A fun short story for your Spoopy Season enjoyment!

Expand your animation toolkit with foundational animation techniques, software expertise, professional best-practices, proven and time-tested work flows. Roland Hess, a leading Blender artist and instructor, expertly navigates you through Blender's character animation systems and controls, with a focus on each of the classical principles of animation like timing, anticipation, appeal, staging, exaggeration, squash and stretch and much more. Unique from other software titles, the Tradigital series offers a specific tool-set of practical instruction and foundational knowledge that all great animators will need to know. Expand your digital workflow to include the practical resources with the robust companion web site that include demonstrations, project files, links to further resources, available at www.tradigitalblender.com.

Blender has become one of the most popular 3D animation tools on the market because it is robust and absolutely free. Blender Production is the definitive resource for anyone who wants to create short animations from scratch. With this book, and Blender, you have the ideal platform to make it happen. Blender expert and author Roland Hess walks you through the entire process of creating a short animation including: writing, storyboarding, blocking, character creation, animation, rendering, and production. The associated web site includes the full Blender software kit and a complete short animation work broken down into handy modules that animators can study, learn from, and reuse in their own animated films. The sample project files amount to 100+ MB of cool content, including models, textures, materials, scenes and animation work.

I’m a nerd. A nerd for magic. But now I'm buff :P When the Praecants have decided that you're working for them or else, you don't have a lot of choice in the matter. It could be worse. I got beaten into way better shape, learned a lot about tracking and killing magical creatures, and finally made a genuine friend who shares my interest in magical technology. Of course, Babd is still running around spreading her own kind of adorable chaos. All of this stuff -- the other worlds, the proximity to magic, maybe even Babd herself -- is starting to get inside my head. And what's with all the magical creatures that have started popping up? I’m still a nerd at heart, but things are changing... Follow Lincoln, Babd, Fox, Gwen, and some new friends as they try to secure a summit of the world's most powerful Praecants, in Pittsburgh of course. None of them trust each other, so holding it in a place where magic barely works is the only way to get them all in the same room. Will Lincoln stop being so nerdy? Will Fox find a sentient holster and settle down? Will Babd ever eat her kibble?! Download it now! Warnings: language and violence Q&A with the Author LFBD had a strong set of themes. What are the themes for "A Walk In The Park..."? LFBD's over-riding theme was the cycle of "behavior drives biology drives behavior," and I crafted a lot of the arcs to specifically show how that cycle can lead one in different directions, both good and bad. "Walk" takes on something a little bit -- but not entirely -- different, which is what happens when our own psychology and minds collide with and are influenced by those of others around us. And what if those around us aren't merely humans, but magic users, creatures from different planes of existence, and even demigods? I guess the full theme is "How we defend the Self against the influences the Other, and maybe we don't always want to." It's not nearly as succinct as LFBD, but it worked. This book has a lot more magical creatures. How did you come up with them? Well, there's a part of the book where Gwen is telling Lincoln that he's become a "[monster] hunter," and she uses a very specific word instead of "monster". I thought it would be fun to take creatures from that other well known mythology as the descriptive basis for the morphs in "Walk." They aren't actually that, but it was certainly the inspiration. You'll have to get to that part of the book to see exactly what I'm talking about. Some parts of "Walk" touch on the Holocaust. That's a sensitive topic. How did you handle it? From the time I had the idea of how that was going to weave into the story, I wanted to make sure that it did so in a respectful manner. I specifically included some friends from the Jewish community with family ties to that awful point in history in the beta reading group, and asked for their frank feedback. I was prepared to cut or alter the manuscript if it hit them with any level of offense. I'm glad to say that it did not, so that part of the story stayed intact. How do you keep the longer-running action sequences clear and coherent? For the big "set pieces" I usually have a vague idea of how they should flow. To get the details, I drag out action figures and stuffed animals, and then "play" the sequence out physically. Things occur to you when you do it that way that I find hard to hold entirely in my head. It's like "Oh, this person has no idea that other person is there -- how would that change their reaction?" I feel like it lends physical grounding to the scenes, because they are physically grounded. It's solid in my head, and that comes through in the prose. I would still like to buy a Babd. Babd is still not for sale.

Blender Foundations is the definitive resource for getting started with 3D art in Blender, one of the most popular 3D/Animation tools on the market . With the expert insight and experience of Roland Hess, noted Blender expert and author, animators and artists will learn the basics starting with the revised 2.6 interface, modeling tools, sculpting, lighting and materials through rendering, compositing and video editing. Some of the new features covered include the completely re-thought interface, the character animation and keying system, and the smoke simulator. More than just a tutorial guide, "Blender Foundations" covers the philosophy behind this ingenious software that so many 3D artists are turning to today. Start working today with Blender with the accompanying web site which includes all of the projects and support files alongside videos, step-by-step screenshots of the trickier tutorials, as well as a direct links to official resources like the Blender download site and artist forums.

Blender is a free software animation tool with 2 million + users. This book covers animating with Blender and comes to us directly from the Blender Foundation's Roland Hess, noted Blender expert and author.

Blender Foundations is the definitive resource for getting started with 3D art in Blender, one of the most popular 3D/Animation tolls on the market. With the expert insight and experience of Alan Thorn and Roland Hess, animators and artists will learn the basics starting with the revised 2.7x interface, featuring modeling tools, sculpting, lighting and materials throughout the animation pipeline from rendering to video editing.

More than just a tutorial guide, "Blender Foundations" covers the philosophy behind this ingenious software that so many 3D artists are turning to today. The book offers techniques and tools for the complete Blender workflow, demonstrating a real-world project from start to finish.

We had so much fun writing spooky stories and poems last year that we decided to do it again! In case you weren’t here for the last installment (check out Mini-Spoop 2018!), you should know that some of these are stories, some are poems, some are whimsical, and some are… not. Here’s hoping that one of these pieces gives you a good spook. Read as much or as little as you like - whatever the case, you'll get your money's worth! Content warnings: language, spoopiness