Designed for those looking to break into the business, this tutorial and guide gives readers a broad overview of the 3-D marketplace. With high-powered hardware and 3-D software packages dropping in price and becoming more available to the average computer user, this book has the potential of becoming the foundation of a career in 3-D graphics and animation.
Mark Giambruno was born in 1957 in the small California foothills town of Placerville. He grew up in Sacramento, where he enjoyed annoying his teachers with epic space battles drawn--during class--in the margins of his schoolwork. In high school and college he pursued classes in art and electronics, but found the display-less computers of the time utterly boring.
In 1982, he used his younger brother's need for computer access at home as an excuse to buy his first microcomputer--an Atari 800--and has been heavily involved with computing ever since. He started his own computer graphics firm in 1990 and took on San Francisco-based Mondo Media as one of his main clients. When he was free to relocate, Mondo offered him a full-time position, and he become one of their lead artists and project directors. He conceptualized, managed, and created graphics for many of the company's projects, including those for such clients as Microsoft, Sierra Semiconductor, and Compaq.
His writing career began with video game reviews he wrote for Tower Records' Pulse magazine. He later wrote a programming article that was published in Antic magazine in 1985. He became a regular columnist for Interactivity Magazine, writing mostly about 3D graphics.
After a few years of doing business-oriented multimedia, he went on to head up Mechadeus's first two CD-ROM games, Critical Path and The Daedalus Encounter (featuring Tia Carerre of Wayne's World fame). His responsibilities on Daedalus included design, co-writing the script, art direction, and editing. He also wrote The Official Guide to The Daedalus Encounter for BradyGAMES, which chronicles the project and provides hints and tips for completing the game. He went on to write 3D Graphics & Animation: From Starting Up to Standing Out, followed a few years later by 3D Graphics & Animation: Second Edition.
Later projects for Mondo Media included art direction of game cinematics for Mechwarrior 3, Under Cover, and Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire, as well as creating and art directing in-game assets for both Star Fleet Command releases. He also art directed Spiral, a Flash-based Mondo Mini Show with character designs by Toshihiro Kawamoto (Cowboy Bebop, Gundam, Golden Boy).
Currently, he is an independent contractor providing writing, 3D modeling, design, and animation services through his Binary Arts company. His most recent projects include working with Region Free to adapt Japanese manga and light novels into English for VIZ Media and as an Art Director for Gizmo6.
His favorite diversions include watching subtitled anime and playing PC games like World of Warcraft.
