Animation Books

The rolling eyes are cute but the story is expressed in such a complicated way that nobody understands what the heck is going on. Bravo for the drawing and the eyes but boooooooo for the text !

Our grandchildren ages 4 & 2 are coming to visit & this will be a fun book to read with them.

To start off, though, I have to say that you just can't read these books lying down in bed with your child. The eyes roll up (they're weighted) and all you get is the "whites" of the eyes.
Having said that, if you sit up with your kid and read, this is a great series of books to get into. I like to barely wiggle the book while reading so the eyes move about in silly ways.
The rhymes are great and engaging. The storyline is always cute. In this book in particular the storyline has a redeeming moral value to it.
Brightly illustrated, the drawings do a great job of illustrating the action in the story AND finding a way to deal with the backsides of the holes the eyes go through.
Cute, Clever, Witty, and Worth it.

I bought this book for my 2 grandsons, age 3 and 1, and they both love it. The book is a very well made board book for the little one and the moving "eyes" fascinate them both. I first saw the book in a doctor's office and laughed, I thought it was so funny. I wrote down the publisher and ordered it on-line with another companion book.

The book was a good book it was about this minnow named Max. He was smaller then all the other fish and wanted to know how to get big. he asked everyone and he had one more person to ask. He went to the Shark's Place. ...
The age level is about 4-6.
The lesson i think is that even if your smaller then everything you can still be just as good as everyone else.
I really liked the lesson in this book and the wording...

This book is more of art book. There plenty of pictures of transformers as seen in their cartoon form(also contains early concept models). There is not much to read in this book except for a couple of paragraphs. If you are a fan of the cartoon show than get this book.

I decided to get this book upon a suggestion from an internet friend. I personally love drawing and recently started making attempts at some of the original Transformers. I was pausing the computer screen and making attempts to hunt down good reference material. This book worked wonders for me. It is all in black & white,with multiple views of the characters. Apparently most are character models that the animators used for the cartoon.It does have all the characters from the 3.5 American Seasons of the cartoon. If you enjoy drawing or just want to remember who everybody was, I'd recommend this book.

I got this book for my 8 year old son on the advice of a friend. It's wonderful for the artists! It gives front and back line drawings of all the Transformers in both mech and vehicle/tool format. It is a terrific resource.

Very nice book who are fans of the original animation. It has many nicely character design (model pack drawings) in the book. The book's graphic design is layout by T.V. seasons. Easy to follow the progression of each generation designs for the series. I am very satisfied with this book. What I like to see is the next book from the publisher is to have a background layout drawings and paintings from the television series.

Substantial historical reference of the Transformer robot roster of the 80s. While the line quality can be poor in a few models, they are all still adequate as a starting point for budding artists. Given their simpler block construction, they are easier to study, copy, and position in 3-D space for young artists eager to learn how to draw their own transformers. For a good basic library of Transformers Art, this would be a good bundle with You Can Draw Transformers (DK) (Spiral-bound).

Mr. Kerlow has written an excellent fundamentals book that hits the target for beginners who are trying to get a grasp of the scope of CG and a great reference book for veterans as well. The book takes the big picture view of the field and gives great examples of technique and theory as well as the down and dirty uses in the field. If you are starting out in CG, a seasoned veteran or just curious about the field of digital animation this is the first book to purchase.

You want one book that will teach you every concept in 3D? This is the book. Well written, Good diagrams. Just get this book, already!

If you are expecting an tutorial book for a day by day work, this book is not for you.
But if you are expecting an overview of techniques developed troughout the time, with a more theoretical approach, this book is your book.

This is a Book that will teach you 3d, From origin to cool timelines. basic concepts and goes advanced from there HOWEVER there is a new version coming out. the 3rd edition will be out later this year. Maybe you want to wait for that one since it will be completley updated :) It is Teaching me much, as other's Have said it is not a tutorial book. But I personally think if you want to actually Learn 3d animation you have to know the Concepts not just How to Follow Directions. Also A little Side note learn how to draw if you don't yet. If this is your dream arm yourself with every aspect of it. Traditional and 3d. It Can't possible hurt to know as much as you Can. Good Luck.

Jennifer

I think this book is highly over-rated. I found the tiny font very hard to read and the screen captures look like they were made several application generations ago. For my money I'd get something like 3D Animation: From Models to Movies by Watkins or digital 3d design by Danaher.

If they updated this book to reference software that people are actually using today and made the font bigger then I think it might merit a higher ranking.

The perfect way to start this review is to say that this DVD is the best of its kind ever!!! Untill I bought this DVD I was struggling to model a character using the online tutorials available.Well... I cant's say they weren't of any help, but if you really want to be able to model realistic charcaters in 3ds max, you got to have this DVD.The 48 quick time movies available on the DVD contain every bit of information that you need to posses in order to be able to model your own charcaters(with a few exceptions, like the author could have given some more details as to why a certain modelling technique was used in some areas of the "virtual girl",like the ear, for example, which is really complex and it might take you some time to get it right) and nothig is ommited,like in other instructional videos, where the author simply skips some steps. No, that doesn't happen here.No change is made without letting you know.
Of course, you probably already realise that it may become a little boring sometimes to just watch somebody pull vertices around, but I strongly encourage you to follow all the steps shown on the DVD.
The final character look really nice,and is practicly ready for use.ATTENTION!!!!!!!!!(When I say "use" I mean texturing, rigging, animation etc...)THIS IS NOT A TEXTURING,RIGGING,OR ANIMATION TUTORIAL DVD. IT TEACHES YOU HOW TO MODEL A CHARACTER.But this is actually allright because the authors can concentrate on one aspect only and this way they can do their job better.Having multiple aspects of 3D encapsulated in one DVD makes it confusing and harder for the instructors to teach us what we want to know.So basicly, this is the right DVD if you want to know how to model realistic characters.
To cut a long story short, I just want to end this review by saying:BUY IT!!!!! IT'S WORTH BOTH YOUR TIME AND MONEY!!

When I bought this tutorial, I was a beginner with no real experience in organic modeling. The idea of modeling a human head was something I didn't think I would ever be able to do. However, I followed the tutorial, which is a complete guide to modeling an entire human body, and managed to create a self-portrait that even my professor was impressed with.

This DVD is for beginners through advanced modeler looking to improve their skills in modeling the human form.

YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!!

With very detailed explaination and guidance.
Recommended to the beginner who has basic knowledge of 3ds Max.

I bought this DVD and have been walking through the tutorials in 3DS Max 2008, and it is still fully applicable, since the UI has not changed much in 3DS Max since this DVD was made (3Ds Max 6 i think)

It is great that you get to see the person work, and follow along. As the movie segments go on, you develop more and more comfort, and therefore get to apply some of your own creativity in where you would want to put the vertices, etc. I do not like tutorials where if a single one of your vertices is out of place, then following the rest of the tutorial is impossible -- this DVD is definitely not like that -- what you end up with is truly your own creation.

One thing to mention is that this is an overall tutorial for the whole body - and you do each part in detail, so it takes an investment of time and patience if you want to see it through. Think of it more like attending a class on character modelling, not just a quick walkthrough. I worked on it each night until I felt I was tired, and then would continue next night or even a few nights later.

Overall, I found this DVD great.

I am extremely impressed! This is my very first experience with any 3D modeling and software. The program is easy to follow and the instructor is very down to earth. The program explains the modeling process in laymans terms and when 3D terminology is used it is followed by an explanation. I could watch another 50 CD's like this by the same artists.

The book is in excellent condition and I got it before the deadline,
It was great!

This book is a good as they come. It is well written, well organized and well supported with demo files. I have a wide variety of programming experience, but not much experience at all with Flash. Rosenzweig gives enough general Flash instruction to give the reader enough general Flash understanding to do this type of programming. I think the book is perfect for readers with some programming experience and perhaps less Flash experience. I am not sure it would work as well in the other direction, but the author is clear, concise and easy to follow. I think most anyone with sufficient motivation can find this book a usefull guide into basic game building with the latests versions of Flash.

I can't recommend this book more than if I had written it myself, Gary makes writing games in AS3 so simple to follow and what did seem like a jigsaw puzzle of programming now has had the curtain lifted and left me feeling confident that, even with my limited programming skills, I could make a game in flash that wouldn't be too bad.

I got interested in this book after discovering Gary Rosenzweig's AS3 tutorials on his Flash Game University Website. I was impressed by his ability to explain things clearly and simply. As other reviews have already stated "AS3 Game Programming University" is an excellent and highly readable book for learning AS3. In practice I find it much more helpful than Colin Moock's book "Essential ActionScript 3.0", which is a little too academic for me (although I'm glad I have it!). I'm also finding that code snippets in Gary's book are just as useful to me as those in Joey Lott's "ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook" (which covers more topics). It's helpful to me that Gary writes from a Flash authoring perspective rather than Flex. He doesn't hesitate to include timeline based assets and code when it makes sense to do so, rather than use the Flex style of generating everything in code.

The actual games are surprisingly varied and complete, but not so complex that they become difficult to understand. The code that I downloaded from the website works well. It is written in a practical concise manner with proper use of classes and other object-oriented techniques as required by AS3. However, as other reviews have noted, this book is not for advanced programmers that prefer a pure object-oriented style.

I recommend this book if you are moving from AS2 to AS3, even if you are not interested in writing games. Gary does not claim it is suitable for beginners without any programming experience but it is more suitable than Moock's "Essential ActionScript 3.0" (which does make such a claim). However it is not for web designers that don't want to learn programming and it is not for advanced programmers that appreciate Moock's AS3 book.

Lets face it. There are a lot of Actionscript game books out there. This one is good because 1) It is entertaining and readable & 2) It's the first game book I have found that works for the new actionscript 3.0.

The code itself isn't exactly as object oriented as I would like, but thats true of all the other game books out there too. It does have enough object oriented content to show some amazingly different, and simple methods for making game characters, detecting collisions, and managing objects that are possible with actionscript 3.0. I value this book as a 'how to upgrade' from 2.0 to 3.0.

The games themselves are pretty good and there is a nice variety of game styles to appeal to a wide audience. For a basic game programming book, it omits or glosses over a few important topics such as caching vector objects as bitmaps, pseudo 3-D and optimization in general.

All in all, I suggest this book if you are upgrading skills to actionscript 3.0 or want to write flash games. If you get this book, I also recommend Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move! to round out your collection.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with very little or no Premiere experience.
This book covers all major topics on video editing with PPro. It also gives you an insight in video post production, basic camera setup, lightning and special effects.
I would recommend using this book as a reference, not as step by step guide. Keep practicing.!

Maybe Premiere Pro is too complex for average users, so this book could not cover it all. But I wish the book started by follow one example in steps, the explain in details of some special features in additional chapters.

This book is not organized in a way to teach you how to use the software, rather just some special features, not very complete on all the features, either. But this is the only book about Premiere Pro..

This book is great for the beginner. It will start you out by teaching you the basics of file management and setting up your computer to handle video editing and will lead you through a series of 'projects' to teach you the basics of video editing.

It also includes media with video clips to use in case you don't have any to begin with.

It's great book if you have never done any editing, or if you have never done editing with Premiere. Even one version behind on the software version, it is still a very useful book.

Jacob Rosenberg's Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 Studio Techniques is great whether you're a Premiere newbie, or a seasoned vet.

I myself fall somewhere between those two, so it worked out perfectly. Jacob writes in a way that makes you feel comfortable - you can easily tell he is an avid user of Premiere Pro (not to be confused with an Avid user...video editing humor, anyone?). From his thorough yet laid back instructions to his various real-world examples, it's clear that he's not just authoring a paint-by-numbers look at some new piece of software. Jacob has been with Premiere from it's early stages of life, and in some cases has even had a hand in its evolution.

I specifically wanted this book for its insight on editing workflows, especially in regards to 24p and 24p HD projects in Premiere Pro. The included companion DVD has chapters devoted entirely to his experience onlining the HD feature documentary, Dust to Glory, with Premiere Pro on a PC...so this book was a no-brainer!

I was even able to contact the author himself and meet face to face to discuss the various intricacies of conforming an offline edit to an online all within Premiere Pro for a feature I'm currently working on. He was/continues to be incredibly helpful, and is truly the most knowledgeable person on Premiere Pro that I've ever had the pleasure to meet.

Bottom line, buy this book if you want insight on Premiere Pro.

I have been using Premiere since the days of 5.0 - and I think I have been applying only those same skills to each upgrade I purchased -- with maybe adding just a few new tricks. Mr. Rosenberg's clear explanations and teaching have opened up a whole new world of Premiere editing for me, and my newest DVD effort is showing the results "in spades."

The DVD included is just perfect. Adobe should ship this book with the software.

Any serious font user should have this book. Even you do not own the font, show it to your client and then buy when you need it.

This book is everything that I expected it to be. It sits on my desk and gets pulled out everytime I'm working on a project. Great investment.

I love this reference book!
It helps designers to choose a better typeface in an efficient way. Over 2,000 gorgeous fonts are arranged very well. Thanks for the make-up, paper and book-binding, you can browse these fonts pleasantly.
Basic OpenType introductions are included in English, French and German. Small icon shows glyph supported indicates the range of using of each typeface.
If you were a font afficionado, you would not miss it!

Provided a nicely printed display of the fonts in fontfolio 10. Helps with clients choosing fonts they would like to use in thier designs as expected. Would have been nice to have in a hard cover since it is used a lot.

I have zillions of fonts on my computer, but only have the essentials loaded in my Font Book, so this guide helps me find the fonts I want. It is essential for anyone who needs special fonts or someone who is, like me, picky about which fonts are used in a project. There is a section at the beginning of the book that has an easy guide to types of fonts, then there are sections with fonts grouped according to their characteristics such as serif, sans serif, script, etc. Then in the back, each font is listed and a the entire font family is printed as well as a sentence, too, so you can see how it looks and flows. I love it.

I read this entire book for a class and I just don't like the interview style of the book. I didn't really get a lot out of it and only could use some of the techniques mentioned in my own documentary.

The Art of the Documentary
By Mary Cunningham
Review by Pi Ware

Mary Cunningham's "The Art of the Documentary" is an attractive full-color compilation of interviews with some of the world's foremost documentarians. It's an intimate and insightful glimpse into both the art and craft of docs and a must-read for filmmakers serious about creating non-fiction work. You'll learn how Errol Morris creates "first-person cinema" using The Interrotron; why Ken Burns locks music before script, how D A Pennebaker futhered art via technology, and how cinema-verité documentarians like Haskell Wexler are able to "inspire" scenarios within their films.

Notably missing are the king of the personal documentary, Ross McElwee, and the masterful doc team of Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger. But Cunningham fills the spaces with interviews of the behind-the-scenes players--editors, executives and cinematographers. And in doing so she gives you a broader picture of the doc world and deeper insights into what it will take for you to make a successful non-fiction film.

Ever wanted Ken Burns or others in the pantheon of documentary greats as your personal film making mentor? This book gives you that and more. This versatile book is as perfect for someone just starting out in documentary films as it is for a veteran who wants in on a few secrets of the masters. Our film production company read from it aloud on location and everyone, from the producer to the cinematographer to the researchers, all gleaned practical tips from it. The interviews are substantive, insightful and most importantly, very useful. A real keeper for those interested in learning nuances and techniques from a wide range of documentary styles.

Megan Cunningham's Art Of The Documentary offers ten conversations with some of the best documentary directors, editors and producers in the industry. Nonfiction documentaries reveal the methods and focus their directors, which is captured in chapters which begin with project concept and move through the entire production process. Plenty of color photos illustrate each director's works.

Consider this book a master class in documentary filmmaking.

Megan Cunningham's interviews are incredibly engaging - she manages to at once explore each documentarians' creative process, AND discuss how these various filmmakers achieved their success, AND to discuss specific films in-depth AND to elicit the filmmakers' fascinating views on theoretical issues such as what constitutes "cinema verite" or whether documentaries can be considered art.

Furthermore, Cunningham's book is wonderfully readable and well organized (and full of photos!). I especially enjoyed how Cunningham devoted equal space to such luminaries as Errol Morris and lesser known but equally powerful documentarians such as Lauren Lazin. The book manages to seamlessly cover more than 50 years of American filmmaking and it's wonderful to have the thoughts of multiple generations of directors, editors, and cinematographers compiled in one volume.

Whether you're a fan of documentaries, an aspiring documentary filmmaker, or unfamiliar with the entire field and would like to learn more, "The Art of the Documentary" is the book for you.

If you think Flash is too complicated to learn, then you might enjoy the approach taken by the author of this book: simple, funny, and easy to follow. And if you are already familiar with the basic concepts, then you can use it is a valid quick reference!

The book is easy to understand and very straight forward. The author obviously has teaching skills beyond the ordinary. Especially loved the bright orange and yellow tear out shortcuts page!

If you're just starting out with Flash, or even if you've been using it a while but haven't explored all its features, David Karlins' book will prove to be a useful addition to your library.

The things I like best about this book are

1. David has a friendly, uncomplicated way of explaining things, so it's all easy to "get."

2. You really could be almost a technological idiot and still be able to use this book to do some fun animations with Flash, because every tool and animation technique is covered, and each item is broken up into bite-size bits.

3. The Tips and Nitty Gritty Stuff is a good way of presenting useful key information that you can refer back to and refresh your memory as you need to.

4. Flash is fun to work with anyway, and breaking it up the way David does here makes the technical aspects of animating in Flash so easy to digest, you'll be a Flash wizard in no time.

Well, maybe not a wizard. This book doesn't cover much ActionScript, and that's where the real Flash wizards dwell. But as a way to giving you a solid foundation to all the ways you can have fun working with Flash, you could do a lot worse than to buy "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Macromedia Flash 5," and you'd probably have a lot less fun getting your basic Flash chops.

Well no, I don't consider myself a complete idiot; "I am a "Power User" of my PC, and of the Internet. I know what I am doing". Or so I thought! But I purchased Macromedia's Flash 5 software because I wanted to design that website full of innovative and eye catching animation. I wanted it to be noticed. To be recognised as a leader in the field of web site design. But, I was overwhelmed by the program. I didn't know where to start.

"So", I thought, "I have to get back to basics. Lets assume I am a complete idiot. Where do I go from here?"

To tell you the truth, there was only one place to go. The Complete Idiots Guide to Macromedia Flash 5, by David Karlins, illustrated by Paul Mikulecky, joined my "essential reading" collection.

Without being pretentious, the book treats you as a complete idiot. It really does get down to basics. True, it does assume you have a smidgen of computer knowledge, (well if you don't, and you have brought Macromedia Flash 5, you really are dreaming the impossible ).

I am half way through the book now. I am taking it easy. I really do want to learn all about Flash 5 and this is the book that's teaching me. But I need to absorb it all. The book is easy to follow, full of information, tips and guidance, and it takes you through each step, each level of "Objects", "Groups", "The Stage", "Frames", Timelines", "Layers", Animation", "Interactivity", "Movies", at your own pace.

The first thing I found out was, there is a lot to learn about Flash 5. That is why I am taking my time.

But this book is teaching me. I recommend it. It doesn't treat you as a complete idiot. What it "does" do is recognise that Macromedia Flash is a powerful, but complicated tool to master. You will need time and a helping hand to master it. The time is your own. The Complete Idiots Guide to Macromedia Flash 5 is the helping hand.

I brought this book from Amazon.com's UK site at Amazon.co.uk. It is my pleasure to write such a good review.

(Ohh, by the way, "Smidgen" is England English for "a small amount", ).

David Karlins actually sent me an e-mail because of my last review about this book (below this one). He was very concerned that it didn't meet my expectations and was willing to reimburse me for the book since I had unfairly expressed my utter disappointment in it.

Well, the truth is, it does EXACTLY what it claims to do and at an unbeatable price. And the fact that the author is so sincerely interested in delivering a book that satisfies ALL it's readers just blows my mind!

It DOES do an adequate (and sometimes superb) job of walking you through the basics of Flash and getting you familier and comfortable with its simpler features.

And it does this in a humouristic fashion, unlike may of the technical textbooks we've all had to suffer through.

Yes, I did review this as a major disappointment because of it's lack of 'complete' coverage, but really, this book does everything it promises to do in a comprehensive and simple way so even the BIGGEST idiots can learn to master Flash.

I give it 5 stars for what it is: A beginners introduction to Flash 5.

If you're beyond the beginners level (as I am) and on to intermediate, than this book's not really for you. Read my other review for some good recommendations.

Finally I'd like to say: Kudos to David Karlins for having the humility and sincerity that most authors lack. He really cares about delivering his promises and raising the level of todays web through educating. Cheers!

This book is geared to beginning students. It follows a format common in secondary school and military textbooks that each chapter begins with a bulleted set of objectives that are clearly stated. Unlike most computer books, the author accomplishes these objectives with clear, concise, and detailed instructions - including highlighted paragraphs on avoiding traps (such as inability to click on spline points under the move arrows). Compared with "The Cinema 4D 9/9.1 Handbook" and "C4D 9.5 3d Animation Production", this book is much better written and has far fewer errors.

Particularly strong are the sections on materials and lighting. These are so good that they could be used as a textbook for Maya, 3Ds Max, or other high end 3D programs. The illustrations are excellent.

The chapters on modeling are very good. Nurbs are particularly well explained. Curiously polygon modeling leaves out details on the knife settings, the close polygon hole, how to save selections (for use with animations and setting materials to defined regions), and most importantly - omits any mention of converting nurbs or booles to polygons. (A paragraph saying "push the C key to convert nurbs to polygons" would have helped).

The section on rendering was also very good, but geared toward still images. The still image examples were excellent, but it would have helped to have some paragraph on using Quick time rather than AVI for rendering out movies for rgb + alpha.

What is missing is any discussion of animation. There is nothing on bones, weighting, claude bonet, poses, etc. The author has left that for a future book to be published in Dec 2007.

Overall this is the best book on C4D. Although it is geared towards beginners, it accomplishes its mission better than other books that I've seen.

This is for the beginners. This book is good for using the large figures; and showing the clear chapter goals, common pitfalls, and easy explanations. Do not expect tips for modeling character designs, such as humman faces or bodies.

I have been modeling for years but with different software and decided to download the demo of CD4 to see what it was like. To get a jump start I purchased Mr Alley's book and got to work. I learned a lot in short amount of time, especially how to navigate the software and learn to use the various tools. I found the book easy to follow, accurate and I enjoyed the tutorials and sample files on the CD very much. As a result I am going to buy the software. Recommended.

I have been working through this book. I at first was going to get one of the flashy books, but now I am glad I started here (okay I did read some of the flashy books as well but this one has been much more helpful)

Aimed at the beginner through intermediate user, this book uses a series of tutorials to lead you through the design and implementation of several projects using Maxon's Cinema 4D. Through these projects, most of the features of the program are illustrated and the reader quickly understands what the program is all about.

To be sure, Cinema 4D has so many features and capabilities that they cannot all be covered in a book even twice this size. Instead the book attempts to teach the core, fundamental capablilities of the program and leave the reader to experiment with the other features by himself.

The CD of the book is more complete than usual. It has a Demo version of the program for both Mac and PC - Version 9.1. It has all the images used in the book, and the files you'll need to complete the tutorials in the book. It also includes the Cinema 4D Reference Manual, Quick Start Manual and the files used in the Quick Start tutorial. While you can get these off of the Maxon web site, it's a lot faster to get them off the CD. Finally, the CD also has three issues of 3D Attack, the Cinema 4D Magazine.

I really like the writing style that the author uses, for me it comes across as clean, easy and yet conveys the information I wanted. I also like the fact that some of the color illustrations in the book were done by the author. Often I get the feeling that the writers just write and don't actually use the software they are describing.