Review: Getting Started with Unity 5 by Dr. Edward Lavieri

Getting Started with Unity 5 is mostly what it bills itself as: a way to get started in Unity for beginners. The book is clearly targeting beginners, and takes the reader from having never used Unity to making a simple farming-type game. I enjoyed reading it (in the whole 3 days it took to finish), however I’m not sure exactly how much I learned (if

Review: Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4 by William Sherif

Right here is a book with a clearly defined goal and an excellent execution. Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4 by William Sherif takes you on a journey from being a total blank in C++ to coding some basic features of a 3D game. Even though I have been coding in C++ for years, I still enjoy reading novice level texts as sometimes

Tutorial: How To Make a Cube Roll On A Grid in Unreal Engine 4

In this tutorial, I will show how to make a cube roll from side-to-side on a grid. This project took me around 3 days to complete, though much of that was wrapping my head around basic things in UE4. Some of the areas explored here include setting up key bindings and action mapping, setting and clearing timers, and rotating around an arbitrary point.

Review: 101 Autodesk Maya Tips by Dave Girard

This was a short book, so I’ll give it a short review. Basically, 101 Autodesk Maya Tips is exactly what it sounds like: a compilation of quick tips for using Autodesk Maya. Some of the tips are as brief as one sentence, but a few are more involved. It seemed like the majority of the content was based around Mel scripting, and various ways

Tutorial: How To Make a Textured Spinning Cube Using Unreal Engine 4

Today I will show how to create a textured spinning cube using Unreal Engine 4. Making a cube spin is basically what I consider the “litmus test” of 3D engines. How long it takes you to figure this out will show how convenient or capable the engine is. While I might have skipped this test (by jumping straight into creating Pong) I thought it was worthwhile

Review: Drawing Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting-Edge Art Techniques for Winning Video Game Design by Chris Solarski

I’ve been trying to get back into making art (I did go to art school, after all) and this seemed like a well reviewed book. Plus, the Kindle edition was very reasonably priced at $12. Drawing Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting-Edge Art Techniques for Winning Video Game Design by Chris Solarski is not a long book (at 240 pages) but it’s

Review: Getting Started in 3D with Maya: Create a Project from Start to Finish – Model, Texture, Rig, Animate, and Render in Maya by Adam Watkins

In what has to be one ridiculously long title for a pretty straight-forward book, Getting Started in 3D with Maya: Create a Project from Start to Finish – Model, Texture, Rig, Animate, and Render in Maya is actually not a bad place to start if you’re trying to get into 3D. Adam Watkins manages to pack all the crucial steps of 3D modeling and animation