Verleger: Packt Publishing
Alasgar Hasanov, Debra Isaac, Philip Dobree
Unlock Houdini’s procedural power to create dynamic simulations and cinematic renders with expert guidance from Alasgar Hasanov, a VFX artist with more than a decade of experience crafting CGI and visual effects for films, television, and commercials.In this comprehensive guide, he demonstrates easy workflows for complex effects, teaches you how to think procedurally, and makes learning Houdini both fun and rewarding. Through step-by-step tutorials, real-world examples, and insider tips, you’ll master Houdini’s renowned node-based workflow. You’ll also learn how to control procedural forces to simulate natural phenomena and produce compelling, visually striking renders, giving you the tools to bring your creative visions to life.This book provides a solid foundation in Houdini FX fundamentals for beginners, while also helping more experienced artists push the boundaries of innovation. It is designed to be an indispensable companion on your journey to building a strong foundation for future growth as a Houdini artist.By the end of the book, you will be comfortable creating procedural setups, running simulations, and rendering your own creative effects in Houdini.*Email sign-up and proof of purchase required
Greg Lim
Software development is evolving rapidly, and working effectively with AI is becoming a core skill. Vibe Coding with Cursor, Windsurf & Lovable introduces a practical, AI-first approach to building applications by guiding intelligent coding agents instead of writing every line of code manually.Through hands-on examples, you’ll learn how to create applications from scratch using Cursor, structure projects with specifications and to-do lists, manage code with Git, and add automated tests. You’ll then explore Lovable’s no-code and low-code workflows to build and deploy full-stack apps, before moving on to Windsurf to analyze and extend existing codebases.By the end of this book, you’ll have a repeatable, professional workflow for building and shipping real-world applications faster, combining the speed of AI with sound engineering practices.
Lance Phillips, Stefania Marangoni
Micro content dominates social media marketing, but subpar editing and low-quality videos can shrink your audience. Elevate your social media game with DaVinci Resolve - the world’s most trusted name in color grading that has been used to grade Hollywood films, TV shows, and commercials. Version 18 enables you to edit, compose VFX, mix sound, and deliver videos for different platforms, including social media and the web.You’ll learn the basics of using DaVinci Resolve 18 to create video content, by first gaining an overview of creating a complete short video for social media distribution directly from within the “Cut” page. You’ll discover advanced editing, VFX composition, color grading, and sound editing techniques to enhance your content and fix common video content issues that occur while using consumer cameras or mobile phones.By the end of this book, you’ll be well-equipped to use DaVinci Resolve to edit, fix, finish, and publish short-form video content directly to social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter, and Vimeo.
Lance Phillips, Nigel G Honey
Micro-content drives today’s social media and business marketing, but poor editing and low-quality video can quickly turn viewers away. DaVinci Resolve helps you elevate your content using professional-grade technology trusted in Hollywood films, TV shows, and commercials.In this practical, beginner-friendly guide, Lance Phillips, a Blackmagic Design Certified Training Partner with over 30 years of teaching and industry experience, shows you how to create polished video content for social media, business, and the web using DaVinci Resolve. Selected sections of the book are presented in color to clearly illustrate visual workflows and key editing concepts. While the book is written using DaVinci Resolve 20, most workflows, techniques, and concepts apply to DaVinci Resolve 18 and later versions.You’ll learn how to create complete short-form videos using the Cut page, apply efficient editing techniques such as split edits, syncing externally recorded audio, and recording voiceovers directly into your project. You’ll also explore essential sound editing workflows and simple yet powerful visual effects, including green screen, split screen, and picture-in-picture.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to confidently edit, finish, and publish short-form videos to platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Vimeo.*Email sign-up and proof of purchase required
Hussin Khan, HaZ Dulull
Virtual Filmmaking with Unreal Engine 5 is the first Unreal Engine book to guide you through the complete process of virtual film production. Encompassing the full spectrum of filmmaking, this book demonstrates the use of an industry-standard tool used by studios such as Disney, ILM, DNEG, and Framestore.Walking through the process systematically, you’ll collect references and create a simple storyboard to plan your shots. You'll create virtual environments, import 3D models and add materials and textures to build photorealistic, dynamic worlds. You'll also create actors using highly customizable MetaHumans, understand how to import, re-target, and animate them. You’ll bring it all together with cinematic lighting and camera animation before exporting your film.By the end of this book, you’ll have discovered new tools for your toolkit to work on your virtual film projects in Unreal Engine 5, leveraging Quixel Megascans, Lumen, Nanite, and MetaHuman technology.
Virtual Reality Blueprints. Create compelling VR experiences for mobile and desktop
Charles Palmer, John Williamson
Are you new to virtual reality? Do you want to create exciting interactive VR applications? There's no need to be daunted by the thought of creating interactive VR applications, it's much easier than you think with this hands-on, project-based guide that will take you through VR development essentials for desktop and mobile-based games and applications. Explore the three top platforms—Cardboard VR, Gear VR, and OculusVR —to design immersive experiences from scratch.You’ll start by understanding the science-fiction roots of virtual reality and then build your first VR experience using Cardboard VR. You'll then delve into user interactions in virtual space for the Google Cardboard then move on to creating a virtual gallery with Gear VR. Then you will learn all about virtual movements, state machines, and spawning while you shoot zombies in the Oculus Rift headset. Next, you'll construct a Carnival Midway, complete with two common games to entertain players.Along the way, you will explore the best practices for VR development, review game design tips, discuss methods for combating motion sickness and identify alternate uses for VR applications
Alfonso V. Romero, Alfonso Vidal Romero
The furore around virtualization is taking the technology world by storm and is a must for efficient utilization of network server capacity, storage administration, energy, and capital. VirtualBox is free and this brings down your upfront costs for an agile data center. VirtualBox will transform your IT infrastructure into a lean Data Center on a Windows XP/7 or Ubuntu Linux platform. Although VirtualBox has grown by leaps and bounds, there is not enough documentation to guide you through its features and implementation.This hands-on guide gives you a thorough introduction to this award-winning virtualization product. It will help you to implement the right virtual environment for you. Additionally, this book will help you set up an environment that will work for your system. You will learn to architect and deploy your first virtual machine without being overwhelmed by technical details.This practical book unveils the robust capabilities and easy-to-use graphical interface of VirtualBox to help you to effectively administer and use virtual machines in a home/office environment. You begin by creating your first virtual machine on a Windows/Linux guest operating system and installing guest additions. The book then goes on to discuss the various formats that VirtualBox supports and how it interacts with other formats. The comprehensive instructions will help you to work with all the networking modes offered by VirtualBox. Virtual appliances will be explained in detail—how they help to reduce installation time for virtual machines and run them from VirtualBox.By the end of this book you will be able to run your own headless VirtualBox server, to create, manage, and run virtual machines in that server from a remote PC.
Aristides Bouras
This course begins with a fundamental overview of how computers operate, setting a solid foundation for your learning. You'll then delve into the essentials of Visual Basic, exploring integrated development environments and necessary software packages. As you progress, you'll tackle basic algorithmic concepts, variables, constants, and how to handle input and output efficiently. Moving forward, the course introduces you to control structures, starting with sequence control, and advancing through various decision structures, including single, dual, and multiple-alternative decisions. You'll gain practical experience with flowcharts and decision-making processes, equipping you with the skills to manage complex programming scenarios. The latter part of the course focuses on loop control structures, both simple and nested, and teaches you to implement them effectively through practical exercises and flowcharts. Finally, you'll explore advanced topics such as data structures, including one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays, and dictionaries. The course also covers subprograms and object-oriented programming, ensuring you have a comprehensive understanding of Visual Basic. With a practical approach, this course is designed to build your confidence in programming, enabling you to tackle real-world problems with ease.