quality music with FL Studio

Joshua Au-Yeung

FL Studio is a cutting-edge software music production environment and an extremely powerful and easy-to-use tool for creating music. This book will give you everything you need to produce music with FL Studio like a professional.You'll begin by exploring FL Studio 20's vast array of tools, and discover best practices, tips, and tricks for creating music. You'll then learn how to set up your studio environment, create a beat, compose a melody and chord progression, mix sounds with effects, and export songs. As you advance, you'll find out how to use tools such as the Piano roll, mixer console, audio envelopes, types of compression, equalizers, vocoders, vocal chops, and tools for increasing stereo width. The book introduces you to mixing best practices, and shows you how to master your songs. Along the way, you'll explore glitch effects and create your own instruments and custom-designed effect chains. You'll also cover ZGameEditor Visualizer, a tool used for creating reactive visuals for your songs. Finally, you'll learn how to register, sell, and promote your music.By the end of this FL Studio book, you'll be able to utilize cutting-edge tools to fuel your creative ideas, mix music effectively, and publish your songs.

Simplify Testing with React Testing Library. Create maintainable tests using RTL that do not break with changes

Scottie Crump

React Testing Library (RTL) is a lightweight and easy-to-use tool for testing the document object model (DOM) output of components. This book will show you how to use this modern, user-friendly tool to test React components, reducing the risk that your application will not work as expected in production.The book demonstrates code snippets that will allow you to implement RTL easily, helping you to understand the guiding principles of the DOM Testing Library to write tests from the perspective of the user. You'll explore the advantages of testing components from the perspective of individuals who will actually use your components, and use test-driven development (TDD) to drive the process of writing tests. As you advance, you'll discover how to add RTL to React projects, test components using the Context API, and also learn how to write user interface (UI) end-to-end tests using the popular Cypress library. Throughout this book, you’ll work with practical examples and useful explanations to be able to confidently create tests that don't break when changes are made.By the end of this React book, you will have learned all you need to be able to test React components confidently.

Artificial Intelligence in Unreal Engine 5. Unleash the power of AI for next-gen game development with UE5 by using Blueprints and C++

Marco Secchi

Have you ever wondered how to create engaging gameplay experiences that involve formidable AI opponents, capable of challenging and pushing players to their limits? If the answer is yes, then get ready to enter the realm of AI creation with Unreal Engine 5.Within the pages of this book, written by a brilliant author and game development expert, you’ll find the secrets of Unreal Engine's cutting-edge AI framework. With this newfound knowledge, you’ll be able to create immersive and dynamic gaming experiences. This step-by-step guide will teach you the art of crafting intelligent and responsive virtual opponents that challenge and engage players on a whole new level. As you follow along with practical examples, the book will guide you through the creation of fully functional AI systems. You’ll be able to harness the power of behavior trees, NavMesh systems, and sensory perception models, breathing life into your virtual characters.By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge you need to unleash the full potential of AI in Unreal Engine. Get ready to revolutionize your gaming creations and captivate players with AI-driven wonders that push the boundaries of what's possible!

Unity Game Development Essentials. If you have ambitions to be a game developer this guide is a must. Covering all the fundamentals of the Unity game engine, it will help you understand the different elements of 3D game creation through practical projects

Will Goldstone

Game engines are central to the video games we know and love. From the artwork to the mathematics that underpin the frames onscreen, the engine calls the shots. Aside from offering one of the leading 3D game engines, Unity also provides a superlative development tool ñ a tool that can produce professional standard games for Mac, PC, and the Unity Web Player.This book is a complete exercise in game development covering environments, physics, sound, particles, and much more, to get you up and working with Unity quickly.Taking a practical approach, this book will introduce you to the concepts of developing 3D games before getting to grips with development in Unity itself. From creating 3D worlds to scripting and creating simple game elements you will learn everything you'll need to get started with game development for the PC, Mac, and Web.This book is designed to cover a set of easy to follow examples, which culminate in the production of a First Person 3D game, complete with an interactive island environment. By introducing common concepts of game and 3D production, you'll explore Unity to make a character interact with the game world, and build puzzles for the player to solve, in order to complete the game. At the end of the book, you will have a fully working 3D game and all the skills required to extend the game further, giving your end-user, the player, the best experience possible. Soon you will be creating your own 3D games with ease!

Node.js Web Development. Server-side web development made easy with Node 14 using practical examples - Fifth Edition

David Herron

Node.js is the leading choice of server-side web development platform, enabling developers to use the same tools and paradigms for both server-side and client-side software. This updated fifth edition of Node.js Web Development focuses on the new features of Node.js 14, Express 4.x, and ECMAScript, taking you through modern concepts, techniques, and best practices for using Node.js.The book starts by helping you get to grips with the concepts of building server-side web apps with Node.js. You’ll learn how to develop a complete Node.js web app, with a backend database tier to help you explore several databases. You'll deploy the app to real web servers, including a cloud hosting platform built on AWS EC2 using Terraform and Docker Swarm, while integrating other tools such as Redis and NGINX. As you advance, you'll learn about unit and functional testing, along with deploying test infrastructure using Docker. Finally, you'll discover how to harden Node.js app security, use Let's Encrypt to provision the HTTPS service, and implement several forms of app security with the help of expert practices. With each chapter, the book will help you put your knowledge into practice throughout the entire life cycle of developing a web app.By the end of this Node.js book, you’ll have gained practical Node.js web development knowledge and be able to build and deploy your own apps on a public web hosting solution.

Plone 3.3 Site Administration. Manage your site like a Plone professional

Alex Clark, Enfold Systems LLC

In the past few years, we have seen some dramatic changes in the way Plone sites are being developed, deployed, and maintained. As a result, developing and deploying sites, changing their default settings, and performing day to day maintenance tasks can be a challenge.This book covers site administration tasks, from setting up a development instance, to optimizing a deployed production site, and more. It demonstrates how-to perform these tasks in a comprehensive way, and walks the user through the necessary steps to achieve results.We have divided the subject of Plone site administration into three categories: development, deployment, and maintenance. We begin by explaining how a Plone site is built, and how to start using it through the web. Next, we add features by installing add-on products, focusing on themes, blogging, and other common enhancements. After the basics of developing and deploying a Plone site are covered, the book covers the basics of maintaining it.Further, throughout the book we preview some new technologies related to Plone site administration, available now as add-ons to the current Plone release. Finally, we will cover a variety of techniques to help you optimize your site's performance.

Business Intelligence with Looker Cookbook. Create BI solutions and data applications to explore and share insights in real time

Khrystyna Grynko

Looker is a data analytics and business intelligence platform that allows organizations to explore, analyze, and visualize their data. It provides tools for data modeling, exploration, and visualization, enabling you to gain insights from your data to make informed business decisions.You’ll start with the basics, from setting up your Looker environments to configuring views and models using LookML. As you progress, you’ll delve into more advanced topics, such as navigating data in Explore, tailoring dashboards to your needs, and adding dynamic elements for interactivity. Along the way, you'll gain invaluable troubleshooting skills to tackle common issues and optimize your Looker usage, ensuring a smooth and seamless experience. Furthermore, the book extends your understanding beyond the basics, equipping you with the knowledge you need to develop Looker applications and seamlessly integrate them with other tools and applications. You'll also explore advanced techniques for harnessing Looker's full potential, empowering you to establish data-driven decision-making and innovation within your organization.By the end of this BI book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of how to use Looker to find important information, make tasks easier, and derive important insights.

PHP Ajax Cookbook. Over 60 simple but incredibly effective recipes to Ajaxify PHP websites with this book and

R. Rajesh Jeba Anbiah, Roshan Bhattarai, Milan Sedliak, R Rajesh Jeba

Natural Language Processing with TensorFlow. The definitive NLP book to implement the most sought-after machine learning models and tasks - Second Edition

Thushan Ganegedara, Andrei Lopatenko

Learning how to solve natural language processing (NLP) problems is an important skill to master due to the explosive growth of data combined with the demand for machine learning solutions in production. Natural Language Processing with TensorFlow, Second Edition, will teach you how to solve common real-world NLP problems with a variety of deep learning model architectures.The book starts by getting readers familiar with NLP and the basics of TensorFlow. Then, it gradually teaches you different facets of TensorFlow 2.x. In the following chapters, you then learn how to generate powerful word vectors, classify text, generate new text, and generate image captions, among other exciting use-cases of real-world NLP.TensorFlow has evolved to be an ecosystem that supports a machine learning workflow through ingesting and transforming data, building models, monitoring, and productionization. We will then read text directly from files and perform the required transformations through a TensorFlow data pipeline. We will also see how to use a versatile visualization tool known as TensorBoard to visualize our models.By the end of this NLP book, you will be comfortable with using TensorFlow to build deep learning models with many different architectures, and efficiently ingest data using TensorFlow Additionally, you’ll be able to confidently use TensorFlow throughout your machine learning workflow.

Flutter for Beginners. Cross-platform mobile development from Hello, World! to app release with Flutter 3.10+ and Dart 3.x - Third Edition

Thomas Bailey, Alessandro Biessek, Trevor Wills

There have been many attempts at creating frameworks that are truly cross-platform, but most struggle to create a native-like experience at high-performance levels. Flutter achieves this with an elegant design and a wealth of third-party plugins, solidifying its status as the future of mobile app development. If you are a mobile developer who wants to create rich and expressive native apps with the latest Google Flutter framework, this book is for you.You’ll start with the basics of cross-platform development frameworks, specifically Flutter. You’ll then explore the Dart programming language which is the foundation of the Flutter framework. Next, you’ll get a feel for Flutter and how to create your first app, followed by an exploration of the various popular plugins that supplement the Flutter framework. Finally, you’ll explore testing and app release, including some common glitches that you may experience.By the end of this book, you’ll be well-equipped to create and release a basic Flutter app along with gaining a solid understanding of the Flutter framework and Dart language.

Learning Ext JS. Create powerful web applications with the new and improved Ext JS 5 library

Carlos A Mendez Segura, Crysfel Villa, Armando Gonzalez, CARLOS ALBERTO MÉNDEZ SEGURA

Android Studio 4.2 Development Essentials - Kotlin Edition. Developing Android applications using Android Studio 4.2, Kotlin, and Android Jetpack

Neil Smyth

Android Studio is an Integrated Development Environment that is based on the JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA. It provides developers with a unique platform to design and develop Android apps using various developer tools. The new Android Studio 4.2 has an upgraded IntelliJ platform and a variety of new features designed to improve the productivity of Android app developers. Fully updated for Android Studio 4.2, the objective of this book is to help you master the skills necessary to develop Android applications using Kotlin as the programming language.This book begins by outlining the steps necessary to set up an Android development and testing environment and introduces programming in Kotlin, addressing data types, flow control, functions, lambdas, and object-oriented programming. It includes an overview of Android Studio, covering areas such as tool windows, the code editor, and the Layout Editor tool. An introduction to Android architecture is followed by an in-depth explanation of the design of Android applications and user interfaces using the Android Studio environment.Early chapters detail Android Architecture components like view models, lifecycle management, Room database access, the Database Inspector, app navigation, live data, and data binding. Advanced topics such as intents are also covered, as are touch screen handling, gesture recognition, and the recording and playback of audio. You will also explore printing, transitions, cloud-based file storage, and foldable device support.Detailed descriptions of material design concepts are provided, including the use of floating action buttons, Snackbars, tabbed interfaces, card views, navigation drawers, and collapsing toolbars. Some key features of Android Studio 4.2 and Android discussed in-depth include the Layout Editor, the ConstraintLayout and ConstraintSet classes, MotionLayout Editor, view binding, constraint chains, barriers, and direct reply notifications. Later chapters cover advanced features of Android Studio such as App links, Dynamic Delivery, the Android Studio Profiler, Gradle build configuration, and submitting apps to the Google Play Developer Console.

WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials. Create your own powerful, interactive plugins to extend and add features to your WordPress site

Everett Griffiths, Brian Bondari, Matt Mullenweg

WordPress is one of the most popular platforms for building blogs and general websites. By learning how to develop and integrate your own plugins, you can add functionality and extend WordPress in any way imaginable. By tapping into the additional power and functionality that plugins provide, you can make your site easier to administer, add new features, or even alter the very nature of how WordPress works. Covering WordPress version 3, this book makes it super easy for you to build a variety of plugins.WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials is a practical hands-on tutorial for learning how to create your own plugins for WordPress. Using best coding practices, this book will walk you through the design and creation of a variety of original plugins.WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials focuses on teaching you all aspects of modern WordPress development. The book uses real and published WordPress plugins and follows their creation from the idea to the finishing touches in a series of easy-to-follow and informative steps. You will discover how to deconstruct an existing plugin, use the WordPress API in typical scenarios, hook into the database, version your code with SVN, and deploy your new plugin to the world.Each new chapter introduces different features of WordPress and how to put them to good use, allowing you to gradually advance your knowledge. WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials is packed with information, tips, and examples that will help you gain comfort and confidence in your ability to harness and extend the power of WordPress via plugins.

ROS 2 from Scratch. Get started with ROS 2 and create robotics applications with Python and C++

Edouard Renard

ROS 2 from Scratch, written by the cofounder of a robotics company with years of experience in teaching and engineering, will equip you with the skills necessary to develop cutting-edge robotic systems efficiently.This book will help you understand why you should use Robot Operating System (ROS), clarifying what ROS is and isn’t. It focuses on applied learning—no unnecessary filler, no abstract theory, and no abrupt leaps into complex topics. You’ll discover how to install ROS 2, set up your environment, and explore concepts through hands-on experiments, as well as create a ROS 2 application for a custom robot. The chapters expand upon core concepts such as nodes, communication via topics, client-server interactions with services, complex behaviors using actions, runtime configurations with parameters, and seamless node orchestration via launch files. Each concept is clearly explained with the help of real-life analogies and practical examples, using Python and C++. The book will also guide you through creating a real-world project that incorporates TFs, URDF, RViz, and Gazebo.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to create new software for any robot in no time and easily join existing projects for new job roles, research endeavors, and beyond.