Realtime 3D Character Animation with Visual C++

Description

Do you have some experience and a reasonable knowledge of C++ and want to write your own computer games? Have you ever looked at a PC or Playstation (R) game with characters running and leaping through an exciting landscape and wondered how it was done? If so then this book will give you all the information you need to achieve this goal, whether you are a hobby programmer, student or even a professional wanting to add that third dimension to your website.

Nik Lever takes you through the journey from the basics of 3D manipulation all the way to morph objects and sub-division surfaces. On the way you get Visual C++ project files to study and software that runs on the Windows desktop. The free CD-ROM gives you a full-featured development environment for 3D character animation, so even if you find some of the maths and the code hard to follow straight away you can still create your own games. The game engine (Toon3DCreator) provided free and fully functional on the CD-ROM, even has an ActiveX control that allows you to distribute your work on the Internet. All source code for Toon3D is included on the CD. You will also get an insight into the artist's problems; learn how to keep the characters interesting while not exhausting the game engine.

Understand the complete picture and make the most of your skills to help you succeed in, or break into the computer gaming industry with this comprehensive guide to programming for real-time 3D character animation.

* Learn how to create and program real-time 3D character animation using the Visual C++ source code on the free CD-ROM
* Get up to speed with compression, vital for distribution of your games across the Internet
* Improve your most marketable skills - see how you can import data from LightWave 3D and 3D Studio Max

FEATURES:

* Learn how to create and program real-time 3D character animation using the Visual C++ source code on the free CD-ROM
* Apply your skills to create your own interactive games
* Get up to speed with compression, vital for distribution of your games across the Internet

CONTENTS:

Introduction; 3D Basics; Drawing Points and Polygons the hard way; Drawing Points and Polygons the easy way with OpenGL; OpenGL lighting; Creating low polygon characters; Texture mapping; Setting up a single mesh character; Key frame animation; Inverse kinematics; Importing geometry and animation from Lightwave 3D; Importing geometry and animation from 3DS Max; Motion capture techniques; Collision detection; Using morph objects; Using sub division surfaces; Using multi resolution meshes; The scene graph; Wed3D, compression and streaming. Appendix A - Using Toon3D Creator; Appendix B - MFC Document view architecture; Appendix C - Further information. Free CD-ROM.