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.