3D Books

Great seller, I received book in perfect condition and shipping was fast. I would recommend this seller.

This is a well organized and well written text. Unlike the other book on this subject (that has been the only one available) this is a straight-forward technical book that includes all of the materials that it refferences.

This book is very detailed. If you have some basic AutoCAD and Civil engineering knowledge, you are able to use Autodesk Civil 3D after learning and praticing step by step with this book.

I'm responsible for my Teams implementation of Civil 3D. All of us came away from the training provided by the retailer with only a base understanding. With this learning guide I am able to train my people with the information they need to know to begin our first Civil 3D project.
Civil 3D is no joke. Its a far cry from the previous Land Development Desktop. And this learning guide is exactly what I needed!

I have been using Autocad and Autodesk's civil suit products for a little over ten years. This is the third book I bought from the author since his release "Harnessing AutoCAD Land Development Desktop Release 2". The book is very structured and sequencial and it is worth trying it before spending money in expensive Land Desktop or Civil 3D seminars.

I do warn all readers, that the book is not intended to educate in principles of land development civil engineering or surveying, but rather to provide you with guidance in the use of the tool and its applications. You need to have understanding of the use of points, specially those in the fields of survey and site design.

Civil 3D is a powerful software, but requires a good understanding of the initial setting before you can really rip the full benenfits (Prospector). I believe Mr. Zimmerman's "Harnessing Autodesk Civil 3D 2007" provides all what you need to get going on your own and make your way up to mastering it.

Civl 3D is a very structure software requiring lots of initial settings. However, The folks from Autodesk released Civil 3D 2007 with US National CAD Standars (USNCS) templates that easily get you started. This is also a big bonus for all those companies using USNCS as their office CAD standars. For others not familiar with the USNCS, you have some work in front you, but the paybacks are worth the effort.

If you purchase the text, take the time to read it, be patient and work on the exercises. Do not dispair if you to not get the concepts in the first trial. Remember that a book is the most patient of the teachers. Go back ,read it again and try the exercises.

The book is intended for Civil 3D 2007 and not Civil 3D 2006!

Mr. Zimmerman thanks for your enlightment.

PS: I am just a reader and I am not endorsing or supporting either the author, publisher, Autodesk, or any authorized Autodesk training Center.

HR

This is an excellent product that demonstrates the genius of our Creator and documents the fact that a baby is human life long before birth.

I was so excited to get this book after reviewing a similar one that a friend had, however, I was very disappointed in it. The pictures are clay models that an artist has molded. There are no real ultrasounds or images. With our wonderful technology today, I was hoping for the real thing not an artist's rendition of what a fetus and blood cells look like. Although the artist is talented, I was very disappointed that no where in the description of this book did it reveal that the images were clay models.

This book amazingly captures the scientific fact of life from conception and presents the journey in an easy to read format with loads of incredible pictures of real life. This would be a great gift for the newly pregnant mothers. I purchased a second copy for just that purpose.

The pictures in this book are absolutely amazing, and we will display it on our coffee table for years to come. Our only dislike was to the references to evolution. This book is extremely powerful in showing how children grow from inception to birth.

It is great to view, it shows you all babies details starting from creation, and till birth, unbelievbale images and details. One per page, and description plus more details, you won't believe how much it is nice really.

Highly recommended with its DVD.

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.

I really love these books. I am fascinated by the technique used to get the 3-d affect. I have everyone out.

My 7 and 9 year olds, as well as all their cousins, enjoy the Magic Eye books. So I ordered a couple for Christmas. One good thing is that to help you know if you're seeing the correct image, they have black and white answers in the back. There is something vaguely disturbing in the "answers" section of this one. For page 28, the answer shows a "Chainsaw Teddy," an image of a teddy bear getting it's head cut off by a chainsaw. The actual image on page 28 is a baseball player, catcher, and umpire. Very odd. Also in the answers section, for page 5, the cupid with his arm stretched in front of him has the caption: "(rhymes with tubby) Rub." (I don't know if I can put that in a review) If you don't mind these things, this is a fine book. It seems to me that someone slipped something in that the editors didn't catch, or maybe I got a book that wasn't supposed to be put out. I don't think I'll be giving it to my children. I would opt for the other Magic Eye books. I'm really not sure how to rate it, so I gave it 3 stars. The illusions are great, there's just something wrong in the answers section.

MY HUSBAND LOVES THESE MAGIC EYE PICTURES. SO WHEN HE TOLD ME ABOUT THEM, I LOOKED ON LINE WITH AMAZON, AND THERE THEY WERE. WE ORDERED TWO AND ARE HAVING A BALL WITH THEM. OUR GRANDKIDS REALLY HAVE FUN TRYING TO FIND THE HIDDEN 3-D PICTURE.

DANA AND CRYSTLE SALISBURY
FLORIDA

I love the Magic Eye series... I would recomend this book for almost any coffee table. The illusions are both fun and engaging, definatly a conversation starter.

I love all the "Magic Eye" books. Trust me, if you bring this (or any one of the "Magic Eye" books out at a party you will have loads of fun! Everyone just races to see the images! There are a lot of folks who have tried to create 3d images, but only one remains the forerunner in this innovative area and that's "Magic Eye"!! You creative folks at "Magic Eye" are just AWESOME. I give "Magic Eye 111 an A plus!!

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'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.

It's helpful for who already have experience on AutoCad.a lots of exercises to practice .

About a month ago, I bought the One Step at a Time series (3 books with the workbook) for AutoCAD 2007 in ebook format. The whole series cost me 30.24 - and I didn't have to wait (or pay) for shipping. Then I printed them all (in color) at work so I could reference them anytime I needed to.
These books are simply the best - simple explanations, step by step exercises, and an author who answered my questions when I got stumped on one of the exercises.
What a find - books that do what they claim to do for a reasonable price. Eat your heart out MegaBookPublishers; I'm going with the little guys and the electronic publishers from now on!

I bought the AutoCAD 2007: One Step at a Time series (including 3D and Workbook) and am very please with the product. I only had about a week to get up to speed with AutoCAD (I studied it in the mid-90s but haven't seen it since), and these books were very easy to follow and left me with a better-than-functional understanding of the software. I amazed myself with my final 3d drawing!
I recommend the series for anyone in a hurry to jump start their design career at a reasonable price. (I bought the eBooks and printed them.)

I've now been through both the beginning and 3D books of this series and am very happy with both. The approach is straightforward and easy to follow.
But to be honest, I've used other texts that were almost as easy to follow. What really made this one stand out was that, when I had a couple problems (I couldn't find the files and I missed a detail in one of the exercises), I contacted the publisher for help (once by email and once by phone). And I actually got to talk directly to the author who was as patient and easy to understand as his writing!
You can't get better service than that!

I began my autocad studies last year with Sykes' 2006 basic books. When my boss upgraded last month, I picked up the 3D copy of the 2007 One Step at a Time series. I really appreciated the author's approach in the basic books, but with material as scary as 3D, it was a godsend. It only took a few days to finish the simple, step by step exercises and get comfortable with 3 dimensional CAD. I had no idea 3D could be conquered so quickly (and easily)!
I've almost finished my first project (interior design of an office) in 3D. The materials and renderings are as professional as anything my boss has ever seen, and he's been in this business for 38 years!
Thanks, Sykes. Keep up the good work!

This 3-D Pop-Up book is very good with easy to use instructions and illustrations. Would recommend it to friends.

I have a decent- sized library of papercraft books, but this outshines then all. It has the required beautiful pictures, but the beautiful pictures are of beautiful items, and the instructions are easy to follow. I am racommending this book, at with the highest praise, for all my papercrafting friends!

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING CARDS WAS EASY TO FOLLOW & THERE ARE SOME GREAT DESIGNS TO CHOOSE FROM

I purchased this book for my sister. She loves to make her own cards and used one of the patterns to make some breath taking Christmas cards this year. We sent them to people we love that live a great distance from us and we do not regularly stay in touch with. The love that went into making the cards was evident and we received calls from all of the recipients. I have never made any cards and the ones my sister made were so beautiful I decided to try. I made the pop up bird, and it is exquisite. This book is a wonderful tool to make beautiful gifts that will last in the memories of loved ones forever.

Keiko Nakazawa definitely knows her craft. The book is fully informative from the tools needed to traceable templates that you can use on specific projects. Not a book for beginners since the projects are fairly complicated, they can still be done with a little patience and determination. This was the second book i've purchased on the subject and i highly recommend it.

One of the big gripes I hear from people using tutorial books for software is that they are linear. (They make you start with the apple, then they let you model the tree, and somewhere way down they road you get to model Johnny Appleseed.) This is not the case with 3dMax 3 Magic. Each chapter introduces a new technique on a new tutorial model. In one chapter you are shown how to make realistic looking water surfaces, in another you are being shown how to make the best looking car paint I've ever seen. Like the title of this review states, this is a goodie bag. It is for the Intermediate to Advanced user who wants a "How To" on some of the things Max 3 has to offer. The Authors of the book assume that you atleast know your way around the application. I'm happy to have this book on my shelf, right next to my computer!

This book is excellent for anyone who already has a working knowledge of Max3. The 20 effects covered in the book are clearly explained with lots of pictures, all of which could easily be used to give your demo reel or project extra flair. The whole book is printed in color. My favorite lessons are the Moving Crowd, Glowing Trail, and Realistic Eyeball (best eyeball tutorial I've seen). Each lesson also contains techniques that could be applied elsewhere. Not a comprehensive manual, more like a bag of tricks. Very good!

This is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to enhance their abilities with 3D Studio MAX 3. It goes beyond the MAX tutorials to show you how to create effects that obviously took some of these professionals a long time to perfect. The car paint material chapter alone is worth the price of the book. My only complaint is that it's too short.

I'm thoroughly happy with this book as it is very easy to understand and follow. However, one or two of the tutorials are very dodgy indeed. Like for example the Tidal Wave effect on the CD is not very good, the wave looks extremely fake and out of place. But apart from that, the rest of this book is very well made and presented. A must buy for any intermediate users.

This books is based on tutorials, so it's easy to read and understand. In the end of each chapter there is a "variation" and "plugins" section which help you in using techniques featured in the chapter in other situations and ways and help you selecting plugins to use to make it even more realistic!(giving you a very detailed plugins list). Most of the tutorials are very useful both for advanced and basic users, but some tutorials look very unrealistic where the head title is "How to create a REALISTIC....". I've been using 3d studio and MAX for 7 years now, spending most of my freetime in MAX and still i found this book very useful and I would recommend it for all users except the very basic users. BUY IT

What ever happened to this Author? I wish he kept going on producing books. I was lucky and found this book on Ebay, knowing much about it I bought it because the cover looked very interesting. To my surprise I eneded up loving this book and I wish there were more like this and a continuation on this topic. So if your lucky to find this book used BUY IT

This book will help really break down texturing to get photo real looking 3D results!

BILL FLEMING IF YOUR OUT THERE, YOU REALLY NEED TO WRITE MORE BOOKS, YOU DO A GREAT JOB!

This is a fantastic book for getting you started with realistic skin texturing. Over the years, I've collected numerous books on the fine art of skin texturing. This is one of the finest and complete book around. Though I do combine this with some other techniques, this book brought a lot to the table. It also has a great section on eyes! The book is easy to follow with tons of big pictures with short paragraphs. My biggest let down was the fact that they were going to come out with a book on clothing painting. Unfourtunatally, it was cancelled.

With a million and one books on 3D model creation its good to finally see one that covers the other half of the equation -textures!

Bill takes you step by step through the process of texturing his Freaky Frank model, unravelling the mystery of organic texture creation with ease.

All required files are included (unlike the first print release)
although I found it a little strange that the cover photo was created in Deep Paint, while the tutorials use Photoshop and the CD includes a demo copy of BodyPaint. Not that it matters I suppose as any paint program can be used with the book provided you have a basic understanding of your software.

Its a great read and offers lots of hints and tips for realistic textures. I look forward to volume two of this unique series.

Where was this book, when I needed it for my thesis. lol

The whole book is a do-it-yourself class on its own. The steps are laid out very clearly, how you use photoshop for doing textures. I really like the how the book included the character files in obj, dxf, c3d, lwo and 3ds. So that anyone could view the model in any program they use. The book covers the face, the eyes, the gums, the tongue and the teeth in excellent detail. I went throught the book twice with every page being extremely helpful.

What did this book do for me as a Maya user, it broke me away from methods I had learned at RIT and suggested more simpler ones without making bumpmaps in the hypershade. Now you can do it all in one texture, and it looks amazing.

This book has been a great edition to my 3D collection. I look forward to more of his work in the future. Whats volume 2 going to be about?

What a waste of money. It's barely worth the paper it is written on.

There are better and more comprehensive tutorials on the web for free than the nonsense printed here.

Fair warning, save your money, don't be "Fleminged".