graphics and multimedia

I was reading the January issue of Yahoo Internet Life magazine and saw that www.sva.edu/mfacad was chosen as one of the "Top 100 Web Sites of 2002" for Best Original Web Art. I was quite surprised that a graduate school department site was chosen over sites like Rhizome, the Whitney, San Franciso MoMA and other high profile Net Art sites. I visited the site and saw that the students did great work and had won over 60 other awards, including the 2001 Leonardo Award of Excellence, the Smithsonian American Art Museum's New Media/New Century Award, Prix Ars Electronica, Sundance Online Festival, SIGGRAPH and others. I saw that Bruce Wands was chair of the department and I bought his book. I found the book to be excellent, easy to read and very helpful on the creative side of new media production. The chapter on creativity was worth the price of the book alone. The book is now required reading in my graduate and undergraduate digital art classes. The interviews are with top people in the field (including Isaac Kerlow) and are really interesting, giving added dimension to Mr. Wands' writing. The book also has an excellent annotated bibliography for those interested in exploring the chapter subjects in depth. I also own the Pocock/Rosebush book and the Kerlow book. Both are highly technical books that are only about computer animation and do not have the breadth or the wealth of practical information the Wands book has. Based on Mr. Wands' superb track record with his students, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more creative and develop quality new media content.

Test group rated this book very low: Primary Text = 1, Reference Text = 0, Companion Text = 2.

We conducted a review of seven recent books on digital media for a large university here in Michigan. The criteria was to review each book as a possible text, reference or companion for pre-college and introductory college classes. We assembled a group of college and high school teachers as well as separate group of students.

The panel of students responded very negatively to this book. Their expressed concerns were about the lack of structure and that it did not have enough ÒtechnicalÓ information. They did not find the personality sidebars interesting or relevant. Other students found the tone of the book "condescending." It received the lowest scores of all the books reviewed.

Some of the teachers were more positive but their assessment of this book as a primary text was very low because it Òdoes not present facts or techniques in a way that allows the teacher to either assign specific reading assignments or to test students on the information.Ó Other teachers expressed concern that much of the technical information was not accurate or that it was too vague and not clearly presented. This book was not considered adequate to be a primary text in high school or college.

On the other hand, the teachers that were relatively new to digital technologies were slightly more positive, finding the book "light and a easy to read." This group found the sidebars more interesting because they related to the questions about making the "transition to the digital relm." A subject that the students found to be "dated and boring."

Our two highest rated books by both groups were far more technical and advanced; the Rosebush/Pocock ÔHandbookÕ and the second edition of KerlowÕs ÔThe Art of 3D Computer Animation.Õ In both instances the perceived value was the blend of scholarship and technical clarity. Students found both books relevant to their concerns and teachers were impressed by the presentation and excellent writing. These are two very valuable books that will be relevant resourses for many years.

This book gives a good amount of general information about the computer graphics field to the novice. It introduces concepts and explains job functions in a variety of ways. It is not meant for advanced users, and is certainly not a software manual. It allows a new student to find many important explanations (such as the difference between shaders and maps) in an easy to read format. Despite all the negative reviews here (some being personal attacks) I think the author did a good job.