Amazon.com Review
Visual Special Effects Toolkit in C++ isn't an in-depth guide to C++ but rather an introduction to creating special effects on your PC using C++, mathematics, and VRML. The author, Tim Wittenburg, assumes that you already know C++ very well but aren't well-acquainted with graphics technology. The book starts off with a discussion of CGI, or computer graphics imagery, the generalized term for computer graphics. Wittenburg provides a high-level discussion of sophisticated graphics that includes descriptions of the work behind many TV commercials and movies. He explains the production of a Halloween episode of the TV show The Simpsons in which Bart and Homer appeared in another and decidedly 3D dimension. He also shows how studios produce animations using a maquette, or puppet, of the human figure using 3D modeling software and then converting the digitizations into a video. These pages provide an interesting glimpse into studio production of visual effects, a world that many of us only see as a final and somewhat mysterious product. Wittenburg then teaches you how to produce equally stunning effects on your PC. To step through the projects in the book, you must create your project files in Image Compositing Toolkit (ICT), a 32-bit, extensible software application written in C++, which is on the CD included with the book. ICT lets you create images combining several individual ones. Wittenburg discusses the technology behind creating composite images, explaining alpha-blending, alpha-channels, Z-buffering, and color adjustment. Then he explains how to design animations, use texture-mapping procedures, and create blue-screen and 2D and 3D morphing effects in C++ and ICT. Finally, he provides an introduction to VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language). Appendices, which comprise almost a third of the book, include a mathematics reference, a guide to using ICT and its class libraries, C++ source code (also on the included CD), and a glossary.
From the Publisher
This book shows how to create and develop highly involved graphics and special effects via computer. It covers the fundamental computer processes that are used in the creation of animation and special effects, addressing such topics as image compositing, texture mapping, aliasing, ant-aliasing, 3D graphics, and more. CD-ROM includes C++ code for all of the functions/tools described in the book as well as the Image Compositor's Toolkit.
