3DS Books

I don`t speak a lot english and i was so scare to buy it because this guy is brithis but i saw some reviews and took the risk. when i got the book we can resume in one ward i was just surprised, it is completly amazing, i dont know for one else but for me this guy that`s really knows how to explain the difficult world of 3D, Thanks Peter Draper I've already found the key to my goal "this Book"

Most books out there are rehashes of the help documentation or popular tutorials already out there. For this book, however, almost every single tutorial covered tricks and techniques that I've never been exposed to before in my years of working with 3D Studio. Definitely an eye-opener for anyone who wants to learn how to create any sort of realistic environmental effect.

This is one book that is a must-have.

Most 3D books are unimpressive to me-- the sorts of things that could be readily learned by reading the manual or help files (particularly in the case of 3D Studio, which has excellent help and tutorials.)

Pete Draper's book is one of the happy exceptions-- it extends one's knowledge and capabilities, and moreover, his work is excellent; these are images and animations that would get you a job, if you could make them.

Would that there were more books of this calibre!

I have had this book for about 2 months now and all I can say is wow. This book has really been helpful...extremley helpful I must say. Easy to follow, the tutorials ALL work....Pete draper expresses all aspects of each tutorial and explains the WHY factor in each step in his tutorials. I cannot praise this book high enough. It has solved a lot of underlying problems that most would use plugins to work around. I give this book a 100% feedback....and I really hope he launches another...I will definatley buy the next one.

There is a reason why the used books are priced the same as the new for this item. This is an essential buy. Beginners should try get their hands on something a little easier first, but everyone with even a little bit of experience needs to get this book. Whereas many books leave you with a feeling of being "rushed" or of not being properly thought out, this one leaves you with an impression of having every single tiny detail meticulously planned. The DVD even includes video tutorials that didn't fit in the pages of the book! And the author has a website for the book and users that have problems with the tutorials. And guess what? He actually visits the website and offers help! wow! what a concept!

The tutorials themselves are brilliantly planned. First, we get reference footage, that is analyzed in order to get the best effect. Then, Draper goes through each step, and EXPLAINS EXACTLY WHAT WAS DONE AND WHY IN EACH STEP. This is vital and is sadly overlooked in many tutorials from other sources.

What will he teach you? Exactly what the book promises: extremely realistic water, earth, air, and fire. This is done mostly through the powerful new particle flow system and multi-layer materials (I mean MULTI-MULTI-MULTI-layer materials here). After only a few tutorials, I my skills with procedural materials and particle flow increased exponentially.

An essential buy.

This book is the best tutorial for learning 3ds Max that I've read. It is not for novices, in that it assumes you know the 3ds Max interface. However, it is a step-by-step guide for creating professional quality animations for broadcast media. The author works for MSNBC. He breaks down 3 real-world projects in an easy-to-understand way, from storyboards to final output. This single book jump-started my understanding of complex modeling and animation techniques using 3ds Max. Although this book was made for version 4 of the program (the program is currently in version 9), the interface has not changed significantly in that it would make this book obsolete. I used it using version 6 and returned to it in version 8 with no difficulties. Well worth your time.

I am a beginner user of Viz and Max and will be using it for architectural 3D rendering. What I look for in a text book are lengthy tutorial exercises. I want to know step by step everything that I have to do to reproduce what the author is showing. This book is great for that. There are three main excercises that go the full length of the 550 pages of this book. As an example the 2002 voting machine tutorial goes from pages 182 to 315, covering each step of the construction. Chismar even includes alternate means of construction to show why one method works better than other methods.

I am looking forward to an updated book by Chismar on the lastest release of Max. I have not heard if one is being made.

One slight drawback...Chismar does not deal with the possiblities of drawing and rendering for architecture. If the new release of Max does include the architectural functions of Viz, then there will be a need for tutorials on those items. None the less the command structure of the software for Viz and Max is virtually the same, so learning that part from Chismar's book is still very important.

The most important feature of this book is the lengthy step by step tutorials. This is the first thing I look for in a computer book - to see that the tutorials are long. to me this indicates that the writer is very thorough with all steps in the project and does not leave out important steps along the way.

If you buy used make sure the disk is included.

Overall, it is a good book with clear instruction for intermediate user.

I give it 4 stars since it doesn't tell you the detailed procedures to reproduce the cool special effect described in the Part 4 (Real World Case Stuides).

This book is a fantastic example of how all computer text books should be structured - Step-by-step tutorials that demonstrate experienced solutions to real-world projects. I know I speak for many people when I say that I learn by DOING, not by reading paragraphs upon paragraphs of text and lengthy descriptions of "what this app can do for you". No one likes to attempt to digest a "features description" manual and try to piece together the various complexities of a high-end application like 3DS MAX from various disjointed sources. I need a seasoned, talented professional, with years of industry experience, to step me through exactly how an application performs various industry tasks, e.g. how to make a 30-second TV spot from scratch, how to make a highly-professional News program opener, or how to make robotic-looking voting machines animated together in a 3-camera shoot. John Chrismar performs this tasks with a detail and finesse that is extremely hard to find in the computer textbook industry. I look for this style in every computer book I pick up, but don't often find it, if at all. The industry giants on the programming side of the industry, like Wrox Press, should use John's book as an example of how to write an effective computer textbook. Don't waste my time with information overload, stuffed together losely by a quasi-team of 6 geeks. SHOW ME how you solved a problem with the application or programming language, from start to finish, while I follow along, bit by bit, line by line, click by click. Show me how to build a genuine and valuable creation using the tool you are teaching me to use. This is exactly what John does.

I started with the last of three tutorials and worked backward through the book, because the News Program Opener tutorial looked the most intriguing. I learned more about 3DS MAX after that one tutorial then I had by reading the documentation or from any of the other three 3DS MAX books I own. I saw someone else mention that there were some small mistakes and missed "figure" numbers on the screenshots here and there, but this did not detract from completing the tutorials in the slightest. Two extra seconds of thought got me passed these minor editing oversights very easily, and they were very minor in comparison to most computer textbooks.

It was beyond refreshing to witness and practice along with a professional at work from beginning to end: from importing your vectors from Illustrator, to cleaning up the splines, to extruding, modelling each piece, assembling, naming conventions, creating materials, shortcuts, to animating, adding a soundtrack, right down to post-production and final render. I absolutely can not stand books where Step 1 is "Import our half-finished Design #643.2 from our accompanying CD-ROM". Not the case with this book. You are stepped through the process, end to end. When you are done with each tutorial, you have a finished work of media art THAT YOU CREATED and a head full of usable, retainable 3DS MAX knowledge that can be carried into any job or hobby.

Excellent job, John. You have gained a new fan. I will purchase your other books, regardless of topic. :D

Thank you.

There are a million expensive plugins out there, and each does only one thing. You can buy each of them, or you can invest in your ability to learn Max's subtleties. This guy has apparently been doing great work since before there was a big plugin market, so buy his book, and you'll save all kinds of money. Plus you'll have a FAR better understanding of the various methods that can be used to perform relatively complex and difficult tasks. It's an exciting read for the right kind of 3D geek. You will probably find yourself thinking "I didn't know you could do THAT with THIS!"

Pete Draper knows his stuff! The tutorials are in color and quite easy to follow, except for the complex materials, but Pete explains what each one does in detail.

The author makes use of the Particles Systems a lot which you will be very good at by the end of the book. I own a bunch of books on Max, and this is by far, hands down, bar none the best book currently available.

Be warned this book does not cover everything in Max(such as Mental Ray), but after you finish this book you will have an arsenal of things you can do.

I recommend this book to beginners and experts alike, both will walk away with a lot of new ideas and knowledge about 3DS Max.

If you want to learn particle flow this is the book for you. Pete does things I never thought 3DS Max was capable of. The tuts in the book are great and there are a couple of bonus video tuts on the accompanying DVD. Buy this book!

This book has EXCELLENT tutorials, very descriptive and in-depth, the only complaint I have is it needs more tutorials on water, such as a running faucet tutorial, would've been helpful for my 3d animation class.

If you want to know how to use 3ds Max's Particle Flow...this is the book you should buy. One word of caution...make sure you brush up on your PFlow basics before digging in. The book definitely assumes that you know what you're doing when wiring up PFlow's Operators and Tests. There's screen shots to help you along, start and completed scene files, and a real nice handful of cool effects covered. More for the Intermediate and Advanced user.

Hello everyone ! I bought this book cause I need it !
Not only for a better understanding of max tools but for the entire process of making of a good 3d movie animation !
Well,this book acomplish its purpose !The book pass through every stages of this process !Congratulations for the author and for his clarity expositions !

I just received my copy, this is not much of a review but I have a question, i will update this as soon as i have my review.
My question: is it normal that the book comes with 2 cd-roms? And why are on the 2 cd-roms the same data?

This is a great book on completing a project, it helps in every respect, lots of tutorials, references, information, examples etc....
One thing is not mentioned, to complete these projects, you will need more then 3DS Max 6, you will need to have Adobe PREMIER to make/edit the movie, for special effects & more, you will need COMBUSTION 3, even though it is not necessary but it will be essential for a complete animation, you will need to have a sound editing software like Cakewalk's SONIC or something similar and of course Adobe Photoshop.
I am very happy with the book, and have already started planning & sketching a storyboard plus modeling the environment I will use, my characters are almost ready, but because of this fantastic book, I didn't know about the sound editing and the movie editing outside of 3DS Max requiered to finish a movie, now with this book I will complete my animation project.

This book is a very good surprise. It's very complete, well explained, very clear.

That book contains exacly what is said on the cover.. So no deception possible! (An exemple that Sanford Kennedy shoud follow because his book about 3ds max 5 is terrible, a total desaster.)

So this is the book to buy! Thank you Mr Barret Fox.

He shows how he developed, boarded, modeled, textured, rigged & animated the 3 figures shown on the cover. He doesn't wander off on side issues, nor does he gloss over the tricky parts. The book comes with a CD of usable models and scenes so you can see what and how he did it.


One word of warning is the author assumes the reader is advanced on the subject - don't get this book if you need a basic how-to animate with computer book.

Wanderfull! I finally really doing it!
(what about character animation cbt?)

DEAR Jason Leong from SINGAPORE PLEASE SEND AN E-MAIL
FOR ME : MAXBOX200@YAHOO.COM
I'M WATING TO HEARING FROM YOU.

I have about 20 to 25 books on max and only 2 other books have valuted my skill level as high as this CD has done.
The CD plays great and flows at an excellent pace. Even the way they teach, gives you some great layout and operational techniques to make using MAX so much more efficient.
Plus what makes this training great is THE TUTOR. He is creatig the model at the same time as he is telling you what to do. Hence you always see his steps even if he skips mentioning it.
I have never been so pleased using one product as I have been using this CD.
As someone wrote earlier the CD is worth 3 times more than what we paid for it.

This CD has greatly improved my modelling skills and knowledge in max. It is like having a teacher there showing you and explaining every step, with the advantage of rewinding as many times as you need to. I would recommend this to the beginner of max modelling. It has certanily helped me out a long way. And Tim Kugler provides great support as well.

What are you waiting for, go buy a copy!
Shan J

I have talk to Tim before the author for this Cd.He's a nice chap.I got hold his disc and when through.I was shocked all this while I bought a lot of books on MAX.But none help through for a successfull modeling.But I went through his stuff its power and easy to understand.he make it so easy to absord....I recommend for Max lovers to go for his CD.

This book doesn't contain a lot of jargon. It has pictures of how to do things and explains things in non-technical terms. Great for beginners but also useful as a refresher when you haven't used some aspect for awhile. Well laid out index so easy to find what your looking for. These people have done a good job. Hope they bring out another one more advanced.

I had no idea what the interface looked like or ANY idea about how to use 3DS Max; I just knew I want to learn how to do animations.

Well, I know this book isn't going to have me making 3D animation movies, but it does give a great insight into the program's basics.

Lots of hands-on exercises, just as I like. Lots of pictures too. The authors do an excellent job of spelling out the basics and telling you exactly what you need to do to complete an excerise. And, as you move further along in the book, they "neglect" to tell you how to do something they've already covered - just like a teacher would do in class. It forces you to explore, reread (if you don't understand a subject) and practice with the program - what you need to do if you're ever going to learn to use 3DS Max.

A very well written book about the basics of 3DS Max 7.

I highly recommend this book to the beginning 3ds max student. It was very helpful to me, as it explained more of the basics and gave more detail behind the steps. Also, the tutorials frequently used diffent tools to accomplish the same task. This showed how to use the graphical interface, quad-menus, toolbars, etc.

I found it the best of several books I bought to get my feet wet with 3ds max. It really helped with some of the basic lighting and material concepts. While, this book doesn't even begin to touch all the features of 3ds max, it was a great primer and I'm glad I read it.

This book is perfect for those just getting started in 3ds Max 7. There are a lot of easy to follow screen shots to accompany the text so it is possible to still follow along when you're not in front of your computer. It is written with plenty of step by step explanations of what you are doing and why as well as a great accompanying disk to help with tutorials. It even tackles some of the more difficult aspects of 3d modeling such as composition, the dreaded material editor (it even throws in a side bar about UVW unwrapping) and lighting. It is written with the beginner in mind and does a great job explaining concepts and procedures without insulting your intelligence. It may, however, be a little below intermediate users, it can be a great tool to brush up on fundamentals. I can't recommend this book enough for those looking to get their feet wet in MAX.

The book by Till & O'Connell is great for newcomers simply because it doesn't attempt to give you too much information but only what new users might need to learn the basics of max 7. I had never turned on max 7 and within a week I was amazed as to how much I had learned without having any previous experience with 3d softwares. This should be the first book you buy if you are starting from scratch with max 7.

At first I thought to myself that this book was going to be your typical "BAD" computer book where you have to get up, look for people who know how to use 3Ds Max or you would either look for some written or video tutorials online to get you up and started running this software. So I honestly didn't bother buying the book at first until one day by coincidence my colleague happens to have the exact same book that I was looking at Amazon 5 days ago. He told me that the book is an easy read especially with the lingo that the author uses in this book. I didn't want to believe it however; as soon as I borrowed the book just 1 day I have literally completed 4 chapters of this AMAZING book! There was no question about it and I had to get hold of a copy of my own.

One of the best things that the user will be introduced in this book is that the author will get the user feet wet into the realm of CG in Chapter 2 where the user will create a simple animation and from there the author then explain how the CG world works today and how a user should be well equipped.

Honestly this is by far one of the best introductions to CG especially how to use a complex software as 3Ds Max 9. All I can say is that this book is only for the Novice and not for the semi or advanced users. However it still acts as a good reference book for the semi / advanced users.

Oh and One last thing I should mention. This may not seem important to you but to me it is. I only believe that a good computer book has to have color throughout the whole book because it makes the book fun to read with colors. But now I am going to have to change my belief on that because this book is completely in black and white and STILL the book surprises me to how EASY it is to read and to follow along through the CD exercise that accompanies this book.

Its written in easy to follow directions, instructions and example pictures. I really enjoyed the student work section in the middle of the book.

This book has greatly expanded my 3D modeling 'tool belt' and boosted my confidence for tackling difficult projects.

I've really got to recomend this book. I've been using Max for alittle over a year now, and I got this book about 5 months ago from a Discreet regional representative at a SkillsUSA competition on Max which I won. I used it all summer, following the course it set out for me, and eventually it helped me come in 8th in the nation at the SkillsUSA nation championships in Max. This book's easy to follow layout and chapter setup is highly helpful for someone who wants to really get into the insides of modeling in Max. It also covers animation and texturing to a good degree. If you want to learn max, I highly recomend this book.

This is an excellent soucre for the new scripter. The language is simple and there are several tutorials to follow.

I was really impressed with this how-to program book. I highly recommend it to anyone learning Autodesk 3Ds Max. It is thick, but it shows you pictures as well as text, so for those visual learners, it is a nice reference.