Introduces the concepts behind creating MPEG-4 scenes, converting a scene graph to the binary format, and animating scenes. Written for professional programmers, the guide explains 2D mesh animation, 3D mesh coding, file compression, the face and body animation tools, and the extensible MPEG-4 textual format (XMT). Audio is covered in the companion book, More MPEG-4 jump-start . Both of the authors have served on MPEG committees. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)