Design Books

A Wise Investment. The most Organized person can learn from this book! Many of us can drive a car - but can we organize! Basic, easy to follow with examples, from your computer, to office desk to custom filing - great learning tool for all ages, occupations and careers. Should be taught in schools! Enjoy!

I loved this book. It is comprehensive yet easy to follow.
Got great ideas and solved some of my organizing issues.
Highly recommended for the do-it-yourself organizer.

Several years ago, my office disorganization had overwhelmed me. Rarely could I find what I wanted instantaneously--and sometimes I never found the missing items. Besides losing time, I was burning energy, especially as I became more frustrated.



Fortunately, I found a solution. I contracted Monica Ricci to spend a half-day in my office, and suggest the steps I should take to gain control of the massive information I had accumulated but not sorted. To my delight, the plan she devised served me well then, and still does.



That's why I was eager to read Organize Your Office. . .In No Time. I knew I would get additional tips that help me manage my office systematically. Already, I have underlined my favorite definitions and ideas. Examples:



"When organizing your life, remember that anything you can take a few extra seconds to do now, to help you remember or eliminate a step later, is always worth doing! It's always better to invest an extra tiny bit of work in the present because it will pay off down the road in time, money, headaches, or effort saved."



"Clutter is a collection of unrelated objects living together."



"Fear-based saving is a major cause of paper clutter for many people."



In addition to these specific gems, the book offers numerous helpful features: It is very well organized, which we expect from an organizational expert. The writing style is clear and often folksy, such as: "Imagine going into a supermarket, finding the canned food aisle, and discovering that none of the cans had labels." The illustrations, including photos, bring to life the products Ricci recommends.



Organize Your Office appeals to small business owners who work from a home office, and to executives with larger work spaces. The chapters on computer organization and how to streamline your travel will benefit even the most seasoned executives.



Readers will welcome the detailed suggestions, with pointers on the best organizing products to acquire and where to get them.



The time you invest in reading this book could revolutionize your work place, once you implement Ricci's action steps. Soon you will get more done more easily. Isn't that worth a few dollars and a few hours?The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!

Monica Ricci is a great personal Friend of mine. Her Book has helped me organize my office and Life in General. Her down to earth organizing tips were very helpful to me in my Organization project of my office.Anyone interested in getting organized would be greatly helped in reading Monicas Book. I recommend it very highly to everyone.


Ashley the Eagle Motivator

Great tips in this book, that can easily be picked out, even if just skimming through the pages. I like how the chapters are spelled out, written in a pleasant, "talking just to you" style. Monica Ricci breaks down the tasks into do-able chunks, allowing for the different types of people out there. She has a section, in the beginning, that helps one I.D. one's own type, and then uses each of those types throughout the book to suggest how best to deal with the different organizing challenges. I have read the whole thing, but find I continue to pick it up as a reference, using it as a guide as I tackle the next office organizing challenge! It's a keeper.

Owls by Floyd Scholz is a beautiful book with many wonderful pictures. A wonderful reference book for all those intersted in birds generally and owls specifically.

If there's another book in this universe (or any universe for that matter) that has better photographs, measurements/patterns, and information on such a wide variety of Owls, I dont need it! This one covers everything so well its the only book on owls I will ever need. There is no two books even slightly comparable to this one! If your even thinking about carving an owl GET THIS BOOK!! If you are interested in owls at all, GET THIS BOOK! Its worth its weight in gold. You wont regret it!

Having used Floyd's previous reference 'Birds of Prey' since 1995, I've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of 'Owls'. The quality of the photography and variety of poses, including many extreme close-ups, makes this a first rate reference book for any artist as well as a stunning book for display on your coffee table. The saying that "A picture is worth a thousand words" has never been truer. Anyone who loves these beautiful creatures will be overwhelmed by the elegance of this book. I'll be purchasing a second copy for display, as the one in my studio will be occupied for a while.

I thought I had seen the best of the best when I first saw Scholz's "Birds of Prey". I was wrong! "Owls" stands alone, without peers. "Owls" is a rare combination of text, photography and advice. The pictures are amazing. The text is readable and informative. The advice and patterns alone are worth far more than the price of the book. The unbelievable amount of research that went into this book is evident from the dust cover clear through to the last page. The book is a must for everyone who enjoys owls be it artist, carver, naturalist, bird lover or simply people who enjoy fantastic books. Considering the size and quality of "Owls", it is a bargin!

If you have even the slightest interest in owls or birds in general this is the book for you. The pictures range from full shots of the individual species to minute details in plumage and even comparative pictures of feet and wing shape. This is truly the most well put together collection of owl photographs I've ever encountered. It even has a section in the back for artists who wish to use owls in carvings and paintings. All in all, this is a fantastic book.

This book was extremely informative and answers most of the questions you would have about the gaming industry. I'm hoping for a second edition! Definitely purchase this book if you are considering a career in this field.

I bought this for my bf because he was thinking of a video game career, he hasn't done anything with this field yet, but he said the book was good

Are you considering going into the video games industry, but you want to find out more about it before making the decision to make the jump? This book will give you an honest and insightful look at just about every facet of this competitive industry.

Whether your serious or curious about the games industry, you'll enjoy this entertaining read. I wholeheartedly recommend it!

This book gave me more insight about what the Gaming work world is like than all the other research I did my whole life.

This is an essential read for anyone who wants to design electronic games!

As a graduate advisor for gaming students at Westwood College Online, I can not stress enough how important and worthwhile this book is. I recommend this book to every student that I work with because it is full of numerous "wake-up calls" and good ideas for breaking into the industry. Check this book out, it will greatly help you in your career search.

This book is another winner for Lin Wellford. I own all of her books and like her previous works she breaks rock painting, or in this case concrete painting, down into a step by step process. Truly anyone can paint with Lin's instructions. This book includes a few more complex projects so is not the one I would recommend for the first time painter, but on the other hand she has included patterns of the projects in the back of the book. This is also the book for those of you who do not have access to a rock pile. Just head down to your local home improvement store and for a few dollars pick up your "canvas".

These projects are incredible and the author breaks them down step by step so even a non-artist like myself can get great results.

What a wonderful book! I bought a home last year from someone who planted nice flowers and bushes, but then edged them in ugly scalloped concrete borders with ugly concrete stepping stones nearby. I moved all of them to the shed & wondered what in the world I'd ever do with so much ugly concrete. Then I found this book. Never would it have occurred to me to paint my edgers & stepping stones the way Lin did. I'm no painter, but decided I had nothing to lose by trying. It worked! Lin's directions are very clear, easy to follow, and so much fun. I actually purchased an edger last week for yet another painting. Her stepping stones are also great. Plus, my sense of success caused me to purchase 2 of Lin's rock painting books, and they are also great. The water-based paint she recommends is formulated for concrete, stone, rocks, etc and saves steps because it has the primer & sealer built in.

Another plus: Lin's projects are very affordable. Among materials used to edge plantings, the concrete edgers shown in this book are the cheapest, slightly over $1 each at Lowe's, and the paint can be purchased at a crafts store in very small quantities for $2. Watch for Michael's 40% discount coupon (good for any item not on sale) every other Sunday in your newspaper. Hobby Lobby's 40% coupon is generally on alternating weeks. Both stores frequently run 50% off on paint brushes.

Plus another plus: Unlike so many craft books, Lin's are filled with clever, not cutesy, ideas. So much fun.

This is the 4th of Lin Wellford's books that I have purchased. I use all of them on a regular basis because of the great tips she gives. The instruction steps are easy to follow. I especially like that she gives alternate materials to use, since I live in a rural area and don't have a craft shop easily available. With the tips in this book about presealing rocks with Kilz, I now can use some rocks for garden art that were not usuable for painting animals. My friends and customers appreciate the variety of ideas I have developed, thanks to the great foundation of illustrations and instructions from Lin's books that got me started on a craft business.

Truly lovely gardens often require more than simply lovely plants. They also depend on the use of stepping stones, scalloped border pieces, manufactured field stones, natural river rocks, and other such raw materials to create maintenance-free borders, flower beds, and accent pieces. In "Painted Garden Art Anyone Can Do", gardening expert Lin Wellford presents eleven complete projects and patterns that even the most novice gardener can immediately apply to their own gardening and landscaping efforts. There are projects here that will help the gardener or landscaper to make the most out of limited space, compensate for not having time enough to keep annuals from looking their best, deal with otherwise doggedly shady areas and worn spots in the year, using relatively inexpensive and low-maintenance water features. A very strongly recommended and thoroughly 'user friendly' instructional reference for aspiring gardeners, Lin Wellford's "Painted Garden Art Anyone Can Do" is profusely illustrated with more than three hundred color photographs and a welcome addition to community library Gardening & Landscaping reference collections.

This is a good book which teaches step by step how to paint flowers and other still life objects. It starts off with easier projects and works up to more difficult ones. Each project lists what color of paints to use, along with pictures and instructions. Charles Reid also talks about what kinds of papers, paints, brushes, palettes and other materials you will need. Best of all his book is filled with beautiful full color pictures of his paintings. He is not a watercolor artist who uses many layers of transparent glazes, so if you are looking for that kind of instruction it is probably not for you. Highly recommend this book.

Looks great, haven't had time to read, but is similar to one he wrote (currently out of print) loaned to me by my art teacher.

I discovered Charles Reid at my local library and was smitten with his loose, colorful, gorgeous pictures. This book is a clear, helpful guide to making juicy watercolors of still lifes that sing with color. He has practical tips on brushwork, contour drawing and composition that are easy to follow and clearly explained. He also has step-by-step instructions for several of his pictures that show you how he goes about making his own pictures (often from everyday objects and flowers on his kitchen counter). I'm fairly new to watercolors and I found this book invaluable to improving my pictures and getting me to loosen up and feel creative and find beauty in simple objects.

I wish I had had this book years ago. It contains exercises to enable the reader/student to experience and learn direct painting techniques that bring freshness, spontaneity, bright vivid color and realism to one's paintings--inspite of an "untidy" style. If you're serious about watercolor, Reid can take you where you really should go. Reid embodies the principles of the best of watercolor and painting teaching of the past (particularly Hawthorne, Henri, Manet). He puts it all together into what I call a meditative painting style (stroke on color and pause to consider, then soften, add other color wet-in-wet, and so on. Doing the exercises in this book can revolutionize your painting and will, at the very least, bring immediate and important improvements to your technique and approach to watercolor. If you like Reid's paintings--flower, figures, portraits, etc., do yourself a favor--get the book and the two corresponding videos.

I first met Charles Reid and his wife Judy in 1988 and it was the beginning of an endless learning process ever since. I have learnt so much about watercolour from his books over the years since then. Charles' books are amazing in that he holds nothing back and just discloses all his knowledge in a wonderful style that is easy to learn from. Invariably there are step by step demonstrations to illustrate his methods. Even if the reader doesn't particularly like his style but would rather paint in a more classic sense with lots of glazes and so forth you will still learn so much about how the colours interact with water and on the paper. Charles' workshops are a great delight and if you are fortunate to attend one you will find that he is a friendly man of great warmth and charm which is reflected in his books.

Graet book-wonderful photos and much deatail about the use and lifestyles in use with paantries.

This is a book to treasure always,for people like me who love history especially to do with food, kitchens,and domestic life this book is HEAVEN !!

I can't add anything that hasn't been written below, but I wanted to leave a positive review for the author's sake. I love all things domestic and the more vintage the better. I love the picture on the back cover of this book-ah...my dream kitchen. If I could have a hoosier cabinet like this one someday, I would die happy, lol.

A great book, but needs more pixs of bungalow pantries where small windows and refrigerators were contained...there are plenty of these right where I live in North Carolina

"The Pantry: Its History And Modern Uses" by author, architectural historian, and former house museum manager Catherine Seiberling Pond is a beautifully illustrated history of how the nature of the 19th century pantry began to change and evolve in the 20th and 21st centuries as American homemakers began to cook more, bake more, buy more, and stockpile more just as architects were designing and building homes that did not have pantries. The result was that 'big-box' items that once would have been stored in a pantry were now regulated to the garage. "The Pantry" offers cogent and persuasive arguments why the pantry should be restored to the contemporary American home as both a functional and an esthetic design element in keeping with the socio-economic and design changes that have affected and shaped the American home which ranges in style from Victorian to 20th Century, and from the great estate to the modern dwelling. While the use of the pantry has evolved, it continues to be an interesting, utilitarian space the combines nostalgia with cutting edge modern ideas for the family kitchen. "The Pantry" also covers what to put in one, food storage solutions, the selections of materials, design and layout, display, decor tips, and more. Of special note is the chapter dedicated to 'Pantries Open to the Public'. Informed and informative reading, "The Pantry" is particularly recommended to the attention of architects, home remodelers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the developmental history of the American home.

As a long time users of PhotoImpact, I thought I knew nearly all of the tricks this amazing software had to offer. PhotoImpact 6 Wizardry quickly disabused me of this idea. From the first chapter, this old dog began learning new tricks.

The book is written with the new and intermediate user in mind, but is also a valuable resource for the power user as well. Stephanie Baker-Thomas shares her astounding familiarity with PhotoImpact 6 in an easy to understand style that is most refreshing for a software book. Her explanations of the tools, controls and their functions are well written and provide much information not offered in the Ulead users manual.

The author provides an impressive collection of practical hands on exercises to teach users important techniques they will use in many many future projects. These exercises were well chosen to easily and logically move the user to higher levels of competency, while managing to keep it fun.

PhotoImpact 6 Wizardry isn't intended to be "area specific". It is not a photo restoration hand book and it doesn't delve into heavy imaging or channel manipulation theory. It does provide the user with a stable platform of knowledge from which to successfully begin and extend their journey into the fascinating world of image creation.

My best recommendation is to simply admit to incorporating many of the tips, tricks, shortcuts and techniques found in this book, into my own daily use of PhotoImpact.

Whether you are a newbie or not this is a must have book. Stephanie explains how to use tools very effectively. Even if you think you know all there is to know about PI, you might change your mind once you get this book. This book is full of great tutorial that demonstrate just how each tool is used. You won't be disappointed!!

I have just finished reading the training manual and user guide PhotoImpact 6 Wizardry. Let me just say, that the book truly lives up to the title. This is Dr. Stephanie Baker-Thomas' 3rd book on PhotoImpact, and it is her most ambitious title yet. Between the covers of the book are a host of tips, techniques, and active learning exercises that will have you caught in a spell. The author has a style which breaks down the walls of complex processes and makes them very easy to understand. Before long, you'll be hooked.

Who is it for? The PhotoImpact novice to intermediate user, though far more experienced users may benefit from the insights the book provides. Bear in mind that Wizardry is not a replacement for hard work and experimentation with the program. However, even a novice will be able to develop fine looking graphics or web pages using the software's inherent capabilities and the sorcery in this book. Readers will learn techniques they can apply to their own ideas, but the process will enhance their digital capabilities, as well as their self confidence. That alone is worth the price, in my opinion.

To summarize, I found PI 6 Wizardry to be an easy to follow, well defined tour of the vast array of tools and tricks hidden within the bits and bytes of this marvelous software. Readers of the book will find themselves working with an ever expanding notion that, "If I can THINK it, I can DO it." That is true of the software and the book. I highly recommend both.

A couple of weeks ago, I received my copy of PhotoImpact 6.0 Wizardry and having purchased Stephanie Baker-Thomas's other books on PhotoImpact, I knew I was in for a treat. Little did I realize just how much of a treat.

This book is just awesome in terms of content and an absolute must for any owner of this wonderful graphics software. Not only does it contain all the technical information you're ever likely to need, Stephanie has generously provided "Active Learning Exercises", which elevate this book from "manual" status to a wonderful learning tool and a darned good read...something you don't normally find in books of this genre.

I have been using PhotoImpact for about five years now and pretty much know how to make it sing but with "Wizardry" now on my desk, the whole choir has come to town!!!

It is without doubt, her best book to date and the only PI reference book you'll ever need.

This is a great book, but then I wouldn't expect anything less from Stephanie. Her books on previous versions of Photo Impact have been great as well, but this one is the best so far in my opinion.

The book takes you "by the hand" so to speak and walks you through how to use most of the frequently used functions in Photo Impact. But the best part of it is that YOU get to apply what you've read about in the exercises at the end of each section.

Photo Impact isn't a difficult program to learn to use in the first place, but this book brings a lot of things together far more quickly that you could probably pick them up on your own unless you've had prior experience with photo Impact programs or photo imaging software in general. I guess what I'm saying here is that even someone fairly new to didgital imaging and Photo Impact could get through this book without becoming totally lost.

My only complaint is that all the pictures, examples, etc. are in black and white. I'm a firm believer that books relating to didgital imaging have at least some to most if not all the pictures, examples, etc. in color.

Other than that, this is a good buy and a good read.

This book covers everything you need to know to write a ray tracer with
advanced features like photon mapping, volume scattering, path tracing,
etc. The scope of the material it covers is stunning. It starts from the
basics of topics like 3D geometry and ray/object intersections and then
builds up to explain reflection models, advanced texturing techniques, and
then light transport algorithms.

It has excellent discussions of the theory and underlying math of physical
rendering blended (rather well) with very very useful practical
implementations of the theory. The leap from theory to implementation is
often difficult to do, and to do well or efficiently even more difficult.
(The ray acceleration code alone is worth it's weight in gold.) This is an
indispensable book for anyone who wants to write their own ray tracer or
learn more about the latest techniques used in photorealistic rendering.

This book mixes detailed algorithm descriptions with actual code in a book that never loses sight of the "big picture" of physically based ray tracing and image synthesis. Although it is very well written and is not a dry academic book at all, it would help if the reader is already familiar with basic computer graphic techniques, linear algebra, calculus, and optics in order to get the most out of this book. It was never meant to be a replacement for Foley & Van Dam's classic book on computer graphics, even though the first few chapters go over basic computer graphic material. The book includes a website where the source code of the authors' renderer can be downloaded. This code is very well organized and commented so that if you wish to lift individual pieces from the entire software package you can with just a little bit of work. I highly recommend this book to the programmer who wishes to implement physically based rendering in his/her own code or wants to know about the practical implementation of image synthesis techniques. Amazon does not show any details about the book here, so I shall explain the contents in the context of the table of contents:
CHAPTER 01. INTRODUCTION
This chapter talks briefly about all kinds of topics related to ray tracing. It also talks about how to understand the code in the book and the book website.
CHAPTER 02. GEOMETRY AND TRANSFORMATIONS
This chapter is pretty basic computer graphics stuff. It talks about coordinate systems, vectors, arithmetic, scaling, dot and cross products,etc. Applying transformations via matrices is also discussed as well as the representation of points, vectors, normals, rays, and bounding boxes.
CHAPTER 03. SHAPES
More basic computer graphics continues with discussions on spheres, differential geometry, cylinders, and disks, paraboloids, triangles and meshes, and the representation and bounding of all of these shapes.
CHAPTER 04. PRIMITIVES AND INTERSECTION ACCELERATION
This chapter is about accelerating the speed of your graphics through grid acceleration, tree construction and representation, and object instantiation.
CHAPTER 05. COLOR AND RADIOMETRY
XYZ color system is discussed along with radiometric integrals including integrals over projected solid angles, integrals over spherical coordinates, and integrals over area. Beginning in this chapter the math becomes more advanced.
CHAPTER 06. CAMERA MODELS
Projective camera models are discussed along with orthographic, perspective, and environment camera models. This information will already be familiar to students of computer vision.
CHAPTER 07. SAMPLING AND RECONSTRUCTION
Frequency domain techniques are discussed starting with the Fourier transform and ideal sampling and reconstruction. Also, antialiasing techniques are explained.
CHAPTER 08. FILM AND THE IMAGING PIPELINE
This chapter talks about topics such as luminance, photometry, bloom, and imaging pipeline stages.
CHAPTER 09. REFLECTION MODELS
The various reflection models are discussed including specular, Fresnel, Lambertian, Oren-Nayer disfuse reflection, and the Lafortune model.
CHAPTER 10. MATERIALS
Matte, plastic, bump mapping, and other material effects are explained very well.
CHAPTER 11. TEXTURE
We return to frequency models some in this chapter. The texture sampling rate, filtering functions, and mapping in spherical, cylindrical, and planar form are explained. Procedural textures are also discussed including the famous Perlin noise, marble, and windy waves.
CHAPTER 12. VOLUME SCATTERING
This chapter is considered more advanced material, and discusses volume scattering processes, absorption, emission, in and out scattering, phase functions, exponential density, and volume aggregates.
CHAPTER 13. LIGHT SOURCES
All kinds of light sources are described including point lights, spotlights, texture projection lights, distant lights, area lights, and infinite area lights.
CHAPTERS 14 and 15 both discuss Monte Carlo integration techniques including improving efficiency.
CHAPTERS 16 and 17 are about light transport. The first chapter is about surface reflection and the second is about volume rendering.
CHAPTER 18. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION includes a design retrospective, a discussion of abstraction versus reality, and design alternatives including triangles only and streaming computation.
APPENDIXES- These include sections on utilities, scene description interface, input file formats, an index of code fragments, an index of classes and their members, and finally an index of identifiers.

I do ray tracing and GI for a living. When I got started on my ray tracer I was struggling with several basic issues. Even though I tried to locate all the published material on those subject there was still significant gaps. Issues like 'how to shot photons', what about all these 'cosines'. How do you actually implement a kd-tree. I read Shirley's, Jansen's, Glassner's and Advanced Global Illumination and a lot of the older Siggraph papers. PBRT came out just in time to rescue me. It contains the only complete implementation of a photonmap.

It's strong point is a complete running GI engine. However the literate programming style used in the book meant a lot of time I cannot read a subject by itself. The use of abstract interfaces sort of force you to use the class browser to follow the logic. You pretty much have to read it from the beginning. The quality of the code contained goes beyond the usual standard of code published as examples. It contains a rather sophiscated random number generator. Its treatment of LDS plus sampling and recontruction in general is excellent. It is the only source that shows how to implement Li's algorithm to generate random rays to sample a sphere. Same goes for Malley's. Shirley and Chui's concentric sampling method is hidden in the appendix of a old Siggraph paper.

The book also has code to sample and model most of the common light sources. Which is surprisingly non-trivial.

I highly recommend this book but it does require a certain level of commitment to get the most out of this book. The chapters on sampling, ray differential, texture filtering, light transport I consider must reads for all graphics programmer even though you might not be working on ray tracing.

I cannot praise this book more than the others already have. The book is about producing high-quality images using raytracing. It basically walks you through the creation of a fully-functional raytracer, discussing all the different algorithms and techniques that are needed along the way.

It's written in the context of their particular implementation of a working raytracer, using the fweb programming/documentation system, where basically the program source and the documentation are written as one document. I've always thought this was academic nonsense as far as writing real code in a production environment, but it turns out to be an EXCELLENT way to write a book or code intended for a learning environment.

This strikes the perfect balance between explaining the theory thoroughly and showing how the ideas can be implemented in a real, functional raytracer. They avoid the trap of many other book that focus on a particular implemention, by not getting too bogged down into pecularities of their system.

The source code itself also stands out as a strong point. There are so many books out there with poorly written and unorganized code that you'd never want to read, much less try to work in. The code is well organized, and the coding style easy to read. It's one of the few books I own that contain source code where I actually read the source code and it added something to my experience. I wish everybody who wrote about programming was actually a decent programmer and not just a mathemiticion.

This book has academic rigor and but also well-written explanations. I'm still learning a lot from it. I expect to refer to it frequently over the next years as we (in the video game industry) take more concepts from raytracers and apply them to real-time graphics, as the processors get more and more powerful.

You probably should not be an absolute newbie when it comes to basic 3D math and things like vectors and basic graphics concepts before buying this book. The authors use some calculus, too, if that scares you off.

Although it is not possible here, I am fairly sure this book deserves such rating. This is truly remarkable work and is likely to become a classic text in the field of computer graphics.

It is not a survey-type book, instead of trying to describe every possible method out there, the authors have concentrated on a few selected techniques, that are not only good (modern, fast, easy to implement, etc.), but also have some pedagogical merits and can serve as a gentle introduction to the world of ray tracing and digital image synthesis. Despite focusing on selected areas, the authors managed to squeeze here in an amazing amount of material. Among other topics, this book covers: subdivision surfaces, ray-primitive intersection acceleration techniques (3D DDA and kd-tree), color and radiometry, anti-aliasing, tone mapping, physically based reflection models, texture mapping (including texture anti-aliasing using ray differentials), area lights and HDR Image Based Lighting, volume scattering and much more.

A large part of the book has been devoted to the light transport and Monte Carlo techniques. One can find there an introduction to the theory of Monte Carlo estimation (including selected methods for reducing variance and computation time, like Russian roulette, multiple importance sampling or stratified sampling) and explanation of important light transport equations (rendering and transfer equations).

Finally the authors have described (and implemented) several solutions for the rendering equation: Whitted-style recursive ray tracing, direct illumination estimation, path tracing, irradiance caching and photon mapping.

However, it is not only the vastness of the material covered in this book, that causes this volume should be praised so highly. Perhaps, the style, in which this book has been written, is even more impressive. For each of the topics, the authors start with what is usually known as "dry math and theory", and then show how it is supposed to work as an algorithm (including its dirty details) and finally they explain how to turn this algorithm into C++ code. Each of those transitions concentrates on a small portion of the problem, so it is still easy to understand. Anyone, who had to turn a SIGGRAPH paper into something that works, will immediately recognize what kind of gem this book is - it actually shows how to do it!

This brilliant blend of theory and practice is one of its brightest spots, for learning the theory and math formulas is one thing, but writing a working, robust implementation is completely another.

Those, who prefer studying sources, will get source code of a very good, physically based, extensible ray tracer (called pbrt) with the best documentation one could ever imagine. Documentation that gives the rationale for almost every line of code. It shows not only how they did it, but also why they did it that way.

It is not the only book, that one will ever need - computer graphics is a vast topic - too big to be covered in a single volume, even as huge as this one. However, it is certainly one of the books that everyone interested in photorealistic rendering should buy. The price of this book is really low, if you think about it as of an excellent, first-rate computer graphics course.

Aimed at students, researchers and people interested in computer graphics algorithms, it is an indispensable book for anyone willing to write his own photorealistic (not necessarily physically based!) ray tracer and learn more about computer image synthesis.

I liked this book and the wonderful ways in which the author was able to transform a picture into a quilt. All her techniques to this approach were wonderful.

However if found that there was just too many pieces going on in some of the quilts for me. I appreciated knowing how she accomplished what she did and was inspired by her work...i think i will work with a few less pieces...

I borrowed this book from the library after seeing a quilt my aunt made after attending a class taught by Ruth Mcdowell. Ruth is an amazingly talented artist, and for her to even compile and explain her techniques to us...wow! I can honestly say that I am overwhelmed and more nervous than even to try and learn how to piece like she does. But the book is definitely inspiring and one I can look at over and over again. The book is set up in such a way to be a step-by-step, hands on guide. The quilts featured in the book are fabulous and mind-boggling. This book is not for beginners to sew from, but for quilters to dream from!

This book has been out for a long time, but remains and important reference for anyone who wants to make a quilt with complicated piecing. Her technique LOOKS complicated, but is actually easy once you study the basics. It's a definite MUST HAVE for any quilter's library. My skill at piecing intricate curves, points and seams increased substantially after working with this book.

This is a book that stands alone. I was reluctant to purchase it because it only had 2 reviews, but all I can say is WOW! The sheer artistry alone is worth the price of the book. I cannot explain in words the beauty and life, as well as likeness of the subject, that the pieces in this book depict. I have not yet been able to use the techniques as I have just purchased it and am a beginning quilter as well. There is no doubt, however, that it will be nothing less than everything you need to know about expanding the basics of piecing. I am highly confident this book will teach me so much. Even if I weren't planning on quilting, which I am, I would still buy this book for its aesthetics.

This is a wonderful book. It really helped to unleash my creativity. I have been gathering fabrics ever since my first glance at this book, to put together my new masterpiece. I am really excited about trying some of the techniques. I don't have time to write anymore...I have to get started on my new project!!! Lynne

This book provides instructions at a simple, easy to follow level and and progresses to a level that requires more specific tools, skills and patience. Exactly what you need if you want to become better at making pop-ups. I'm completely enjoying my copy. The only thing better would be a few pop-up examples for the fun of it!

It's easy to study Pop-up making.
It's good for beginner.
I like it.
I will study very hardly so I will be Pop-up engineer!

Goodluck Everybody~!

This book is great for the beginner. It shows you some basic folds and it is good that you have a regular pop-up book there so that you have the instructions and an example.

This little book is packed full of easy to understand directions and very practical do's and don'ts that only come with experience. If you don't want to waste time making your own mistakes, this is the book for you.

For anyone interested in making pop-ups, this book should be on their work table.
What I especially like about it is, the many simple sketches of the pieces and how they are applied particularly in the more complex figures, where clarity is needed and often times not as well done in other books on the subject. I have bought more than one to give to friends that work in this area as well.
One of the best books on the subject.