Professional Mel Solutions For Production

Maya’s Embedded Language is the heart and soul of Maya, the most powerful 3D application on the market today. MEL provides Maya with a versatility and adaptability unmatched in the CG industry. It is MEL that allows technical directors to customize Maya to fit each pipeline, to work around each limitation, and to write tools that expand Maya’s already impressive set of capabilities. Mastery of MEL is as essential to a TD as a scalpel is to a surgeon. This book shows you how MEL is being (ab)used in high-end visual effects production by picking apart scripts written in the production of recent feature films. The exhaustive and in-depth nature of this book makes it useful for a broad audience: from the MEL novice who wants to learn MEL to the advanced scripter interested in developing strategies for production problems. A good book covering difficult topics with gentle hand holding and good humour. -Gary Noden, 3D World Magazine

Maya’s Embedded Language is the heart and soul of Maya, the most powerful 3D application on the market today. MEL provides Maya with a versatility and adaptability unmatched in the CG industry. It is MEL that allows technical directors to customize Maya to fit each pipeline, to work around each limitation, and to write tools that expand Maya’s already impressive set of capabilities. Mastery of MEL is as essential to a TD as a scalpel is to a surgeon. This book shows you how MEL is being (ab)used in high-end visual effects production by picking apart scripts written in the production of recent feature films. The exhaustive and in-depth nature of this book makes it useful for a broad audience: from the MEL novice who wants to learn MEL to the advanced scripter interested in developing strategies for production problems. A good book covering difficult topics with gentle hand holding and good humour. -Gary Noden, 3D World Magazine

RPG Programming Using XNA Game Studio 3.0 provides detailed information on role-playing games (RPGs) and how to create them using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio 3.0. The book examines the history of the genre and takes a piece-by-piece approach to producing a 2D tile-based game, demonstrating how to create the various components that make up an RPG and implement them using C# and XNA Game Studio 3.0. By the end of the book, readers will have built a complete toolset that can be used to create data for their own RPGs. Learn how to: * Creating the characters and monsters that populate RPG worlds * Add stats and skills to allow game entities to perform actions * Populate the game world with items and treasures. Construct a conversation editor to add another degree of interaction * Create a multiple-step quest system to give players goals to research during gameplay * Creating a tile engine for displaying the world Populating the game world with items and treasure * Implementing a sound and music system * Adding multiplayer support

“Both burgeoning game designers and devoted gamers should consider [Game Design: Theory & Practice] an essential read.” — Computer Gaming World “Ultimately, in both theory and practice, Rouse’s Game Design bible gets the job done. Let us pray.” - Next Generation magazine In the second edition to the acclaimed Game Design: Theory & Practice, designer Richard Rouse III balances a discussion of the essential concepts behind game design with an explanation of how you can implement them in your current project. Detailed analysis of successful games is interwoven with concrete examples from Rouse’s own experience. This second edition thoroughly updates the popular original with new chapters and fully revised text.

This book focuses on innovative ways to create customized Word documents and templates. It contains an in-depth introduction to VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), which is the embedded programming language in the Microsoft Office 2007. VBA provides a complete integrated development environment (IDE) that allows for document automation, the process of using an automated template for creating documents. The book also includes coverage of the new features of Word 2007 including Content Controls, programming the Ribbon, and more.

Sybase 15 Replication Server Administration addresses the needs of a wide range of database professionals, explaining to both beginners and experts how to administer Sybase’s newest Replication Server release. This book examines all the knowledge, background information, and conceptual frameworks needed in order to get started on installing and administering Sybase Replication Server, and explores the world of contemporary cross-platform compatible Sybase Replication Server administration. Learn how to replicate business-critical data; configure database connections and routes; manage replicated tables, stored procedures, and subscriptions; set up a warm standby system; monitor replication performance and tune the database system; provide up-to-the-minute high availability of data; recover from failures and prevent data loss; troubleshoot the replication system.

The field of engineering is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, and there is an ever-growing need for engineers to investigate engineering and scientific resources outside their own area of expertise. However, studies have shown that quality information-finding skills often tend to be lacking in the engineering profession. Using the Engineerin