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Book Reviews |
Overview
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 Overview |
A Case Study and Tutorial: Fallingwater in 3D StudioLaura Sanchez and Alex SanchezISBN 1-55690-051-4 Onward Press 1994 Price: £34.50 This is one of the few books on 3D Studio that introduces the novice to architectural modelling. The authors have chosen to focus on modelling Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, arguably the greatest work of 20th century American architecture, and hopefully already known to all students and those with architectural interests. The book is organised into four parts. The first is a brief background of the house, the Kaufmanns, who commissioned Wright to design for them, and its conception, construction and history. The second concentrates on general approaches and strategies for undertaking a modelling, rendering and animation project using 3D Studio. This is followed by exercises that give detailed instructions on using 3D Studio, incorporating elements of the Fallingwater building and covering most of the features in Studio tha t are likely to be encountered in architectural modelling. These include the modelling of building structure, lighting, design details, furniture and fittings, sculptures, materials and the generation of animations. Lastly there is a section devoted to ‘t ips and traps’ in using 3D Studio. Unlike so much other 3D Studio literature, this book does not simply reiterate what is already available in software manuals. Instead, it offers a structured approach to both modelling and rendering an entire project, and uses all the tools and functional ity of 3D Studio. Fallingwater is aimed at the first time user with no previous modelling experience, and students will easily be able to follow exercises from the book without additional support. One criticism may be that the final renderings do not look photo-realistic. The book sets out to be a tutorial in how to use 3D Studio to 3D model, render and animate a complicated building, such as Fallingwater, in order to gain a better understanding of its form, design and the physical assembly of parts and subtleties. The aut hors have chosen not to focus on the software as a glossy presentation tool. The book also comes with a floppy disk containing a complete 3D model of Fallingwater, with textures and maps, plus auxiliary files for use with the included exercises.
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| Overview | Understanding IT: Developing Multimedia Courseware, 1995Fred Riley, University of HullISBN 85889 0993 Price: £8.50 This work is concerned with the development of small-scale multimedia courseware at a single site which is intended for off site distribution. Small-scale in this context refers to the creation of courseware by one or a few people at a single site, rather than the ‘size’ of the courseware. It is primarily written for developers and would-be developers of academic courseware in the UK higher education sector, although the concepts within will be applicable to readers working outside this sector. The first part of the book discusses the pros and cons of multimedia and hypermedia and considers issues relating to courseware content. Then, drawing heavily on software engineering concepts and the author’s experience of courseware development, a model of courseware development, from initial concepts to product delivery is proposed. The book is an attempt to impart generic guidelines of software development that can be adopted and/or adapted by developers and would-be developers of academic courseware, regardless of hardware platforms or software environments. The emphasis throughout is upon professionalism and the development of quality courseware. Distribution: This book can be obtained from the ITTI ( Information Technology Training Initiative ). |
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Overview |
Understanding IT: A Review of Hypermedia Authoring Packages, 1994Fred Riley, University of HullISBN 1 85889 087 X Price: £10.00 This book provides a review of five common hypermedia authoring packages. All the packages run under Microsoft Windows on IBM PC compatible machines. The packages are:
For each package a summary of features are provided in tabular form, the documentation, tools, multimedia capabilities, interface design functions, DLLs and ease of use of the package are then discussed. The cost of the package and associated run time lic ences is also given. Conclusions at the end of each section present the main strengths and weaknesses of each package. Appendices include a glossary, the code of the test DLL ( written in Turbo Pascal ) used in the evaluation, a comparative product reference which brings together the tables presented at the start of each section, and application screenshots of the final a pplication in each package. This is a very useful document, which will be of interest to a large number of people. Although authoring systems are regularly being updated and new systems are appearing, the information is currently up to date, and the five systems chosen represent tho se in common use in the UK higher education community. The layout of the review will allow potential users to quickly see if the features they require are available in a package, and the conclusions at the end of each section are very useful for determini ng what level of skills and experience will be required to use a tool and what kind of application they are best capable of generating. Distribution: This book can be obtained from the ITTI. Contact: Mrs Jean Burgan UCoSDA Ingram House, 65 Wilkinson Street The University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 2GJ Tel: 0114 272 5248 Fax: 0114 272 8705 Email:j.burgan@sheffield.ac.uk The above reviews have been extracted (with copyright waivers) from the ITTI. |
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The Road Map for Survival On The Information Superhighway, Being Digital, 1995Nicholas NegroponteISBN 0 340 64525 3 Price: £12.99 This book sets out to explore the impact that technology is having on the world. The author explains what being digital means and how life can be enhanced by it. Explanations are given as to why all information is now becoming digital, the meaning and r ole of virtual reality, and predictions are made as to the effect that technological transformation will have on the individual. There are plenty of practical insights into the future role of communications and the interconnection of electronic communities. The only disconcerting aspect is that the overall impression gained by the reader is one of a lack of cohesiveness as the material consists of a collection of lecture series. However this is adequately compensated by good informative content. For anyo ne interested in the internet, lost at the mention of the information highway, or confused by electronic media such as the CD-ROM, the material in this publication explains in a light hearted manner and without recourse to technical jargon, how to surviv e the information age. This literature forms interesting reading for anyone involved in communications and is very futuristic in content.
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