I have just started teaching the new Escape Studios' Games Course and thought I would share some book links and internet links that I give to my students at the start of the course. Here we go then...

Some good games related sites

• http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
• http://www.game-artist.net/forums/
• http://www.gametrailers.com/
• http://www.gamasutra.com/
• http://www.gamespy.com/network/
• http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=11&Itemid=51
• http://www.computerandvideogames.com/
• http://polycount.com/

Quick research sites / art/ architectural styles / image referance

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_periods
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_style
• http://www.flickr.com
• http://www.pbase.com/

Set design: a personal favourite of mine

• http://www.artdirectors.org/
• http://www.wiki.artdirectors.org
• http://www.artdirectors.org/?art=perspective_magazine
• http://www.artdirectors.org/sites/art/information/Perspective_2009_Apr_May.pdf
• http://www.artdirectors.org/?content=cm&section=28

Some good books on CG and cinematic design

• Digital Lighting and Rendering
• ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting
• Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting
• The Animator's Survival Kit: A Working Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Computer, Stop-motion, Games and Classical Animators
• Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen
• The Art and Science of Digital Compositing: Techniques for Visual Effects, Animation and Motion Graphics (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics)
• The HDRI Handbook: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers and CG Artists +DVD
• Cinematography (Screencraft)
• Production Design and Art Direction (Screencraft)
• Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right
• Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking

General 3d websites

• http://www.cgsociety.org/
• http://www.cgchannel.com/
• http://area.autodesk.com/
• http://www.highend3d.com/
• http://www.cgarchitect.com/
• http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/
• http://www.awn.com

Textures

• http://www.cgtextures.com/

Games exporters and middleware Unreal

• http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ActorX.html
• http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UT3ModHome.html

Crysis exporter

• http://seithcg.com/wordpress/?page_id=57

Middleware

• http://www.gamemiddleware.org/middleware/index.html

Hopefully you will find some of these links useful, my next blog will be either about digital set design or the importance of traditional arts - haven't made my mind up yet.. Stay tuned!