Animation Books

If you learn from deconstructing pre-built flash applications, you'll love this book. This book is full of useful flash applications such as an online store, a services catalog, a user survey, a threaded message board, and smaller more common examples, such as flash player sniffers, and preloaders. It shows you how to add quicktime movies to an application, work with various server-sided languages such as asp with an access database, or php with a mysql database and XML. I can't say enough good things about this book. It's one of my very favorate flash books. The book's written for Flash 5, but the examples are still better than newer published books ... it's not easy to find good server-sided Flash books.

A great book!. Everyone knows (and criticizes) Flash for slick animation and splash pages. Most books focus on Flash as an animators tool. This book demonstrates advanced Flash interface design from start to finish - including dynamic content and database integration.

The full operating system and software requirements listed are necessary for a few of the movies included: the Online Store and Cart, the Dynamic News and Reviews and the Threaded Message Board. As those movies generate dynamic content, it was necessary to make a decision as to which back-end system to use. We chose Windows NT/2000 and Active Server Pages because they have the largest install base. However, anything that we've included can be modified to work with another back end system.

The rest of the movies, which include the Home Page, the Viewer Survey, the Services Catalog, the Preview Links and the Container Movie, can be modified and used on any platform or system.

Whilst I only worked on part of the book, it was a great experience and I hope that everyone has just as a great time learning as I did writing.

Flash is all about snazzy sites. You don't need Flash if you're gonna make flat stupid looking sites like this book shows. Get a clue - look how many USED copies are for sale with UNOPENED CD's... The book is decieving - at first glance you think "Yeah!" until you get it home and realize that it's all smoke and mirrors with no substance and certainly no use of Flash in the modern designer sense. You call up their demo site and it's like "uhh?" - flat as a pancake.

exactly what i had been looking for. funny how it shouldny have worked on my computer according to one review:

"
You need to have your computer installed with the following: Operating System: Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, Software: Active Server Pages 2.0 or higher (included with IIS), Apple QuickTime Player (included with IIS), Microsoft CDONTS (included with the Option Pack), Microsoft Data Access Components 2.5 or higher, Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0 or higher, Microsoft XML Parser 3.0 or higher (included with the Data Access Components), MySQL 3.23 or higher (included on this CD-ROM), Real Networks Real Video Player.

So, if you do not have NT4 or Windows 2000 on your computer, are you ready to make the change?? Think before you buy this book.
"

worked just fine on my iMac. Running 9.2 inside OS-X. just though that some people might appreciate having this pointted out.

Sue@aol.com? Hmmmm....who writes these reviews that read like press releases anyway? Does Amazon do any research? Or is do they just get paid to post it.

As founder of 3DARK, one of the Internet's largest and most comprehensive resources for 3D computer graphics and animation enthusiasts, I am often asked, "Which 3D/CG schools are the best?" or "Are there any good 3D/CG schools in my area?"

Gardner's Guide is the definitive resource for answering these questions. I've had the good fortune to meet with the author personally about his guide and it's very clear that he puts a great deal of effort into providing budding 3D, computer graphics, and animation enthusiasts with an abundance of clear and accurate information.

Typical entries for each of the schools in this book include information about:

Degrees offered, curricular, facilities, student body, faculty profile, deadlines and financial aid, admission requirements, expenses, and contact information.

Basically everything you need to know in order to make informed decisions about which school you would like to attend is in this guide.

Considering the cost and importance of getting a good education, the price of this guide is well worth the investment many times over!

I would highly recommended it.

Zero Z. Batzell Dean

This book is 100% better than the first edition. Gives even more information on CGI schools. Saved me a lot of time in my quest to find an animation school.

The computer industry is growing at an incredibly fast rate, and it is very hard to get guidance in this field. I found Gardner's Guide to be a great help in my search for an excellent school. And it helped me save money in the long run on my applications because I was able to focus my attention on fewer schools that were better for me.

Suffice it to say that I already knew more than this book could tell me, courtesy of 3D Artist magazine, 3D, Digital Video, and the internet. Au states at the outset that the book only addresses academic educational programs-i.e., semesters, quarters, admissions, registrars, matriculation, baccalaureate degrees -that lot, rather than the highly-concentrated, intense immersion training offered at training centers such as NYU's CADA or the Renaissance Center in Tennessee. the book doesn't mention either one, and omits many programs, for example, in my geographic area. Nor does it offer any plain-English assessment of the programs it does cover.

This book is everything I hoped it would be and more. In a very clear an readable design it covers all the aspects of a 3d short animation process. This process can be used on any length of 3d animation. It's not a technical book but a must have for everyone who wants to make a solid animation but does not quite know where to begin. The whole inspired series is very useful, but this one is where it all begins. Also comes with a nice dvd with lots of inspiring shorts. Great!

This book has everything you need to know about making a short 3D film. (I'm making one about a box turtle (I love turtles!) and a butterfly using Hexagon and Carrara.) The CD containing 39 short films is icing on the cake. This book makes the best kind of teacher - you don't just learn from it, but are inspired by it!

It's a great book that I would recommend to anyone serious about creating their own Short Animated Film.

More informative than I could have ever imagined. It's everything you will learn at a 20,000 dollar a year university.

The included DVD is also filled with some great examples.

ENJOY and happy film making!

I bought this hoping that it would teach me how to create a short film. The story I already have, it's just the skills and schedule that I need. This book gave me a GENERAL IDEA but it wasn't specific enough. It would say, "then use your compositing softare to put the renders together." Ummm... How?
I know it wasn't meant to be a complete-all-included-only-this-needed kind of book, but even so...
I would say that unless you are a true beginner to this field, look for something else, but if you are a true beginner, it is excellent. It taught me alot and I am very VERY glad I bought this book.

I love the case studies in this book, as well as the format of using a workflow to structure the book, much as a project might be. But the authors spend too much time on story and character, material which is better covered in books dedicated to the subject (and written to hold your interest a little more as well). While the importance of these elements is significant and must not be overlooked, this is not why I bought this book. I would have been more satisfied had the space been used for more interviews and case studies (where an emphasis could have been placed on the storytelling). Other than that, I found the book inspirational and very helpful in encouraging my own ambitions towards making a short CG film - I especially appreciated how it stayed away from the platform and software wars, and focused on the things that just about every platform and software can (or should be able to) do.

if i could only buy one book in my whole life, this would be it

If you want to know the poem that inspired the Disney fillm you can't go wrong with this book. You get the entire original poem along with a beautiful presentation. The poem is very short, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in style and mood. From the outset this is a different kind of book. There is no binding, instead it is one long sheet of parer folded back and forth. This give's the reader the sense they are reading an authentic Chinese document. The photos, drawings, sketches, and Chinese writing inside only heighten this impression. It's also a facinating study in how the film was structured. You can see where Disney added to the story or left things out, as well as see the the visual development of Mulan and her world as told by the pre-production art work. Wthout a doubt, this makes for the best book of a Disney film yet!

I love Disney & what they have done with the books they have made into movies and how they added their touch, often changing the ending to fit their ideas.

Having said that it is also nice & very important for us to read or the author's original story. Hans Christian Anderson's was a gifted writer & story teller of many wonderful books. In his book the Little Mermaid it has a much sadder ending than Disney's. But again, it's important to know the original story.

This is one of my favorite Mulan books, simply because it was done not as a traditional book, but as a Chinese folding style book. The book has 2 red covers - red is a very special color for the Chinese. The paper that was chosen looks like it is handmade paper and that just add to the beauty of this book. I also like that the poem is in English and also Chinese Characters. The author put alot of thought into this book, and it really shines!

This is definately one of my most treasured books!

Most of the reasons I get any Disney book is because I want to know how to draw the characters(and because I just like the movie).For Mulan, I heard it was an ancient poem before a movie, so I wanted to read the actual poem. I was browsing around in the Disney store when, low and behold, there was the poem. Inside was also a lot of rough pencil drawigs to help me draw the characters. This is a collectible book for any Disney or Mulan fan.

There's and old quote that says that the greatest perfumes come in small bottles. This applies for this little, but beautiful book about an ancient Chinese poem that serves as the inspiration for Disney's Mulan.

First you get a little red box, inside you find a scroll made in the typical Chinese way. You unfold little by little the pages that reach almost 240 inches long. And while you read the poem, one really get in the mood because it includes the poem in chinese characters as well.

And if you are looking for illustrations, the book includes some in color, some made by pencil and even a couple of what seems original Chinese paintings.

You get that much in a little book! isn't it great?

In the early chapters, this book uses a tutorial styled approach with numbered steps. However, discussion and examination of game code is the approach utilized for the rest of the book. As the book states, this is a "look at and learn" approach. Some of the topics discussed include: sound, physics, optimization, and games for mobile devices. The included CD has the usual .fla sources files, trial software, images and other miscellaneous game files.

The book starts with an interesting and quite original history on gaming. Although a short section, I have never heard a history described like this before. The first game, a standard mouse clicker, is introduced in Chapter 3. In general, this book used fun and historically familiar games like block breakers, memory and various scrolling and shooting games. Only the basic foundation of each game was covered. Nevertheless, expanding the games with levels, modes of play or options should not be a problem for most. Chapter 8 on "Saving Data" covered some more useful and new material for me. Sadly, this was the first time learning that Flash uses browser like cookie files (.sol) to save data. When it came to physics, the chapters were straight to the point with what equations to use and what they do with plenty of short examples. There was no Trigonometry overview (sometimes from the beginning) that some books commonly use. While not for everyone, I actually preferred this direct approach to physics and math. Two chapters were dedicated to handling basic 3D using 2D imagery, including the final and most complex game in the book. This game, called "Asteroid Run," brought Flash to its limits while demonstrating a simple 3D shooter. All the code and concepts in the chapters were explained clearly and included plenty of screen shots. Surprisingly, it seemed as if every line of code had at least a sentence or two of related explanation. Many books might just reference a previous page or CD to save space. This book, conversely, would never hesitate to repeat code to make it easier to read and understand.

I only came across a few issues and problems with this book. First, the steps provided for creating the graphics were a bit inconsistent. Early on, they assume very little knowledge (think baby steps). Eventually, however, the graphics increase in difficulty and just become too time consuming to create. Typically, I prefer blank or codeless project files with the graphics already created as is the case with most books. In the chapter for saving data, the path listed for the .sol files was incorrect. It probably varies by system, but on my Windows XP SP2 machine it was in: "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Macromedia\FlashPlayer\#SharedObjects\KDXDVGHB\localhost\)." Also, the shuffle function for the "Sound Hunter" game in Chapter 7 did not work based on either the printed code or on the CD. Finally, sometimes code snippets, that were supposed to be the same, differed a bit when repeated throughout a chapter (i.e. a function call appearing or disappearing). Ultimately, this is another book where a companion website with an errata sheet would have helped.

Although the difficulty level changed at times, this book is probably fine for beginner to intermediate level users as the back cover states. An overview on ActionScript was actually included as one of the last chapters. Even though placement was questionable, this ActionScript primer was a fairly long and thorough chapter. Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Game Development did have a few minor problems, but it had far more positives and included a few original topics (at least for me) as well. In the end, though, it turned out to be among the best of the Flash books I have read so far.

Rating: 4.5/5

I originally bought this book because I wanted to get better at actionscript. I, like many, had originally learned basic actionscript from tutorials. But that simply did not do it for me. So after buying this book I can happily say that I am a decent actionscripter. So far I have coded two video games since then, the first one wasnt very good, because most first times arn't, but the second one already has over 1 million views total on various different websites. This book teaches you the code, and how to code it properly. I will say that there are a few typos and errors in the book but I have noticed that in every programming book i've bought so far so no big deal. I think it was clearly worth the money and still use the book to this day.

I had never made a game with Flash before and had barely had any experience with Actionscript. But the chapter "Actionscript for Games Primer" helped me learn almost everything that I needed. The3 rest of the code that I needed to make games, I learned from the exapmles of the games. The book does an amazing job of show how to use Actionscript to make fundamental features like jumping, shooting and gravity. I can make my own games with confidence now, and rarely need to refer back to the book, but when I do it is always very helpful. It also has cool things like an ASCII chart which is very helpful. Gken Rhodes is a great author.

I found this book very useful for me as a new beginner in game programming. Good examples. It teaches you the basics - all you need to start.

I am an industry professional and have worked with Flash in varying degrees and versions from Flash 5 on up to Flash 8 Pro for the past 10 years. I inquisitively bought this book with the intention of learning game coding (specifically to learn an intro to 3d coding). While the book does contain an extensive amount of code and examples, the author fails to give satisfactory explanations within each tutorial. For instance, the author uses words such as "frame" in a sense not to suggest the frame on the timeline (as every Flash developer and designer would understand it to be), but rather to describe the line portion of a box one draws on the stage (as in a 'picture' frame). It took me a few moments to realize he meant the frame surrounding the box, and not the timeline. I was hopelessly clicking the frame in the timeline attempting to follow the tutorial. This is but one example of the confusing way the author designed his tutorials. If the tutorials contained detailed graphics of each step, they would also be less confusing. One would see, for example, that the frame of the box was at issue, and not the frame on the timeline. The book does not contain enough graphic materials to support the tutorials for someone who is not very VERY familiar with Flash.

Also, the code examples when followed exactly fail to produce the expected results. For example, the Sound Hunter game included in this book. While it is an interesting twist on the 'old-school' card game of Match, (utilizing sound instead of imagery), the code given does not work properly. The random function 'shuffle' fails to shuffle the boxes around, and instead produces a box which, if clicked twice, disappears without making a match. And the author in no way discusses HOW to apply the sounds bites to each box - the code simply does not suffice. I spent an hour trying to get the sounds to attach to the random boxes without success. If I use the Flash file contained on the CD it works, but if I attempt to create my own file, it fails.

Also, the code is sloppy - not at all the code of a professional (i.e. no documentation). Each tutorial should stress the use of documentation - again, as a professional in the industry, I cannot tell you how important it is to document your code! No one lives forever, and no one stays at one job forever - and only you know what is going on inside your own head. Document! Therefore I can better understand you when I need to make changes to your work 3 months from now....

This book is not worth the price - better to purchase it used and thusly cheap, or to borrow from a friend or the library for free. Better yet, find another book! The Lynda series offers better choices for learning ActionScript.

I was actualy surprised at the way my items where packaged. Mastering Maya8.5 is a pretty big book and it ended up being shrink wrapped with another item and these items weren't boxed. In putting these two items together and packaging them the way they were the book ended up with horrible corner damage. This is the first time I have ever been dissapointed with Amazon.

I bought this book to help understand nCloth in Maya and it was very helpful with explaining the different properties and how to create different effects. I can't speak for the other sections in the book but the chapters on cloth were very helpful for me.

I highly encourage anyone who wants to learn 3D animation with Maya 8.5 to get this book. It comes with a CD ROM that has many helpful source files that go along with the chapter. Each chapter gives you a thorough lesson in the many powerful features that Maya 8.5 offers.

This book isn't bad but you don't really get to Master Maya with it. Mastering Maya 8.5 does provide a pretty thorough overview. I had to fly through this book in 10 weeks because the college I attend is on the quarter system. It's a decent reference book, however, it doesn't give specific answers but gives the reader a more general idea. I bought Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting for the next quarter and it goes into detailed explanations for every project. Maya is an extremely intensive program and time is needed to really understand it. Mastering Maya 8.5 is a great foundation book that takes you through the most basic steps everyone should know before continuing further.

I bought this book along with "Learning Autodesk Maya 8: Foundation" here on Amazon, and have found Mastering Maya 8.5 to be a much better help. I am relatively new to Maya, but have a 3D background (and 2d of course), applying it to mechanical engineering applications using other Autodesk products for around 10 years.

My work experience (even though it is in a different field than what Maya is used for) has given me a leg up on learning Maya (sort of, as Maya is its OWN world entirely compared to all the other programs I've learned, as they are just for modeling, not animation, texturing, lighting, etc.). Just so everyone knows that my review on this book is also tainted by my work history.

Using this along with Gnomon Workshop DVD's has made me a lot more proficient at what I need to do for work in the real world a LOT faster than trying to use "Learning AutoDesk Maya 8, Foundation".

I would recommend it for the intermediate 3D modeler/artist over all the other books I've looked through in friend's libraries, especially if you are actually USING 8.5 as opposed to older versions of Maya, of course :)

Very very good advice immediately in Chapter 1, regarding learning Maya in general, "The Maya interface can be a bit intimidating, and it's not fair to expect yourself to pick it up right up and remember where everything is"... also "Try not to rush it.." Maya is a large mountain of a program, and this book has helped me along my path quite a bit.

For the new Maya user who has a 3d background in other programs, I would recommend this as a first book, even though it has the word "mastering" in the title. Also, the Gnomon workshop DVD's on Maya are very good also if you can afford them or borrow them from a friend.

I picked this book up as it was the only c4d book I've seen locally at any of my stores and when I first picked it up bout 6-8months ago I was being too literal with reading his instructions,. sometimes his prose when translated to english leaves me wondering he'll say do something "and then this will also be selected" which could be interpretted as ok so have both selected,.. minor translation issues notwith standanding,.. as a Pretty much Complete beginning Im Managing this just fine Even using a book for 7 on 9.1 and unlike most 3d books I've found his ultimate task in this book is something really interesting to model and each piece he shows you how to do it using all the different methods avail when I picked the book back up when I attempted to model something I started reading it again after spending some time importing stuff I'd done elsewhere and rendering it c4d and then I wasnt struggling with translation and a unknown system everything made sence
In short this book Is Quite Good and Quite Possible to be done by a Complete modeling Novice BUT my advice if you do fit those categorys,.. Play around with the program for a while,. I know everyone says familiarize yourself with it,. but In this case its soo true once you get used to the way everything moves in this you'll wonder why everything isnt structured so well

Good book :)

I have about 17 years of 3d applications experience. I had virtually hit a wall. Nothing really worked the way I think. Enter Cinema 4D. This book opened my eyes and opens up the power within Cinema 4D. I have made it through Chapter two and it is a wonderful read and experience. I like the way the book allows you to think about what you are modeling so that you can get yourself to where Arndt wants you to be. I would recommend this book again and again. I had to so much fun, I did some of the exercises more than once, because Arndt's method to to teach you to think about what you are modeling. I found the steps to be about intermediate level. I basically put down the Cinema 4D tutorials and have become engrossed in this book. Not every single step is mentioned, and I like that because there are places for one to 'think' like Arndt in modeling things like Hypernurbs and figuring out what modeling technique is best for what you are setting out to do.

I would buy more books from this author.

This was the first book I ever purchased for Cinema 4D and it remains the best 3rd-party Cinema 4D book that I've ever purchased. Admittedly, that is partially because there are surprisingly few English language Cinema 4D books to choose from. But Arndt's book provides a solid basis in modeling, animating, and rendering in Cinema 4D 7. Maxon revised the application interface substantially in Cinema 4D R8.x, but much of the information in this book still carries over fine into R8.x. But you should probably have a good understanding of both Cinema 7 and 8 before trying to undertake one of the projects in this book using R8.x.

This book delves into some focused modeling and animation projects and given its subtitle, "A Workshop for 2D/3D Graphics Pros", that's what you should expect. The person who wrote this up as a "bad book" because it didn't tell them how to install Cinema 4D seems really lost. The manuals that come with Cinema do a fine job of guiding you through the installation - if you even require any assistance. This isn't Cinema For Dummies. Instead, what it is is a trip through some interesting projects that provide some knowledge and thorough usage of many aspects of Cinema 4D 7. It doesn't particularly matter if you are familiar with those aspects as the text provides ample introduction to nearly everything except the most trivial facets (installation of the software, configuration of your machine). Much of the modeling makes use of 3 custom plug-ins (EdgeExtrude, EdgeBevel, and Cutter) which are provided for no additional cost by the author.

Overall, as of late September 2003, this is still the best English language 3rd-party companion book available for Cinema 4D. Could it be improved? Certainly. As other reviewers have mentioned, the translation gets in the way a little at times and the subject matter could be expanded plenty. Arndt has written other more recent German language books and I'd love to see them show up in English. He's obviously a very talented Cinema user and author. This book probably deserves more like 4 or 4.5 stars, but the earlier 2-star review was a blatant injustice and needs to be offset. That's why I went with 5 stars.

I noticed that some reviewers downgraded this book because it doesn't offer elementary information that is available (in mass quantities) in the Cinema manuals. This is patently unfair, as the book does not aim to replace the manuals or to provide a basic introduction to Cinema 4D. Rather, it is a guide for intermediate to advanced users that provides clear instruction on some the darker corners of Cinema 4D XL7--information that one would be hard-pressed to glean from the manuals, or even from months of experimentation.

It is precisely this that makes the book so valuable! Mr. Koenigsmark explains in exacting detail the nuances of Cinema's material system--including the lightly-documented but powerful SLA shaders. He provides one of the best explanations of radiosity that you will find anywhere. He explains COFFEE scripting. He provides detailed modeling tutorials that address the peculiar strengths and weaknesses of the program. In short, assuming you have a basic understanding of the program to begin with, this book will take your 3D skills to a new level. Very highly recommended.

I bought this book because I read from other reviews that it was good, but it's a disappointment. First of all, this book doesn't have a picture of the Cinema 4D XL's user interface, showing the toolbars, icons, and other items when a person opens up the program. This is important for teaching beginners to show them what the interface looks like and what it means. Second, the author doesn't show the steps how to do things using "Follow these steps: 1) Click this icon 2) click that, 3)... etc. Other books are much better because they offer numeric steps to teach or tell people how to do something. Third, this books does even have character animation. For beginners, it's hard to figure out how to open the Cinema 4D XL program because the author doesn't show how to use the provided cd to start the software. It's a boring and disappointing book to read. Not recommended for buying.

Movie Maker2 by Jan Ozer is An Excellent Book. I,like most people,have Windows Movie Maker on my computer so I wanted a book that would help me do good book promotion video's and understand the program better. This book does everything I hoped for and I am glad I purchased this book and every since I purchased it I use it at least once a week to make sure I am doing things right and also to see if the book suggests doing something different that will result in a better video. My video can be seen on my web-sites and places like Google and Yahoo. Look for ErvHarmon
Video's

Thank you Jan Ozer for writing this book as it has helped me very much and I gladly recommend it to anyone that wants good results from Windows Movie Maker2

Download and research for movie maker effects, I found some decent transitions and title effects for movie maker :)

I wanted to know how I could take video from my camera, edit it, create a video and store it on a CD. This book did exactly that in a no-brainer manner. The book showed the Window's screens and what you had to do at each screen. The only minor problem is that the screens are different for different versions of Windows.

I didn't know - and this book showed me how to use it. It is so easy to create a narrated powerpoint presentation, and give you the ability to distribute as needed.

I cannot believe how easy it is to create movies using my video camera, and even better, the softare is FREE (Look in your "START " to find it.

This book could NOT make it easier to take full use of the program.

I lead a business unit and now pre-record and narrate all of my powerpoint presentations, which has eliminated the need to give multiple presentations on the same topic. This has reduced my travel, time needed to present multiple times, etc.

I looked at a number of other books on the Microsoft software package, and this one is the easiest to use by far. YOU WILL BE AN EXPERT AT CREATING VIDEO BLOGS OR NARRATED POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS IN LESS THAN A FEW HOURS using this book.

Jan Ozer's book was a great find for me. I needed to quickly edit digital interviews using Movie Maker 2 and this book gave me everything I needed (and more)! I jumped right in reading the chapters I needed--I'll save the "other stuff" for another day.

This is an excellent resource tool for my book shelf. I really like how the author took his own personal project and walked me through it from beginning to end, offering process and tips along the way.

I edited a professional looking video for the web--not bad for a first project!

This book has three great uses: as a learning tool for beginners, as an update for intermediates, and as a reference for experts. All groups can be benefited from this book.

With regards to the first, this book provides a much more natural progression between the topics when read front to back. Also, it does not assume a lot of mathematical knowledge, and it will provide some of it as it goes along.

Also, for people who know OpenGL 1.x, this book will be a great way of being introduced to shader programming as part of OpenGL. Also, something I found invaluable in this book is the chapters in optimization (buffer objects, etc). It talks enough about optimizing OpenGL to high-performance applications without delving into 3D engine design (something that is out of the cope), but still filling a niche. Last, it talks about several things that are taken for granted by professionals but novices sometimes have a hard time accessing (post-processing, multiple passes, image processing, etc.)

Even professionals will find the book useful for looking things up, or to use as a reference.

This is an excellent book for OpenGL topic. I noticed it also includes the most recent works in the computer graphics field which makes it totally different from the free 1st edition bluebook on the internet. I read it everyday on the train to and back from the work. The words used in the book are easy to understand. The authors did a good job presenting the technical details. This is a must-have for all OpenGL software engineers. Would recommend to other people!

The binding broke the first time I opened it and half the color plates fell out.

The code for the book is only provided in one huge zip file, and the compiled versions are outdated. They will crash on an updated version of XP if you are using a normal user account. The provided libraries for freeglut need to be recompiled to work on newer version of Visual Studio.

No electronic version of the book is provided(unless you count having to sign up for "free" 3 month trial membership of some web service that allows you to view it for a limited time..bah).

Sent an e-mail to the webmaster about providing smaller files for downloading the code, but there was no response.

I have no complaints! The most complete source of information for OpenGL you can find. I've spent a great amount of time searching through online tutorials, and nothing compares.

The information and code in this book are great. If that were my only criteria, I would rate it 5 stars. But I have ordered 2 copies so far in an attempt to get one with an acceptable binding. Both copies split at the color plate section the first time I opened them. The color plates are falling out. Amazon was nice enough to send me the second copy and have me ship back the first one free of charge. So I am giving up and am using the second copy even with the pages falling out (not much choice if I want the info in the book), but it is still irritating.

I've spent 13 years working in 3D computer graphics, but never once touched 3D Studio Max. A couple of weeks ago I had a hankering to start, and needed a book to guide me. A few false starts later, and I came across Sams "Teach Yourself" book. It's excellent. There's a couple of minor problems with it though they don't detract from the book. (Some of the images in the sections about shapes are very difficult to de-cipher). There's no CD with the book, but everything is downloadable from their website mentioned in the first chapter. If you need an easy way into 3DS Max, this is the book you should use. By the third evening with the book, I was already producing some pretty nifty renders, much to my wife's dismay. Now not only do I spend a lot of time playing RollerCoaster Tycoon, I spend a lot of time with Max too.....

Where the heck is the CD? I sent the book back the first time because I thought it was an error that it wasn't sent to me.

You need to stop advertising that the book has a CD -- it DOESN'T!

I've spent hours on the internet looking thru hordes of internet tutorials to find that I have failed to complete a single one...what am I looking for you ask? A 3ds max for dummies...but since I havn't seen one of those this book will suffice, if your a dummy, like me, and need complete explinations then this book is for you, and for me as well!!

I never took the time to write a review before..but after reading and trying out this book I have to say it is the best 3d max book for beginners ! I bought other books before and I gave up because I was bored to death but this one is really interesting and touches a lot of important aspects of the software in a very clear way...I am now finshing modeling my first character using all the technique I picked up from the book. I wish the author of this book will write an advanced book to continue from the place this one sttoped so I can make my new modelings realy come to life : )

Whether you are new to 3d modeling entirely, or just trying to convert your skills from some other 3d modeling package to MAX, this book is a great first-time MAX introduction. Buy this book now!

If you go through this book in order you will not get "hung up" trying to figure out how to do something (like happens in some other tutorial books) because the examples are amazingly clear. Each example comes with lots of pictures and very specific numbered sequences telling you what you should do.

Experienced modelers may find the book somewhat wordy. However, going through the tutorials quickly will teach you the 'MAX religion' and get you off on the right foot. When your later trying to figure out why something dosn't work as you expect, you can find a tutorial which does it, and be reminded EXACTLY how to make it work. I have some amateur experience with SoftImage and TrueSpace and i found the book incredibly useful.

Even though this book is for MAX R3, I used it for R4 and it was great. The only thing about R4 which didn't match the examples was the modifier stack/modifier chooser -- but it's enough the same that you can figure it out.