Animation Books

I've only read the first chapter or two, and I'm chompin' at the bit to write this review. I know, that sounds like it's "pretty early in the game here" to write a review on a book, but I think I already see a really good pattern here. I know the basics of Premier Pro 1.5, and have already done several fairly complicated edits with it using multiple audio tracks, multiple video tracks, and so on, but let me tell you, I know I was only scratching the surface, in a sense of this great video editing program.
I recently lost the original manual that came with the program, and figured I needed "something" to back me up in case they quit making the work manuals, so I found Rosenberg's book on Amazon, and read all the reviews on it. I was thoroughly convinced that this guy "has the goods" on Adobe Premier, so I orderd the book. I love the fact that he gives you the DVD with the book that has him discribing some of the more complicated edits visually. That's a real plus, and just the way the guy writes and handles this stuff "get's my blood pumping" (in a good way). He's very detail oriented, but he also gives you practical reasons "why" a certain button is there and/or what it "really" does, so you can understand what's really going on. I can almost "feel" his experience in the way he writes and what he says- (for instance), where he goes into detail how several of the keyboard letters can really help you, time wise, scrubbing through the clips in a seemingly more efficient way than if you "only" used the radial buttons. I know that might be up for debate, because some people aren't "keyboard editing people", like me, but I'll sure give it a shot. He seems to talk to you in a very real, "hands on" kind of way that is so important to me. It can make some things, so much easier to grasp that way. Marc Trainor.

This book is fabulous for just learning how to operate Adobe Premiere.

Whether its the basics you seek or the advanced "insider" tips you need, this is the manual for you. Although Premiere Pro is much different than 6.5 and previous versions, you will soon find that using it will become second nature. This is the best book for Pro users on the market.

Three stars for "user friendly" and five stars for content. The information is quite detailed but needs a lot of interpretation and rereading to understand. The text doesn't always follow your project and one needs to go to the "Help" menu, often. However, if one preservers, the instructions will allow you to use the Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 program to its fullest potential.

great book but now behind the times, wish i'd of waited a bit longer till the release of 2.0 and the subsequent book; however, I believe everything covered in this book carries over to the new version of premiere pro.

This is a wonderful book. I will treasure it for the rest of my life. I am a graphic designer and really appreciate his way of simplifying the most complex things in nature. Charley Harper was one of a kind.

Endless inspiration. This is the work of a true genius. The colors, the presentation, fabulous. The only problem is that the book is so large and wide it's hard to turn the pages. Still I look thru it on a weekly basis.

Finding Charlie Harper was the first delight. Who is this great
unknown artist? He is from the midwest, and well loved by those
who have had the early pleasure of meeting him. This complete
works of Charlie Harper reveals a keen aesthetic sharpened by
a lifetime of working a reduced design aesthetic with fascinating
overlapping rotations. They employ the observations of a biologist
selecting from the beauty of the natural world, then lovingly exploiting
it for design.

The book includes EVERYTHING he did, which is perhaps a flaw, but given
his importance, it is also a joy. The amazing works one wishes to remove
and set into their own collection, or frame and live with thinking along
with Harper how he got there.

I gave this book to my husband for his birthday when I had to ackowledge that I would not find a decent copy of Harper's book on biology that Todd Oldham had when he was a child. This is a more than adequate substitute, since it covers so much more of Harper's career. Here in Cincinnati, his hometown, we all love him. This book is a wonderful retrospective of his life's work. Now all I need to do is find a spot big enough to keep it in!

I saw a feature of this book on The Sunday Morning Show (CBS) and just had to have it! It is so bright and beautiful with a wonderful biography of Charley Harper to go along with his wonderful artwork. How wonderful that Charley got to view a wonderful book chock full of his work before his death. Kudos to Todd Oldham for honoring such a fun/fine artist. Be warned, this is a LARGE book and is deserving of a big coffee table or a place of honor.

I bought this book a number of years ago, when I was struggling with creating effective animations, and Actionscript really intimidated me. Right now I'm enjoying a productive career doing professional Flash work, and I wouldn't be as proficient at Flash if it weren't for this book.

I'm the kind of person who likes to develop my own skills and techniques instead of 'formulaically' imposing someone else's techniques into my work. This book is perfect! It doesn't waste any time on 'How to draw a circle!', and gets straight to teaching the critical foundation skills of making good Flash. Don't worry though, it isn't one of those 'Bibles', but at the same time it isn't about creating one big project through the course of the book.
In my opinion, this book is the perfect balance between reference and teaching. It gives you the solid skills and techniques on how to lay down advanced flash, which fully eliminates the mystery of things, so you can then expand on these techniques with your own innovation.

What's best, I keep coming back to -this- one book, even in these days of Studio MX 2004 Pro, for an effective reference manual. At the time of writing this review, I'm working on an interactive skeletal system for my animations, and paged to the section on angles and math to help me create proper rotating limbs.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to become a Flash master!

After being intrigued by Macromedia Flash and learning as much as possible via internet and the included tutorials, I felt I had a pretty good grasp of Flash. Still eager to learn more, I found this book and I must say that I couldn't have made a better choice. It was exactly what I needed to get to the next level, and the way the concepts were presented couldn't have been done in a more pleasing way. On a scale of 1 to 10 on Flash advancement, I'd say I went from a 4 to a 7.5. This is a definate keeper.

This is a great book for those who want advanced flash techniques and skills. I'd buy both the beginner flash book and this one together. When you are done with this book, you'll know the in's and out's of flash and be able to put your flash movies to useful work. This book focuses on the action scripts and advanced movies. I would highly recommend this book.

Too much to say, but this writing helps you incorporate Quicktime, 3d, actionscript, and many other aspects of flash. It's a great book which covers many topics briefly. You get a book like this to see what it interests you most about software, and buy more specific, in-depth books to follow up. It's also a great reference.

This book covers the various areas of creating key flash elements for your web pages that require actionscript. A great book for anyone who is trying to learn some of the more advanced features of Flash 5.

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This amazing book is right set for those who wich to strengthen their intermediate knowledge with MAX. Beware, nevertheless for the beginners.

I advise to U all a more friendly reading before U get trough this book. You'll see that all becomes much more easy after that!

"Harnessing 3D Studio MAX 3.0" by Michele Bousquet seems to me like a good bet. Although it's very hard to find here in Portugal.

It's a little bit expensive, but if U count the time U spare, it's worthy!

Returning to "MAX R3 in Depth".

The author takes us a little bit further in making us think harder, and that's good! ((: But the knowledge he passes through, due to his experience, is very good and stays in our minds!

It's only a little bit difficult to assimilate if U don't have a solid background!

Having this book in our shelves is really a "must"! Good reading! ((:

Information...: 5; Exposition...: 5; Comprehension...: 4; Price...: 5. [Evaluation...: 5]

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Este formidável livro, está mesmo à medida daqueles que procuram solidificar os seus conhecimentos a nível intermédio com o MAX.

Cautela, no entanto para os iniciados nestas lides.

Aconselho a todos vós uma leitura mais amena, de carácter introdutório, antes de passarem para este livro.

Verão que depois, tudo se torna muito mais fácil!

Para isso, parece-me mais adequado o livro " Harnessing 3D Studio Max 3.0 " de Michele Bousquet.

Um pouco difícil de se arranjar nas livrarias aqui em Portugal.

Já para não falar que é um pouco caro, mas se contabilizarmos o tempo que nos irá poupar, até que vale a pena!

Voltando ao 'MAX R3 in depth'.

O autor leva-nos a pensar um bocadinho, o que acho bastante bom! ((:

Mas o saber e os conhecimentos que ele nos passa, dada a sua experiência, são realmente muito bons e ficam na memória!

Só que leva um pouco mais de tempo a assimilar!

É um 'must' ter este livro na nossa prateleira! ((:

Boa leitura! ((:

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I'm new to 3D max and dont really plan on making money useing it, so I decided to try used books on Max and save a few $ and just learn to enjoy the world of 3D for my own use, I must say that the 3 used books I bought were completely new and appeared un-used, as well as the CD's un-opened or used. Also surpisingly that all 3 arrived within 4 working days of ordering, during xmas no less......hats off to all involved, you seem to have your act together. My advice to novices like myself, try the used books and save a chunk of change, you wont be disappointed.

Ok guys if you don't enjoy reading THAT much then just forget about this book. This book is good for learning but I am falling asleep reading it. It is hard to understand and following through the head making excercise was a huge pain in the ..... for me. If you enjoy reading and you want to learn 3D STUDIO MAX this is for you If you want to learn the program but you don't like to read that much then find a simpler book because this one is hard to read :(

I am a 3D amateur and had been dabbling with 3D Studio since R4 for DOS. This is obviously not an intuitive product to the amateur, so trying to learn it alone will never really get you far. I realised this and meant to buy a book to help me through for a long time. Until I did, I got a vague grasp on many of the fundamental concepts 3D Studio uses and could do some crude modeling & animations. I finally decided to buy a book and this was it. After years of guesswork I found this book beautifully unravelling the concepts to me and making all the pieces of the puzzle come together, finally making sense, while discovering lots of new features I never knew were there.

I am not an artist, nor a 3D expert, but this book has helped me make sense of 3D Studio Max because its writing is very understandable and the author goes a long way to helping the complete beginner understand the product's deep concepts with many dedicated sections, such as the coordinate systems, the modifier stack and the cloning options (copy/instance/reference) to name a few. I can't help thinking that these are subtle areas that other references may easily tend to overlook.

The book is filled with step by step examples that demonstrate the concepts covered and provide a rich hands-on experience with Max as you learn. The author makes a good point about the many ways to get the same job done and hilights many of the smart shortcuts you can use to save time on the way, which can only be otherwise learnt by experience.

I have been reading this book to get a feel for the fundamentals but I have frequently referred to individual chapters for detailed information on a feature I might be trying to use, in which case the book was quick to make things clear and allow me to move on with my work and get the expected results.

The book is separated into 6 parts as follows:

1. 3D Studio Max - The Big Picture

2. Working in Max

3. Modeling (includes NURBS)

4. Materials & Textures

5. Lights, Camera, Render!

6. Animation

The book is very easy to follow, clearly written, covers all important aspects a beginner could wish to learn and has so far never let me down in my quest for 3D Studio Max knowledge and experience. Overall I would consider this a book for beginners to intermediate users and an ideal match for my own case as a long time dabbler with a need to understand the product that could never be achieved without a friendly and insightful guide as this. The author himself targets the book at:

- Beginners with 3D Applications in general (hence the emphasis on backgrounders)

- Experienced users of 3D Studio Max in search of a stronger background

- People looking for a stronger reference than the product documentation

I give it 5 stars for its broad coverage (it doesn't focus mainly on modeling or animation for example), depth of content (I didn't find any section too shallow), easy reading and the multitude of backgrounders and examples. I won't be interested in another Max book until I'm a comfortably proficient 3D artist.

This book is one of the few Action Script books that specifically covers Flash Communication Server. Using this book I was able to build a chat server as well as a flash movie that could connect to it and have many clients interact with each other.

Good Book!

this is a great book but it will not work with macromedia mx 2004 unless you set the export setting to flash player 6.

I got this notice from the author himself.

mx 2004 cookbook should be comming out in september 2005

~mark

The Actionscript Cookbook is an extremely useful resource for aspiring and veteran designers. I've been designing/developing since Flash 4 and I still found this book very insightful and full of great hints and explanations.

A decent book for beginners but better for intermediate to advanced developers and designers. I'd recommend Colin Mook's Actionscript for Flash MX (also by O'Reily) which explores more fundamental concepts in Actionscripting 1 which are still pertinent in many cases to AS2.

I appreciated the code examples, although admittedly I think I did remember finding a few errors, however the errors were on the nitpicking typo level and I usually found after getting annoyed thatI hadn't written the code correctly.

Their example on Storing Persistent Shared Local Objects (flash cookies) was particularly useful.

Well organized and clear (and no, I'm not affliated with O'Reilly, lol)

I hate to write a bad review. I really do. But here's the deal: if you're just starting out with ActionScript, and you type in some of the examples in the book (several, actually) they will not work.

This is frustrating beyond belief.

I'm using FMX 2004 Pro, and every other example of code that I've tried to use just flat out will not work.

Sorry.

Get this book. That's really all that needs to be said. I'm a java guy learning flash, and what works best for me is a collection of practical (and useable in the real world) applications. That's exactly what this book is. And it's not the same thing you read in almost every programming book: 'this is a loop, this is a variable, this is a method...'. Useless stuff you have to wade thru to get to the meat. (...). I'm on MX 2004, and the book is for MX. (...) I can't wait for the next addition!!!

This biology book has great practical concepts and provides detailed descriptions of biological processes. This book is ideal for a college level introductory course for Biology. Easy to read, the format of the concepts are easy to follow.

This was my into to bio, and it is the best. I actually understood it ^.-!

Good illustrations, a very good book.

My teacher was great, which made all the difference.

Well, you either need it for your class or not.

I do like this book though b/c the pictures in this one are alot more descriptive of what you're reading then most of my other text books. Plus, the reviews in the back of each chapter actually make you think as opposed to just copying definitions for regurgitation of facts later.

Excellent service and perfect condition, bought brand new. Will buy again and again...

This is a great text for anyone taking an introductory college-level biology course. The writing style is simple and easy to understand, unlike many other science textbooks. Despite being very easy to read, it contains a good amount of information.

Does it have pics of every pokemon from the show? Even Vaporeon? My email address is csellios@ifriendly.com

It contians all you need to Know about pokemon including map pokedex. THE WORKS

dont listen to GAY@EARTHLINK.COM!!! he's illiterate!!! that's why he told everyone not to read it; because he can't!!! the book was so PHAT!!!

I love pokemon and this book is perfect for pokemon lovers

it's not out yet, but you should preorder it. i've seen a prerelease copy from the publisher, and it's a complete guide to the tv show. it goes FAR beond the curent episodes, and gives good insight on all the episodes.

Not to be confused with the usual "Disney" kiddie books,
this beauty is chock full of beautiful artwork that deserves
a place in your living room .. A+

This is a book we're proud to own. Jeff Kurtti is to be congratulated on bringing together the art and history of the making of a Disney,s masterpiece, MULAN. Beautifully printed on quality paper. To turn the page is to uncover a treasure! I am sure Disney,s films were never been so wonderfully showed in a book.Unfortunately, the price makes the book an expensive tool for many young people beginning a career.A book like this deserves to be read and enjoyed by everyone. But even with that one criticism, this book is a MUST HAVE.

Serious students of Disney animation will not be disappointed by "The Art of Mulan". This book has many fine pictures of original art of various types used to make the film - from concept pictures to storyboards to close to the final product. I enjoy all of the "Art of ..." books, despite the high price, so I can try my hand at drawing and painting some material similar to the Disney animators. However, the text goes into more detail about their journey in China, rather than the real "making of" type text I expect. That was the only thing that kept me from giving this book five stars. Art students would love this for a gift...

I have long studied, followed, and enjoyed Disney animation, and the film "Mulan" certainly did not disappoint me. So, when I set out to buy this book upon its initial publishing, I was fairly certain I would like it. I was wrong, I loved it!

Jeff Kurtti does an excellent job scribing the background for the making of this feature, and he has quickly established himself as the preeminent writer for Disney books of this nature. I was fortunate to meet and speak with Mr. Kurtti during my wonderful participation at the Mulan Animation Experience held at the Disney Insitute in the summer of 1998, and he comes off as an "ultimate Disney fan". His writing conveys this as well, but in a more polished, informative nature. He really had a good time researching this book, and it shows!

But, with all due respect to Mr. Kurtti, this book isn't called the "Art of Mulan" for nothing. The typical Disney quality is abundant in every frame of artwork within the book, and the sheer volume of development and concept sketches is a real treat. Having also met the film's directors, many of the animators, storyboard artists, etc. at the '98 event (put together, by the way, by Mr. Larry Lauria, a quality individual in the animation industry) I have had the luxury of being exposed to many of the background elements during the development of this film. This book, however, served as a wonderful companion piece to that experience, and also communicates much of the same information and emotion felt at that event. It is that thorough and the result of another top-notch Hyperion production.

Certainly, if you like the movie and/or appreciate Disney animation (or the growing library of "Art of..." books), then this one should be in your collection. Mr. Kurtti, Disney, and Hyperion have "done honour to us all".

I have long studied, followed, and enjoyed Disney animation, and the film "Mulan" certainly did not disappoint me. So, when I set out to buy this book upon its initial publishing, I was fairly certain I would like it. I was wrong, I loved it!

Jeff Kurtti does an excellent job scribing the background for the making of this feature, and he has quickly established himself as the preeminent writer for Disney books of this nature. I was fortunate to meet and speak with Mr. Kurtti during my wonderful participation at the Mulan Animation Experience held at the Disney Insitute in the summer of 1998, and he comes off as an "ultimate Disney fan". His writing conveys this as well, but in a more polished, informative nature. He really had a good time researching this book, and it shows!

But, with all due respect to Mr. Kurtti, this book isn't called the "Art of Mulan" for nothing. The typical Disney quality is abundant in every frame of artwork within the book, and the sheer volume of development and concept sketches is a real treat. Having also met the film's directors, many of the animators, storyboard artists, etc. at the '98 event (put together, by the way, by Mr. Larry Lauria, a quality individual in the animation industry) I have had the luxury of being exposed to many of the background elements during the development of this film. This book, however, served as a wonderful companion piece to that experience, and also communicates much of the same information and emotion felt at that event. It is that thorough and the result of another top-notch Hyperion production.

Certainly, if you like the movie and/or appreciate Disney animation (or the growing library of "Art of..." books), then this one should be in your collection. Mr. Kurtti, Disney, and Hyperion have "done honour to us all".

Everything about this book is amateurish. You can tell from the models that she uses as examples that she doesn't really know how to use the program, really what is a "Starlight Receiver"? The example movies on the DVD are in black and white with no sound. Unbelievable. Don't believe the hype this book is garbage.

I firmly believe this is the best book your money can buy for Cinema 4d. It is visually stunning and informative, not to mention well written. I own both editions now and would not trade them for anything!

I'm really disapointed by this book. Was expecting a lot more after reading all those good reviews... This is only a step by step tutorials book. The author doesnt explain that much anything related to cinema 4D... I don't understand exactly what I am doing. The book is starting with those tutorials without at least explaining the basic of this software and the interface... I need first to understand the interface before being able to do anything else with this software and this is not the book that will help me out for sure... It's not by telling me to put a value somewhere in the attributes that I will actually understand WHY to put this value there...

:(

This is the book I wish I had when starting out in 3D. It doesnt barage you with technical descriptions of 3D app features but teaches by going in and making stuff. The quality of the models made and the layout of the book is beautiful, you would not mind having this book on the coffee table for friends to look at. And kudos go to the publisher for printing this book on durable high quality paper, strong binding and with full color photos. So many graphics books nowadays will rip you off with B&W pics on cheap paper. Why is it you can by a $7 magazine (ie National Geographic) with high quality color pics, good paper and strong binding, but not a $30 graphics book?

This is a funny book, written with the newcomer to C4D in mind, full of tutorials about practically every aspect of the vast 3D weaponry wich C4D puts at your disposition. All the examples and tutorials are accompanied with files (contained in a DVD) to put the lessons in practice. The artistic soul of the book is very important, it asks to the reader/practitioner to be creative with the program, but it covers the technical aspects of this complex piece of software also.
Anne Powers, the author, is an artist above all, and the book, printed in full color, has tons of examples of her talented work. I have to make a special mention to the chapter dedicated to the complex task of human head modelling, wich Powers accomplish well and with artistic style.
Not a book about photoreal modelling/rendering, nevertheless. But Powers claims that enough 3D literature is about that these days, and I agree. So is the artistic creative proccess the aspect wich prevails in this book.
The book is based upon the C4D 10 release, and has one chapter dedicated to the MoGraph module. It also covers BodyPaint.
Very fun to read/practice and highly recommended!

The guy that does this book is phenomenal. It takes true talent to be able to simplify concepts in Flash to the point where they are finally understandable, especially for non-programmers such as myself. I highly recommend this book (and the learning DVD if you can swing it) to those who want to delve into the advanced stuff inside of Flash.

Shane Rebenschied's Macromedia Flash MX 2004: Beyond the Basics Hands-On-Training (BTB:HOT) is the second book in a small series on teaching would-be developers how to effectively use Macromedia Flash in their web projects.

BTB:HOT is very well written. The author uses very clear instructions and appropriate graphics(screenshots) to illustrate the points being made. It is a very easy read, especially if you are weary of computer programming style books. The HOT series is written as if the instructor is standing beside you and telling you what you need to do.

This books was definitely written for the layman. This book was not written for someone who is looking to take Flash to the next level of professionalism. The book is very short (almost too short), and really doesn't include very much discussion about the possibilities that can happen with a particular project.

After reading this book and working through the examples, I determined that there really isn't anything new in this book that a seasoned web developer couldn't figure out after reading the first book in the series.

To finish, very good book, but just for novices.

This book is perfect for the transformation from beginning to intermediate. The tutorials are incredibly thorough plus it guides you through making a whole web site with the most practical functions. I highly recommend this book. I wish they would make more!

This is the first book on Flash and this is the first time I am learning Flash MX2004 Pro. So far I have gone through almost a half of the book and I am very pleased with how this book is structured and its CD which contains the project files as I am learning this program with this book. For any beginner, I feel this book will help get you started on learning and using Flash MX2004. I purchased this book's sister edition "Beyound the Basics" so that I can go one step further after I complete this book.

Basically, this is a good book to get you from the initial HOT book on Flash to the more advanced tutorials found on the Macromedia Exchange site. The introduction to LoadVars and LoadMovieClip alone are worth the price of the book.

My only complaint, if you can call it that, would be that if you are coming from a programmer's background, you will skim A LOT of pages. You've got to hand it to the author in how he really takes his time introducing programming to the neophytes, but I found myself actually reading only 1 page out of every 3-6.

If you already know how to program in any language, you could probably find the tutorials online to get by without this book, but the expenditure in time probably wouldn't be worth the price of the book.