The Lost Art of the Great Speech: How to Write One--How to Deliver It

It's not all in the delivery. Here's expert guidance on how to write a dynamic speech. Splashy slides, confident body language, and a lot of eye contact are fine and well. But if a speech is rambling, illogical, or just plain boring, the impact will be lost.

Now everyone can learn to give powerful, on-target speeches that capture an audience's attention and drive home a message. The key is not just in the delivery techniques, but in tapping into the power of language.

Prepared by an award-winning writer, this authoritative speech-writing guide covers every essential element of a great speech, including outlining and organizing, beginning with a bang, making use of action verbs and vivid nouns, and handling questions from the audience. Plus, the book includes excerpts from some of history's most memorable speeches--eloquent words to contemplate and emulate.

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3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using Photoshop

The cover is slightly misleading, in that it implies you can go from a sketch to finished art, which the book isn't about. There is a disclaimer on page XIII about that. This book isn't a complete how to create 3D art, many things lighting, render / game engine, post effects, control the final image and this book doesn't cover any of those subjects.

On the other hand he does 'demystify' the process of creating texures by showing how complex textures can be built up by combining photos, Epaint & procedurals. Even an advanced artist should be able to pick up some tips if they approch the book with an open mind
I'm in the process of reviewing 2D texture creation books for 3D programs, specifically Second Life's platform, and this book is by far the best I've found out there so far.

The tutorials concentrate on developing textures from scratch, along a detailed workflow like you would set up on a typical project, and the final quality of the textures created is top notch professional grade.

While other books seem to lack in quality, concentrate too much on one specific app for the final textures, or throw in way too much concept and not enough practicality, this book strikes a perfect balance between concept and execution. The book is intelligent without being overabsorbed, and is full of fantastic information. A great read and an invaluable reference book alike. Pick this one up!

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