Animation Books

Great book for learning some basic after effects studio techniques. The instructions are easy to follow and the manual flows with the software.

This book is everything I had expected it to be. Not a tutorial book, but more a reference tool. Get in a jam, look it up and you will get ideas on how to get out, or workarounds.

This book is good for people that know how to use After Effects already. It's a good book though full of illustrations and tips but lacks tutorials which would enrich the book a little more...If you are looking for a book to start using After Effects the best book is Adobe After Effects 7 Hands-On Training from Chad Fahs with Lynda Weinman. You read that book and you learn everything needed to work with After Effets 7, Full of tutorials, hi quality paper, color print, and tips all over the book. Simply amazing!

This updated edition improves on the 6.5 book in a number of ways. First, you have tutorials to practice the concepts. AE7 added new features that Mark makes sense of, namely 32 bit float. And he expands on topics and details. I literally compared 6.5 to 7, page by page. Though I owned 6.5, it's worth it to get this update, if for the tutorials alone.

This said, no one else has made easier sense of visual effects compositing. No one. All the other books are really directed at Shake. Which is great if you own or understand Shake. But if you own AE7, or the AECS3, you owe it to yourself to get this. You can live without the Classroom in the Book, not Studio Techniques.

As a final digression, this really is like the source for DV Rebel's Guide. They do not overlap material, but DV Rebel's Guide touches on issues that a crucial, but the author rightfully defers to this book for the indepth analysis and practices. So if you want to go further, look to DV Rebel's Guide. And if you got Rebel's guide and are confused by some issues, look here first.

Practical is without doubt the best way to describe 'Studio Techniques.' Christiansen has written a book filled with very practical and powerful advice that is sure to delight. Learning to create effects is fundamentally all about two things:

1) Learning to think like a visual effects artist

and

2) Learning to think like After Effects

Christiansen does a superb job of melding these two together. His examples, while very useful for their specific results alone, are perhaps more useful in learning how to approach problems and solve them in the After Effects paradigm.

As an added bonus, 'Studio Techniques' is also riddled with very useful tips and notes that provide additional creative insight and warnings on oddities that occur, their cause, and how to solve them.

This really is a great book. I'm an interactive designer, and use it exclusively for web work. Since FLV's are taking over the web, After Effects enables you to build amazing creative that can be used with flash to showcase amazing web pages, ads and anything else you can think of.

Would have given it 5 of 5 stars, but there were areas that I found difficult to understand and some terminology that was confusing. This is a book for intermediate/advanced.

Sorry beginners! Try the Adobe Classroom in a book series, it works great as well.

I bought this book recently. I have a masters degree and am very computer savy.... This is like reading an owner's manuel for the space station that was written in Japanese and then translated 4 times over.... I gave up after chapter 3 and realized that I hadn't learned much, and that the author just pissed me off...

I went out and bought Motion 3 and said "screw After Effects".... Why is it that the program cannot play the most basic 2 minute movie without rendering??? I have a blazing fast computer and have no time to dilly dally with it...

Starting from the very basics this amazing book will teach you every great stuff you need to know in order to make better graphics. I just loved it ! :-)

this is a helpful and very specific book that after learning the basics and intermediate tutorials that are found everywhere on the net, should provide the basis for using after effects for compositing and a plethora of other detailed tasks. it seems there is very little after effects cannot do, though not necessarily conveniently so. The author lays out his case with examples and opinions and has a patient steady hand in doing so.

It's not the authors fault that theres just no 'bullet point' way to do this - its all details, and this book does a great job in trying to 'boil it down' for you.

bottom line - if you want to composite with after effects and go beyond motion graphics - this book will show you how.

A great book for an incredible software tool. I was going to rate 4 out of 5 due to some sections that could be more simple/concise and convey the same message - but realized that would be nit-packing an overall great workbook.

Thanks Mark! Very helpful book indeed, I'll take a long time to digest it. And thanks for being inclusive of PC users in a mac-heavy industry (I'm not cool enough for a fruit-themed workflow).

Cheers.

In spite of the fact that Mark grew up in an orphanage and his Evil Twin looks like a wild man, I like his work a lot! :) This book is a full-on treasure. I buy and read a great many books of this type on several topics, and I tell you, you cannot find a book this good, anywhere. Each chapter is absolutely loaded with exactly the kind of info you need, and the kind that Adobe does not provide. Mark approaches the material from the standpoint of best practices, and that is what you need. In some ways this book might even be better than if you could apprentice under Mark. If you want to be a professional compositor, this is THE book.

Mark's understanding encompasses a full range of possible tools, so if the best way to accomplish a particular task involves a 3rd party plugin, he will tell you. Basically, if you have learned the basics of AE, and you want to learn how professional compositing is done by people who know their trade, this is the book for you. Mark hits nearly all of the important points and addresses numerous issues that actually occur in real effects work. His use of screenshots to illustrate is excellent, but mostly it's his coaching that stands out. He knows what you will run into, he knows what will likely cause you to stumble, and he knows AE better than most professional compositors. Each chapter is precious. I have never read a technical book that I would rank above this one. I don't have a higher rating than what this book earns. I only wish more authors of technical books would come somewhere near this level of quality.

I purchased this tutorial to help me better learn maya and it really turned out to be great asset to me tutorial collection. it is very easy to follow along as long as you have a basic understanding of maya tools so I give it a good review. GF

The contents seemed to be interesting. Unfortunately, I had to return it. I couldn't watch the DVD because it made my computer crash constantly though I have one of the fastest speed computer in the current market.

this is definately one of the best modeling dvd's available ,i would recommend anyone who wants to learn maya ,to buy this

I have been using the maya software for 5 months now and would say I am an intermediate user. Modelling the head and the body was something i never got right. I have tried it all, spend a lot on useless books.
then I came across this product Advanced Maya: Character Modeling while surfing the net. I read the reviews and said "yea let me try this" but I kept thinking this is going to be another failure.
I got the product,watched it and worked through all the movies.It took me a week ( every night during the weekdays and the entire weekend).
And finally I made the lady. I was so happy.
It has been a month since I got the product and I have produced several other figures of my own since then.
It worked for me.

Advanced Maya: Character Modeling DVD

I agree with some of the points made by other reviewers. The movies need more of the "why" as opposed to the "how". I found myself wondering at many points, "Why am I doing this? What is the ideal shape and form for this part of the body? What is the end topology supposed to look like? Why is this OK? Will we fix this later?" There is explanation from time to time, but I found myself with a lot of other questions as well. While it still is cool to watch the entire model made from scratch to finish, I really wanted a more interactive DVD. Sometimes I found myself wanting to click in the movie player to try to spin the model around or zoom in, because sometimes it's not very clear what's going on, especially when vertices get crowded.

On that note, this DVD probably isn't best followed vertex-by-vertex. It should be used as a guide if anything, not entirely as a step-by-step start-to-finish tutorial. One annoying thing (especially when the model becomes complex and Maya slows down) is having to wait and wait and wait. An included speedup feature would've been nice. When I fast forwarded with the time slider, I was afraid of missing some of the dialogue.

So I ended up using MPlayer (free download) instead of Quicktime Player to watch the videos, because it offered a convenient way of speeding up/slowing down the playback time by 10% steps. Also convenient is being able to step forward or backward by 10 seconds at a time using the keyboard, not by dragging the time slider with the mouse. Watching it on fast forward makes the voice chipmunk-like, but it's better than sitting through a lot of slow, redundant vertex pushing and pulling.

I think the book (or booklet, I should say) should've been a lot more extensive, maybe include the full text of what was said in the videos. What really would've helped is a FAQ, answering why things are done and why things are OK or not OK, etc. etc.-- that type of deal. Also would've been nice to have a reminder list of techniques used to create and refine different parts of the body. It sucks having to sift through the videos to find certain parts.

The DVD is a Verbatim DVD-R, as opposed to a machine-pressed DVD, which is kind of disappointing since it cost $45. And not just that, it's a poor quality DVD-R. I'm guessing that's where the other reviewer was having playback problems. The DVD manufacturer is branded MCC (Mitsubishi Chemical Corp) which hasn't gotten very good rep in the past. I actually had to copy the movies onto my external drive on a Mac in lab at school. All the Dell desktop computers at my school lab refused to read it, and my PC laptop computer struggles with it from time to time.

But otherwise, this DVD is still a very valuable resource and a good watch. It's hard to come by people in real life who will sit with you through an entire model from start to end. I'm really glad I found this because character modeling for me is very difficult and it helps a lot to see these videos.

Kinda disappointed that it didn't continue on to texturing and hair and animation, especially since I'm curious what topology differences there are for animation, but I guess this is already a lot of content for one DVD. :P

When I read this at the library, I knew this book was worth buying. I had started cartoon animation on my cartoon character (named Sam the Fearless Cat), but this book really helped my flat, stiff, animation come to life! Includes model sheets, little animation tricks, plenty of art work (almost like a video), and drawing the looneytunes characters. I highly recomend this book!

My main complaint about most books on animation is that they don't really show you the crude nature of the drawings you actually animate with. The Preston Blair book, in most respects my favorite, starts with very worked out structural drawings. But for most of its life, right up until just before clean-up, an animated character is a stick figure based on the line of action with a few swirls to indicate the volumes of head, ribs, etc. This book covers all of those stages very well. And the senior animators at Disney start out and largely animate with very primitive forms and get those moving right before they worry about structure. Anyway, this book is 100% essential information, IMO. And I'm 39!

...baby was a book instead of a person, then this book would be that baby. Is that right? Yes, yes it is.
You'll find the entire panopoly of Warner characters here,expertly rendered. Cervone is one of the country's finest art mentors,bar none. He actually spent time in IndoChina teaching animation and organic farming to the destitute. His teaching experience shines through.
Cervone's handling of Daffy Duck borrows heavily from Campbell's Transformational Mythology and his presentation of Taz and Sylvester echo the multi-linear story telling of Will Eisner as well as the cool refined lines of designer Linus Van Pelt. His portrayal of the Warner animation Universe is cinematic, almost Kurosawa-esque.
I've met Cervone on two seperate occasions. Once at a sconery on Martha's Vineyard and again on a bawdy singles cruise to the Greek Isles. I found him affable,chatty,knowledgeable and most shockingly,easy on the eyes, as he most resembles a crusty,grizzled Steve Gutenberg. I believe his eyepatch is purely for effect. Highly recommended!

Anyone who is a fan of animation knows the Looney Tunes. The Warner Bros. animation department developed and created so many memorable characters and cartoons, which have inspired many in the entertainment business.

This book covers many things in a light hearted and enjoyable way and is well worth having in your personal library. The art of hand drawn cel animation is a dying art, in today's production world of computer animation. But the principles of cel animation are important for any animation artist.

While there are many books which focus on the technical aspects of animation, there are very few which focus on the principles which make it an art. If your want to learn and understand what can make animation great, then you will find some valuable things in this book.

This book is really awesome. It has a super-light text and very beautiful drawings and sketches. I just love Looney Tunes since I was a kid.

But be warned: this book is not another Animator's Survival Kit. It is, really, for kids. The coolest thing in the book are the characters charts. Tons of info on how to draw your favorite Looney Tunes characters!

Overall I would say this is a great reference book for the budding effects artist. However, if you are looking for a text that will teach you basics and walk you through how to apply concepts, this isn't the book for you. This book is merely a simple encyclopedia of basic terms and concepts that relate to the world of digital effects. Although some of the concepts are bit outdated and have been replaced by newer and more efficient methods and work-flows, this is still a valuable resource. Another unfortunate side effect is that the book is based around the Shake model. However, as you may know, Shake is slowly moving out of circulation after having been dropped from Apple. Still, a good general encyclopedia of broad concepts and ideas that relate to digital effects.

I know some may disagree, but I find this book aptly named. I use it less as a course and more as a referance book. It's one of those "bedside" manuals you can just pick up and open anywhere. It contains tones of great information that is of relevance no matter wether you are running "Shake" or not. Some of it is above me but this never worries me as one day it won't be and that's the day you say "wow, this was really money well spent". Sure, this book leans heavilly towards Shake and if you use Shake it is VERY helpful. But I was doing a Key in After effects and remembered a tip on chroma bluring from a "Shake" section of the book ... helped enormously. Great Book. Highly Recomended.

I was already aware of most of the topics covered in this book, but it helped understand them better and be able to explain accurately to anyone asking. Its also well updated to current industry standards. its in no way complete as an Encyclopedia, needs future voulmes to do that.
In short-A text book for every student of visual effects.

Cons: The DVD files can be accessed only in a MAC (not for PC).

My humble congratulations to the authors who have teamed up with Apple to bring us (my Visual Effects Dept. students and I) a most complete textbook. In my opinion, this book rates in the current top five of all serious resources in the teaching & learning of Visual Effects at the College and Graduate levels. In addition to that, for those of us teaching compositing and matte painting, I would rate this book as the current number one textbook on these topics. A must-read, for a serious student of the Art and Craft of Visual Effects.
Deepest respects,
Prof. Tan TASCIOGLU,
Professor of Visual Effects, Savannah College of Art & Design
SCAD-Atlanta campus.
(Review posted: March 2007)

Four stars. A fifth star would have been earned for a better indexing or cross-reference. Otherwise a top notch, very informative book.

I have experience with film making and with Editing on Final Cut Pro. I was new to VFX, but I'm not anymore after reading this book!

Having seen Shake in action, I wanted to learn more. This books focus on Shake and the fact that a trial version ships with the book is the reason I bought it.

This book is a reference book. It explains, in detail, terms used in the VFX industry (clean plate, matchmoving, etc.) that any filmmaker or budding VFX artist will need to know if even just to communicate clearly with VFX professionals. The entries in the book are punctuated with walk-through tutorials that show you how to accomplish (in Shake) the specific effect. This is a good thing.

I had a project on my suite that needed some pretty hefty FX work. This book armed me with the right concepts and understanding so that I could plan the steps I'd need to take to accomplish the FX. In my case it was turning the request to "Make that person a ghost" into build a clean background plate, rotoscope the actor, invent a ghosty look, and then put it all back together. Until I had read the book and understood the individual steps involved, I didn't know where to begin.

Overall, this is a very informative reference book written in a witty and accessible style. It is VERY Shake oriented, which is, again, WHY I bought it. This is the kind of book an FX pro (or newbie) will reference many times as they work on future projects.

I liked this manual. Easy to read and good information. It took about a week of relaxed study and working through the examples, and now I know Final Cut Express. Easy as that.

This book has been very helpful in becoming familiar with the basic operations and shortcuts in FCE4. I highly recommend it.

I received this book yesterday and so far I've only gotten through the first three chapters. But I have already found a few outdated statements. A few examples:
1) "HDV video formats record on tape....AVCHD formats, however, record directly onto disks or hard drives." No mention of memory cards or hybrid options.
2) Lesson Review question (page 30): "What kind of cable do you use to connect your camera to your computer?" Answer: "A FireWire cable."
No mention of USB; in fact, the entire section in chapter 2 covering connecting the camera to the computer only addresses FireWire.
3) The book says after launching the first time FCE looks for any FireWire devices and displays an error message if none are found. This didn't happen, at least not in my case, which makes sense since many newer camcorders don't have firewire.
4) When I opened the first project file (provided on the book's DVD) as instructed, FCE displayed a notice that the file was from an earlier version and asked whether or not to update it. The book doesn't even address this alert, leaving the user to wonder whether or not to select "Yes" or "No" to update the project file. Not updating all the files to version 4 (which they really should have done) is one matter; not even addressing the update prompt is even worse.

None of this is detrimental to my learning experience, however it is evident this is old material merely updated for the 2008 edition, and they missed a few parts during the updating process.

So far the book is VERY basic. I'm a long-time Windows user who just received my first mac about a week ago, and it is simplistic, even for me.

UPDATE: I've progressed through the first 12 chapters, and I'm beginning to realize this book is great for walking (crawling, actually) the user through using the software with the project files included on the book's own DVD, but not so great for real-life applications. For example, I've scanned through the remainder of the book and realized it doesn't eplain how to handle existing video files in different formats (AVI's, for example). FCE can do it, but this book doesn't cover it. I've quit reading the book and started reading the FCE4 User Manual instead. So far, it seems far more applicable to what I need to know; unfortunately, the FCE4 electronic user guide is over 1000 pages long --- more pages than I care to print.

If I could change my rating on this book, I would. It was a waste of money and time. Even for the basic material that is covered, the progression is at a snails pace; it could be much more concise and efficient. Even better, it could cover more useful territory by addressing real-life applications in addition to sterile made-to-order projects.

UPDATE 2:I decided to finish the book and have progressed to the "Appendix", the additional chapters available only on DVD. It is so cumbersome trying to learn this way - read a line, switch to FCE4 to perform the step, re-activate the Preview window to read the next step, reactivate FCD4 to perform it, back and forth, back and forth. See, this is why I actually BOUGHT A BOOK. So I wouldn't have to do this. There are plenty of tutorials on line. I paid money for a book for a reason - to spare myself such inconvenience.

One more thing: The last two chapters used terminology I hadn't seen before (keyframes, for example), with no explanation. However those chapters kept referencing the Appendix. I found explanations for those terms in the Appendix. It seems the Appendix chapters should be completed chronologically before the last chapter, making their absence from the book even more annoying.

P.S. Word to the wise: I sent an email inquiry to the author several days ago. Although I've yet to receive a response (and doubt I ever will), I have begun to receive spam emails from her company.

I have enjoyed the lessons up to lesson 6. At that point it brings up F-9, F-10, and F-11 keys. It was not a big deal until this particular lesson. The book was written at the time of the mac OS Tiger operating system. I went to the book site for an update on reprograming these keys but there was nothing there! The lessons may be useless from here on out without information on programing these keys in Leopard!

This is the 3rd FCE training book I brought. This book uses the same examples, pictures and footage as the first one. That is very disappointing. I had hoped it would go over some of the new features in FCE4. To my surprise it did not at all. I am about half way through the book and I am getting a strong deja vu feeling. If you don't have any of the other books, then this will be a good start. This book leaves you wanting more. Much more!!!

This is a well written book covering the Cg shading language. It contains a lot of useful information about Cg and graphics programming techniques in general. Unfortunately, I felt like it didn't cover as much of Cg as I would have liked, making the book less useful than it could have been.

The book starts with a history of shaders and programmable hardware, an overview of Cg, and a summary of related technologies, such as HLSL and CgFX. It then spends some time covering the syntax and semantics of Cg, and then moves on to the core material of the book, in which the authors explain key graphics pipeline functionality and how it can be implemented using Cg. The book concludes with several appendices covering the Cg runtime, CgFX file format, and Cg standard library, as well as other reference material.

The topics covered include transformations, animation, lighting, environment mapping, bump mapping, fog, shadow mapping, toon shading, and projective texturing. The explanations are all clear and understandable, in particular the chapter on bump mapping, which is one of the easiest introductions to the topic I've encountered. Features of Cg are introduced as needed while explaining these topics, rather than introducing them all at once, which is very conducive to learning. In addition, the authors include warnings and workarounds for techniques which may not be supported on older hardware, as well as advice on attaining optimal performance.

I have two primary complaints about the book. The first is that they never really discuss the application code using the shaders, which made it a bit difficult to understand how they fit in at times. The second is that the book isn't nearly as complete a reference as you might expect. For a great deal of the functions and functionality in Cg, they simply refer you to the Cg reference manual. Although this electronic document is freely available, it's fairly brief at times, so a more detailed explanation in the book would have been appreciated. Similarly, I would have liked to have seen more detailed explanation of CgFX, as well as examples of using it.

Overall, though, this book does a very good job of introducing the reader to Cg and to shaders in general. If you're new to these topics, I'd recommend it. Even if you're a DirectX programmer intending to use HLSL, you'll find this book useful since the languages are identical (though the usage is of course different). If you're already an experienced graphics programmer with some knowledge of shaders, then you'll likely be able to find everything you need in the freely available documentation instead.

The current generation of GPUs puts a huge amount of rendering power at your fingertips. This book gives a great intro to a range of highly versatile techniques, including bump maps, shadows, complex illumination models, fog, non-realistic rendering, and lots more. You need a little math, but only what's given here. For example, you'll need to know what a dot product is, and the formulas are given. You won't need to know all the extras, like the geometric and trigonometric properties of dot products - those are simply stated where they become useful. Best, the entire discussion is illustrated with simple, legible samples of working code. The cut&paster gets off to a running start. This book really delivers what the title promises: Cg, by means of clear discussion and useful examples.

The book does not deliver what the title does not promise. For example, the authors discuss the effect of finer or coarser tesselation on image quality, but give no idea how to create the geometric models. Because the authors discuss only what goes on inside the GPU, they scarcely mention how to get your shader programs into it, and scarcely mention vertex shaders at all. Those aren't defects in the book, they're choices made by the authors. This book does a lot, but you'll need other references, possibly more than one of them, if you want to build a complete application.

Advanced graphics programmers have probably seen most of this before, and the barest beginners are still struggling with their box's shrink-wrap code samples. If you're ready for the second and third steps of graphics programming, then this could be very helpful. The "gallery" section could be a bit longer and the images a bit bigger, but this is really a how-to book and succeeds nicely in what it set out to do.

-- wiredweird

My review here is from an experienced OpenGL programmer's perspective.

This is an good introduction to the Cg shading language. It goes well beyond the free introductory PDFs on Cg that you can download from the nVidia site, and will quickly bring you up to speed. If you are unfamiliar with the new generation of graphics cards with programmable GPUs, you will love the introductory chapters. There is also an excellent chapter on bump mapping - the best, practical explanation of the technique I have ever seen. (Other books keep harping about tangent space, without explaining *why* you choose tangent space - never mentioning that it *is* possible to do it in object space.)

Now, for a few gripes:

1. There is no clear explanation for how exactly information (say, a calculated light position) should be passed from the vertex program to the fragment program. There are many ways to do this, and there is no suggested way of doing this. (eg: I can use out float3 var: POSITION, NORMAL, COLOR0, TEXCOORD0 - which one should I use and why?)

2. The vertex and fragment programs are given as such without any calling code. This may be really tough for beginners.

3. It does not provide a good reference to all the built in Cg functions. In many cases, you have to guess whether a function returns a value or modifes a parameter passed in. For example, there is only 1 line in the book about the faceforward(Ng, I, N) call. What is Ng? Does this function return any value?

4. The utility value of this book will plummet after you go through it once, since it is only an introduction. So I feel it should be priced accordingly. $45 is too much. I recommend getting it used, like I did, for half the price.

I like the book, but it is definitely not in the calibre of the Red book. (The OpenGL programming guide)

That's a promising technology for future of game programming. It's for advanced game programers only, no basic stuff here.

I particulary found it hard to follow.
Some things are not in deep explained, and I really don't like to program without classes (Cg uses the C structs way).

This book is very good to get yourself started with Cg, but lacks technical details and advanced topics. Once you're on your way coding shaders, you're better off with NVidia's free cg_toolkit.pdf which is included with the Cg SDK.

Mr. Smith is giving, nay, imparting so much of his knowledge to us. This 2nd update of his original knowledge base is great. Just wish there were more pictures. Maybe a cd or dvd with the next one? This is a MUST HAVE for any Disney fan (also, be sure to read the new bio from Neal Gabler, a perfect detail of the Man that started this all)!

I bought this book for myself quite a few years ago and am stioll amazed at how well it serves me. It has everything from Character information to movie and TV show information. It covers parks and the disney Media Franchise. Animation and Live action. If you ever wonder about something Disney related this is the book to have.

This book is a great information source about everything from theme parks, movies, television shows, and people. It has a couple of glossy color photos. It has small black and white photos throughout the book.
I am very satisfied with my purchase. This is a book I can look back on for any information about Disney- especially the old movies and shows that I watched as a child.

If you by some mysterious reason have not seen or heard of this title before, it is high time you buy yourself a copy now. Ever since it first came out in the mid-90's, Mr Smith's encyclopedia has been a valuable and highly informative resource to anyone interested in the vast Disney universe. Either if you're a committed Disneyphile, or just a common Disney enthusiast, this book will be your entertainment bible. Dave Smith writes in a casual, yet clearly factual and informative style, as each entry brims over with information on all kinds of Disney topics. In case you didn't know, Dave Smith is the founder of The Walt Disney Archives, located at the Disney headquarters in Burbank, California. Since 1970 this nice gentleman has presided over the archives, forming it into one the most elaborate and efficient corporate archives in the United States, and the world. Dave Smith has become an exceedingly valuable member of the Disney organisation, as no one knows more about Disney's history than Mr Smith himself. So, if you want to take part of Dave Smith's Disney knowledge there is no better way to do it than through this book. "Disney A - Z, the Updated Official Encyclopedia". Very highly recommended!

This encyclopedia by Disney archivist Dave Smith has everything you would want to know about Disney's films, theme parks, television shows, and more. At a length of over 600 pages, this book overflows with information, most of which one might wonder why anyone would need to know. Questions such as "what Disney film was released on October 3, 1927?", "what Disney film stared Sean Conery before he landed the role of James Bond?", and "what stage show played at Walt Disney World's Tomorrowland Theater starting in 1984?" are all answered in this book, along with literally thousands of others. This book is a great resource for any Disney fan and a fascinating look at the evolution of the Walt Disney Company.

I recommend this book highly to all beginners or intermidiate users of XSI 4 0r 5.
Aaron Simms walks you through many things that the manual and teaching materials that come with XSI do not.
5 stars from me!
PATTON

This is truely an inspiring book. It contains a great mixture of learning materials, from character creation, to scripting, and final renderings. A must have.

I recently decided to get back into 3D after a number of years out of the loop. After experimentation with the top applications (Maya, XSI, 3DMax and Lightwave, plus a number of less well known applications such as Cinema4D), I decided to go with XSI. Maya came a close second: XSI just seemed easier and more intuitive.

The next problem was finding some teaching material to learn XSI with. There are literally hundreds of courses, books and DVDs for Maya, but only a handful for XSI. This was a fact that almost made me go for Maya (there is no point getting a high powered application if you dont know how to use that power!), but I took the precaution of actually reading some of the XSI books, and boy was I impressed - although there are far fewer XSI books out there, the quality of them exceeds many other digital authoring and computer books I have read. As a computer book author and freelance web designer myself, thats no mean feat... I get through a lot of books!

There are only two books you need to get up to speed with XSI: The XSI:Illuminated:Foundation (published by Mesmer) and this book.

The expertise of the authors of the Experience XSI 4 books is obvious just by flicking through the pages. One of the authors was actually involved in the development of XSI itself, and the other is a noted CGI professional. You just can't go wrong with tutors like these!

The other surprise was the high production values and low price of the book: full color gloassy paper throughout. This is not a showy color book with little technical depth though, far from it. It is packed with concise and totally practical tutorials.

Perhaps one downside of the book is that the authors push you straight in at the deep end: the character you create is commercial quality (ie it would not look out of place in a Hollywood motion picture). For me, thats an advantage not a pitfall: I'd rather be working slowly through a book that showed me how to create a believable, realistic character than fly through 300 pages creating cubes, matchstick men and simple rotating logos!

Highly recommended.

S

This book is nice to have handy considering the limited number of XSI books out there. While the treatment as a whole can be kind of overview-ish at times, Mr. Isner manages to get into some nice technical tid-bits that can be hard to find other places. A good place to start for someone who knows some 3D, but wants to learn the XSI methodology.

At the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban they give the credits. Minute after minute, after minute the credits flow. After the first few, the names are not of actors but of programmers and other computer types. This is typical of a lot of movies today. The computer people can produce special effects with greater attention to detail, more 'lifelike' appearance than previous techniques and can do it faster and at lower cost.

And one of the main packages used for this work is Softimage. Strangely enough there are relatively few books on working with Softimage. This book covers the latest XSI 4 version of the software.

The two authors are Aaron Sims who has done creatures for such films as Men in Black, and Michael Isner the head of Special Projects at Softimage. Mr. Sims handles the creative aspects of the book, going through the process of designing a character in a step-by-stem mode. Mr. Isner provides a solid base of information about the technical processes within XSI, information vital to a complete understanding of this powerful software package.

The two authors have split the work well giving two views of approaching a problem.

Reviewed by: Scott A. Lowe

OVERVIEW:

Flash Out of the Box is a gentle introduction to the core functionality of Flash that maintains a pace the seasoned web programmer would find acceptable while not losing those who are new to Flash. Although O'Reilly Media acknowledges the book as being "Ideal for all readers -- including programmers" it is best suited for those who are going to commit to the Flash environment and need to learn its strengths in a quick and structured manner.

EVALUATION:

Written by Robert Hoekman, Jr., Flash Out of the Box is laid out in a format that permits the reader to stay focused on the point being made without one's eye having to deal with competing or redundant information. In part, this is an O'Reilly hallmark in that special care is placed on structure. For instance, supportive information is placed in a shaded area, separate from the central text. This permits the advanced reader to rapidly scan through the chapter without missing the key information. On the other hand, the new user benefits by this format by not being overloaded by new concepts.

For instance, Chapter 3 discusses animation by dividing the total process into individual, linear sections. In the obligatory discussion of managing text there is a side section defining "Synchronization", which is necessary information but is also a slight tangent from the topic. By separating the process into sections and then sub-dividing the section with support material sidebars the beginner can proceed in a slow, methodical pace and the veteran can bounce through chapters with ease.

Hoekman also utilizes the sidebars as launching points to future avenues of learning and potentially vital resources. For example, when discussing "Animation Transitions" in Chapter 6, the subject ends with examples being limited to simple graphic animations. However, there is a note at the end introducing the API (application programming interface), which addresses the question of advanced capability down the road. In general, the author takes care in leaving the user pointed in the right direction once they have exhausted the materials in the book.

In some sense, the content of the book parallels that of most books written about Flash and therefore seems almost cliché in its approach. Topics covered include the usual "how to" sections from drawing boxes and using the ruler to creating a quiz and importing video. However, there is a layer of content that makes Flash Out of The Box two books in one. This becomes evident in the second half of the book where Action Scripts and Behaviors are blended into the exercises. By the time the reader gets three-fourths of the way through the book (the section covering importing video) there is a full comparison of Flash with and without action script. Effectively, a new user can make a first pass at studying the lessons, from beginning to end, and then come back weeks later to learn the more intermediate level of Flash in a context that is familiar. In addition, the advanced programmer or advanced graphics user who is new to the Flash environment can ramp up to speed very quickly.

The book ends with overview sections on placing Flash on hand-held devices and CD-ROM's, a compressed look at Components, and an index listing on-line resources. Unfortunately, the included CD, which is labeled "Contains exercises from the book", really is little more than a disk containing some of the material and evaluation copies of the Macromedia products. Conceivably, there is enough evaluation software to get the reader thought the book without having to purchase a license. Still, the bonus CD is a little thin in what it provides, with no cut-and-paste shortcuts, but at least the basic pieces are there for the exercises. The reader will have to really do the exercises to gain the benefit of learning. Of course, if that is the only real negative aspect to this book then there really aren't any.

CONCLUSION

Flash Out of The Box is essentially two books in one. It is the ideal rapid-guide for the advanced user/programmer who is new to flash as well as a multi-level learning tool for the beginner. Robert Hoekman provides a focused, linear path of learning that sticks. The acknowledgements state that Tim O'Reilly himself kept a close eye on the production of this book -- and it shows.

"Flash - Out of the Box" by Robert Hoekman, Jr. (published by O' Reilly Media, Inc. Seabastopol). What a great metaphor name for a great self-help book to teach people to think "out of the box" creating art and animation like a child finger painting. Learning "Macromedia Flash" with the guidance of this book is as easy as a child finger painting. A child doesn't have to know how to read to be creative. I still don't know how to read this book intelligently to quote it; but, I can follow it enough to know the "A" button is the "A" button. And, when the "A" button has a word that I have no idea how to pronounce - I still can click on it and make it produce a beautiful finger painting.



If you want to speak Geekease - then go back to college. If you want to jump in head first and learn "Macromedia Flash" software - pick up this book. Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote he thought he was writing "Flash - Out of the Box" for the beginner remembering to introduce the language as if he was learning Flash for the first time Doing so, he learned terms all over again as they have evolved into new terms along with software's ever changing technology.



I personally found that after reading the explanations of how and why Flash worked with the many metaphors Mr. Hoekman uses I learned Geekease in spite of myself. I learned valuable acronym language that is used in most popular design software that I self-taught myself, yet never knew what that termed meant. Mr. Hoekman refers to this book as "Alignment for Unlicensed Chiropractors." It is because of all the "bone structures" you will learn to apply to your work. Naturally, you will carry them through to all the software you already know. So, it is not just "Flash" software you will learn - it is the bones of graphic design. He brings back the simple childlike A, B, C's of time-saving techniques like "just lay out the graphic design" then go back and fill in the text and message instead of stressing over the text and trying to adjust the layout to fit it later. He takes you step-by-step with pictures of rulers and guides to create a simple box to a triangle morph movie. Then
you will understand the thought process and be doing pictures of your mother-in-law into a monkey in no time.



"Flash - Out of the Box" will guide even a person like me who did not know how to spell Macromedia how to purchase and load your software, click on your first box picture, create a movie time-line, to loading your work into a web-site. Mr. Hoekman's use of humor and simple layman's term explanations makes this book a must if you really want to lean the popular Macromedia graphic software bones. All you need is a desire to remember to finger paint again.

Carole Ann Morton
Member, D-Mag.org

This book is good at getting you up and running on some very useful areas of Flash. But there are a number of flaws in the exercises it has you go through that makes it frustrating, and reduces the amount you learn.

The book says to open some files provided on the CD, but when you go on to follow the instructions in the exercises, what you are asked to do has already been done, so you can't do the exercise.

In other cases when you run the exercise, it does nothing, even when you were not asked to do much (so it's not user error), so now you can't continue, meaning your learning experience has been reduced.

Overall the book is useful, is only about 70 - 80% complete, in terms of everything working the way it should. Buy it used and you will get your money's worth.

This beginning flash book allows users to delve right into creating useful flash projects. The author assumes the reader has some familiarity with the toolbars and their functions and therefore only touches on this a little in the beginning. I feel most intro flash books spend way too much time on this.

The author is very good about explaining the best and most efficient way to do things and the reasons for them. He presents an intro to Actionscripting which gives the reader useful code to use in future projects. I appreciate his emphasis on using best coding practices.

His chapter on video in flash was something interesting since I haven't had experience with it. He covers importing and compressing video and how to use it most efficiently. With all of his importing and exporting back and forth, however, it did get a little confusing.

By the end of the book there is a great deal of code given in regards to loading external assets so I'd say this book does have a steep learning curve.

All in all, this is a good book for those who want to get the ball running and create things fast.

I bought this book because I was sick of looking at Flash books that spent the first 40 pages naming all of the components of the Flash workspace without actually having me DO anything. Those books are boring and unhelpful because the vocabulary doesn't mean anything if you aren't actually working in Flash.

Flash out of the Box (FotB) dives right in and gets you started working! Instead of learning WHERE all of the tools are, you actually use them! IT is a much more interesting way to learn a new piece of software. It also introduces some key concepts, such as nested timelines, that other books don't discuss.

This method has a downside, though... The chapters advance very quickly and may cause inexperienced computer users to become lost. I found some of the chapters to be very info-dense; I would have to read and re-read sections in order to understand what I was doing. The book assumes that you know your way around the computer quite well, so it is not for novices.

My 2 biggest complaints about the book are this: (1) it is for Flash MX 2004 and some of the methods that are used will not work in previous version of Flash (so, if you have Flash MX, you will have to skip over some things). (2) It does not always explain the concepts very well, which means that you need to have another book nearby to use as a reference. For example, you create an animated movie clip, but it isn't clear when or why you would use a movie clip symbol.

Overall, I would say it is a good starter book for saavy computer users who want to dive in and learn Flash fundamentals quickly. However, if you plan to really do any serious work in Flash, you will find that you need another book to teach you things that this book doesn't cover. It is NOT a book for novices!