3D Books

I liked Cartsen Wartmann's book better than this one. This book has everything, and it is free online, but there is so much in it, it is a bit overwhelming for the newbie who just wants to learn the basis one step at a time. I ended up selling my copy of this book and buying the Blender Book by Carsten and I am happier with the older book.

It's nice having a comprehensive source for Blender and I do find the information useful.

My main criticism is on the screen captures. They are all set in grey scale on a dark grey background making distinguishing different elements difficult. Most troubling, especially for a 40-something like myself, are the tiny screen captures of the palettes. It is almost impossible to make out any detail in these images without the use of a magnifying lens.

I think this issue is a publication one. The publishers probably pushed for these tiny images because larger ones would have made the 768 page book a much bigger one with a larger cost; probably a major concern for them.

I've found the online image of the book much more legible but also much less convenient.

So we have a convenient resource (the book) that is hard to use because of legibility issues in the images and an inconvenient resource (the online image) that is much easier to read. Sadly, not the best of both worlds.

The information contained in the book is extremely useful for a Blender novice. It's laid out in a logical fashion, the text is supported by helpful examples, and unlike many online resources, all of the screenshots and examples pertain to one single version of Blender (with the exception of the final chapter, which details enhancements made to the application after the main text of the book had been written).

My only complaint about the book is that it is occasionally difficult to read; some sections were written by authors for whom English was not a primary language, and syntax idiomatic of other languages sometimes obscured the intent of certain passages. The book would have benefited greatly by the employment of a human proofreader, as well as an editor willing to revise the occasionally unprofessional or unclear language.

Being a freely available program under the GNU GPL license, I believe in supporting this magnificent program by purchasing the guides - however...
When working from the book, there have been numerous menu changes between the version the book is written for (2.3) and the current version. This leaves you searching around for stuff and wasting a lot of time. I also ran into a problem with being unable to select a group of points as described in the book. I joined a blender forum, posted my question, and had an answer within 10 minutes. Make use of forums - their response time is like calling 911! When I decided to see what the version of the same tutorial that I had difficulty with was like in the online version, wouldn't you know, it gave a complete warning, with illustrations, about the problem I had encountered and how to deal with it! It also reflected the procedural steps for the latest version (menu item location changes, etc.).
If you are thinking that you will get a little something extra by buying the book, DON'T. The entire contents of the book are available online at blender.org, and are updated continuously. If you do buy this book to help support the cause, do as another reader suggested and install the older version of the program from the CD accompanying the book.
I would recommend finding other ways to financially support the Blender organization and skip purchasing the book. The reason I rate it 3 stars is because it was a sincere, effective effort for the version accompanying the book. I understand that the author's primary language is not english, and he did a much better job than I would do trying to write a book in italian. However, it seems that nobody in the publishing process with an average American or British grasp of the language bothered to edit the book before print. How can an organization go to the trouble of printing a book that is very well laid out and attractive and not actually edit the text to remove the awkward phrasing of a foreign author?
Bottom line: Support the cause, skip the book. It's better online.

Yes, it has grammar issues. But if you can understand the intent, then you can learn & get your work done.

Yes, its available in electronic format. But Blender loves to run full screen & I hated toggling between it other on-line tutorials.

Bottom-line, I still bought the book and am not dissappointed in the investment.

This is no doubt a very good book, but as a professor who wants to use it as a textbook, I can't make a powerpoint lecture notes from this book for my class presentation. I would like to have a disk version that goes together with the book.

Contrary to what the other reviews say, I believe this is an excellent book for beginners in the 3D computer graphics world. However, that being said, you will need some basic math skills to be able to understand and apply the concepts in this book. If you are unfamilar with linear algebra, you should probably start with studying up on your math skills first. With the basic math skills, this book does a great job of introducing the basics to almost every major topic you'll see in 3D computer graphics programming. The book doesn't go into great detail at times, but the simplicity of this book is the winning ingredient that allows beginners to grasp the basics before moving on to indepth research in paticular topics of 3D graphics that interest them.

This is an excellent book for all those who want to delve into the theory and process of computer graphics. Some basic concepts are covered in vague detail, and some other reading into concepts such as vector maths, are required. But it provides a solid foundation for programmers, artists, and the alike. The book is not terribly detailed, thus may not serve the purposes of an advance CG artist. But regardless, a book that I will be refering to a lot.

I am a junior student at Computer Engineering major. I am taking a computer graphics course and unfortunately, the instructor chose this title as the textbook.

I am not saying it is a bad book or something, but it is targeted to people who have some experience with computer graphics.... (e.g: for people doing graduate studies in computer graphics) As for me, my first encounter with computer graphics in this book made me hate the topic so much. The book makes you feel that graphics involve so much mathematics, especially analytic geometry. It is so hard as an introduction to the topic of Computer Graphics.

I would not recommend this book at all as an introduction to computer graphics, it may be good for those who have some (actually a lot) of experience in this so advanced topic.

I have an earlier version of this book and I've always found it to be one that I return to time and again. It was one of the first three graphics programming books I bought during the same early career book shopping session, it was definately the most useful of the three and it's stayed with me ever since, where other books have been and gone.

It's generally very easy to read and very informative. It has a good progression of topics that introduce the reader to graphics programming concepts.

The thing I most like about this is that it covers much of the foley and van dam book, but avoids the many irrelevant sections and is a little more to the point. It's like a more concise reference to that book, which is also one that I would recommend.

The only thing I don't like about the updated version is the new layout, typeface and style. The old version just seems so much more appealing to me.

If you program game or computer graphics, then this is a reliable book to have in your collection.

The thing that occurred to me while perusing the digital beauties in this book was that 90% of the "artists" paid to be included. With the exception of 3 or 4 of them, they don't even measure up to talented amateurs. There is one guy that is embarassingly bad. I won't mention names.

If you want the cream of this crop, screen capture the book cover and let the rest go. Don't waste your money... I'm sorry I had to give it a star at all.

Top artists of the globe bring you the best in 3d female character creation. A must-have!

I purchased the book hoping to use it as a reference for my freelance pursuits in 3D human modeling and texturing. Some of the artwork offers stunningly realistic renders, and others close-up insights on modeling techniques. Examples are those by Robichaud, Dean, Koch, Stahlberg, and several Japanese artists.

However, I was disappointed to find that most works were created by the consumer-level Poser software, for which pre-made 3D models are readily available and simply need to be "posed"; there is no original creation of 3D models on the artist's part. Moreover, the Poser works in Digital Beauties rudely show the mediocre rendering capabilities of the software - the models are often defined by jagged edges. In short, the best works in the book are those with original modeling and attention to detail, not those primarily intended provide erotic gratification for the viewer.

The book itself was well-conceived and attractively designed. It could be condensed and even more appealing by excluding the less-than-professional artwork.

If you are interested in the cutting edge of computer graphics this book is for you. It is full of images created using computer graphic programs. There are so many wonderful images to look at and study for the technique...a wonderful collection of digital art from around the world....

A book of digitaly created female pictures and the artists who created them.

Ever since I found out that my child may have to have a cochlear implant, I thought, I would read up on the Deaf Culture and what it is exactly. I have a CI also and while I grew up with a hearing aid, I never considered myself deaf. Whatever sign language I learned, I have forgotten. In order to help my son, I thought I'd read up on the Deaf culture and find out why I am so against their beliefs.

This book didn't shed any light on it. It is a confusing book, poorly written and half of the illustrations never appeared in the book. The only two chapters that I gleaned any information on are the last two where they shared personal stories about Deaf kids' needs to communicate. That alone redeemed the book for me. I understand the need to communicate and kids will communicate with using any means they can especially if they're not exposed to American Sign Language.

I was expecting more of a debate why the Deaf uses sign language instead of speaking. It did cover that but it was so flimsy and so weak, that I am not even sure if there was a debate in this book. It just skimmed over that as well as skimmed over everything else. It is a major disappointment for me as I want to be educated on the Deaf Culture and why there are some people that feel it to be still important. Maybe it's because this book is dated (my edition was printed in 1988), and it is old news.

If you're a student wanting to learn about the Deaf Culture, I hope this book sheds more light for you than it did for me. Meanwhile, I will continue to find my information through other books. This book was not a waste of my time, it is just disappointing because it barely talked about anything of relevance.

6/16/08

"Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture," by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries, is a well-written, consistently interesting look at Deaf lives and communities. The introduction notes that both authors are deaf, so this book is very much written from the perspective of insiders. The copyright page notes that the book has a copyright date of 1988 and was in its 12th printing in 2000.

Although relatively short (134 + vii pages), this book is packed full of information. Among the topics covered: the difference between being "deaf" (lowercase) and "Deaf" (capitalized), the origins of American Sign Language, Deaf theater and poetry, the work of Deaf filmmaker Charles Krauel, controversies within the Deaf world, and more.

The authors maintain that Deaf people have an authentic language and culture. The book is lively and intelligent. I recommend that readers of this book also view the fascinating documentary film "Sound and Fury."

I read this book right after reading "A Journey Into the Deaf-World" by Lane, Hoffmeister, Bahan. The first three chapters of this are excellent, even illuminating. They show the misperceptions of both hearing on Deaf and Deaf on hearing worlds. These insights are most useful to those of us relatively on outside of Deaf culture.

The remaining chapters didn't do much for my reading. There seemed to be a momentum letdown half way through that continued to the end. The "motel joke" at the end was precious exhibit of how Deaf do not understand the hearing world's meanings that culturally we attach to various sounds, especially those in eating and public bathroom environments.

This book has opened my eyes to the rich culture of deaf people. Padden and Humphries are masters at explaining the difference between deaf and Deaf and the way Deaf people relate to the world. A must-read for everyone, especially those who want to be free of stereotypes.

I had to read this book for my college ASL class. Its very good at skimming the top of Deaf culture--but it kind of left things hanging out in the breeze. The style of this book is in telling stories and explaining Deaf culture using those example. I enjoyed reading about the Deaf culture, but I don't think that this book is for anyone who wants straight facts and depth.

I thought I'd never learn to use this program. It's HARD. Not impossible... but not easy, either. I'd almost given up when a friend told me he'd found this one book which made Max4 seem pretty tame; I was, frankly, skeptical. But, I've gone through the *entire* book (with the exception of small parts of the final chapters), and feel I have the measure of the program.

It seems that some others who've used the book claim to have had certain problems with it. All I can say is that this is the clearest documentation I've seen and, as for problems: zero. Although no MAX book is going to make the program trivial, this comes as close as possible, with no stumbling blocks.

That's what this book should be called.
Trust me , you don't wanna own this book, you'll just be
wasting your money.
I'm well beyond disappointed w/ this book.
But hey, what do you expect when you're writing a book
about a version of software that you're obviously not even
using. How else could I be getting errors about obsolete files?
If the files that come w/ the book are obsolete, then the software that made them was an earlier version of max.
Thus the reason for the mistakes, max 4 is slightly different.
What do all these mistakes mean to the person trying to learn
max 4 ? It means you'll be misguided most of the time and you'll
end up pulling out all your hair.
I highly recommend not even going near this book! You'll only
be sorry , like I am. I should've bought the max bible.
Shame on me. :(

Unlike a lot of people using MAX, I was close to a beginner, and was trying to learn it along with a graduate course in animation and design. A friend recommended this book to me, after I had trouble with another...book which was our course text. I can't say whether "Mastering 3ds max 4" is the best MAX book on the market, but it's light years ahead of what our instructor chose.

If you were to open the book, you might get the impression -- the wrong impression -- that it was 'dumbed down', because there are so many illustrations. In fact, I almost didn't buy it for that reason. Only later it hit me that this is a book *about* graphics, so of course it would be graphical, and not like some book teaching you about, say, databases. Once I got used to the way the material was presented, I found the book really easy to follow, and was able to create real animations, from scratch, on my own. I think almost anyone can learn to do it from this book, if they stick with it.

The writing is (for a book like this) almost entirely free of jargon and always clear, even if sometimes, due to my lack of experience, I had to go over things a few times to get the knack of them. I can't say whether this would be the optimal guide for a professional animator, but it seems ideal for people with a good general background in using graphics software, and for 'advanced beginners' like me (and a bunch of other people in the class who borrowed it from me... and didn't want to give it back).

As a college instructor of MAX modeling, texturing, and animation, I both recommend this book to my students and use it myself as a resource. I had the pleasure of contributing to this work in a few sections, and so had the opportunity to examine this work closely as it was written. In addition to providing comprehensive instruction on all areas of MAX, Cat Woods discusses the principles of 3D space and the creation of 3D art with greater elegance and clarity than any book I have encountered on the subject. Those struggling with the tools will find help here. A must-have for beginners, and a strong resource for experienced users.

Because I needed to learn the program thoroughly for my dissertation work, this is the fifth 3dsMax book I've bought, and it's the first that's not been overtly disappointing. If someone wants to have every little feature laid out in boring detail, there are the official materials and release notes for that. This book is the literal opposite (others suggesting otherwise have clearly not read the book in much detail).

What is most impressive here is that the book is NOT a systematic, unstructured tour of the program, dutifully covering each minor feature. Rather, it is results-oriented: if you want to accomplish X, here is how you go about it. Although it is graphically-rich and amazingly clear, it is most certainly not a comic book version of a Max book, and is clearly targeted to the sophisticated user. Even though a beginner would find the book quite useful, it should probably be bought in conjunction with a primer or a book "introducing" 3dsMax.

The writing is sprightly and, although there are spots where the editing might have been tightened, it is well above average even in that regard. In fact, if anything, the book has a crisp literary feel to it that will appeal to most readers, but may not be the style of choice for really hard-core users. Still, this is preferable to the studied dessication of nearly all the other books I've seen on the topic.

Finally, the graphical illustrations are uniformly excellent, leaving little to the imagination. I'm hoping that this team sees fit to write such a guide for the next, inevitable incarnation of the program. I for one will be advance ordering it.

This is a spectacular book, chock-full of common sense health tips, (some of them quite surprising -- but all easy to follow!). Like Jean Carper's other books, it is also easy-to-read and understand. It's a real treasure-house of good, life-lengthening advice!

The ONLY thing I don't like about this book is....THE PAPER IT IS PRINTED ON! In my opinion, NONE of Jean Carper's books are printed on good enough paper, even in the hard-cover editions....which is a great, lasting pity...because everything she writes is so good -- and so good for you! However, the paper used in "STOP AGING NOW" -- especially that used in the paperback edition -- is almost a crime! It is SO bad! It is SO cheap! It is so OBVIOUSLY going to age far, far, faster than any of the readers of this excellent book!

Please, publishers -- Jean Carper's writings deserve the BEST and most LASTING, non-acidic paper! She is a treasure, and so are her books! Both of them should last for as long as possible!

I love this book so much. It's full of information the average person can easily put to use every day. It's written in a way that's straight-forward and easy to understand. You can just zip right through it without falling asleep. Let's face it, nobody is reading this book for the entertainment value. Jean Carper's style is right on the mark, just give the information is a simple way, never long-winded. There is something in here for everyone. Even a couch potato could read this book, basically stay a couch potato, but still get something out of this book is they follow some of the advice in here. There are no gimmicks in here, just practical information you can put to good use every day.

In STOP AGING NOW, Jean Carper uses the free radical theory to optimize health. Most of her book theorizes that taking supplements like vitamins E, B, and C, with minerals like zinc, calcium, magnesium, selenium, mixed with other potent antioxidants like CoQ10 will combine synergistically to reduce--but not stop--the aging process. Carper is quite right as far as she goes, but she wrote this book in 1995, and there have been considerable advances in life advancement that were either unknown or simply untested then. I cannot fault her for her lack of prescience in not knowing about other and far more potent supplements to postpone aging: DHEA, Acetyl L-Carnitine, pregnenolone, carnosine, resveratrol, lycopene, alpha lipoic acid, grapeseed extract, N-Acetyl-Cysteine, green tea extract, and curcumin to name a few. My primary objection to Carper is her passive methodolgy. If you take a dozen or so pills, you will benefit. What she leaves out is what must have been apparent even as she was writing STOP AGING NOW, namely the impact that a toxic-filled world has on human beings. Nowhere does she address the existence of toxins, and unless one acknowledges that toxins in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and the chemicals with which we surround ourselves, then the overall benefit of her pill methodology is greatly reduced. There are numerous texts that address this concern. One might look at Kevin Trudeau's NATURAL CURES for a sampler. Still, for a first text on anti-aging, STOP AGING NOW is a good place to begin even if the title is seen as mostly hype and blurb.

Jean Carper writes with an enthusiasm and verve that I admire, and she has the zeal of a missionary. But there is no scientific evidence that we currently can stop the aging process in humans. Researchers have slowed aging in laboratory rats and mice by putting them on a near-starvation diet, and they have extended life spectacularly in worms (as much as five-fold) by manipulating certain longevity genes. But we do not have evidence that the vitamins, minerals, or herbs cited in the book can stop human aging. Researchers around the world are working on aging, and I have no doubt that they will be able to stop human aging, possibly by developing a drug that affects longevity genes in humans. If you can maneuver around the claims for stopping aging, there is much, useful information in this book on good nutrition from fruits, vegetables, proper fats, and a healthy lifestyle. These will help you live longer. Live long enough, and scientists will find a way to stop you from aging.

Jean Carper has done a wonderful job of relating what the medical profession and researh have proven to be that elusive prescription to the fountain of youth. I quite agree with the 9th reviewer here on Amazon.com has written in her review.

I have been on such prescription for about 20 years now so I am giving testimony to Carper's prescription. Everybody on the planet earth should read and implement the directions in this book because we should learn to live up to our fullest potential and staying healthy is necessary to do that. We have lost, prematurely, many of our great brains because they abused their bodies with bad food, booze, and poor mental and physical health.

I specifically targeted this book because of the disintegrate material effect but was unable to follow it cos of missing parts in the tutorials/scenes. upon trying to work it out my self , I still havent I will have to put this book in the toilet as emergency toilet paper. I was really dissappointed when I sent emails to coriolis to try and get the proper tut file scenes (2 years ago) and still havent recieved any feedback, this is so frustrating. I'll never buy another coriolis text again.

This book isn't much more than a picutre book, showing what 3D Studio MAX R3 is capable of. The tutorials are poorly put together, and some of them are missing steps which for some users might not be able to complete them. Not a book I recommend buying.

Wow, I don't know if they have awards for these kinds of books, but Jon Bell should be able to run away with this one.

He covers a lot of great stuff in this book including all the new things that R3 has. Including Flex, the new material options, plus it has some sweet models you can try. Like the SR-71 Blackbird, and an alien.

The CD that comes with is also the best to come around in a long time. It includes a bonus material library, hordes of free plugins including Greeble!, lots of free maps and chapter files. The Cd itself is worth the 40-50 bucks.

This one is worth the money!

If you want to get more out of 3D Studio MAX, then this book's for you. The chapters on advanced materials and lighting helped me create better-looking scenes immediately, and the special-effects stuff (including the great Greeble plugin) is well worth the price of the book. Highly recommended!

If there were ever 2 things I couldn't do well they were making good Materials and Organic Modelling...until I bought this book. Unlike other books that tell you how to recreate their effects, this book tells you what the steps presented do, allowing you to recreate and tweak them as you need. Excellent book!

I admit that I am not the worlds best in 3DS Max. I have tried NUMEROUS books and found little use, some assumed you were an overall expert or a total [beginner].

This book, by far, teaches in high detail step-for-step on how to surpass the learning curve and get into a comfort zone using 3D Studio Max.

NEVER have I read a book that takes you from the beginner level to the semi-advanced level with so much detail and explanation. The author, Michele Bousquet, seems to have much experience in teaching this software because I was able to follow the tutorials and feel confident in doing so. I hope she writes another book for 3DS Max 4.

Unlike my multimedia professors, this book teaches clearly, in a way that I, the student, can absorb and retain the information!

Never having taken any 3D classes, first, I gathered a heavy stack of 3D Max 3 books at the bookstore and plopped down on the floor. I took my time browsing through the first chapter of each book to get an idea of what would happen once home when I crack the tutorials open and test drive them. Would they be difficult or easy to follow?

Harnessing wasn't the prettiest book, but it's what's on the inside that counts. I decided to spend my money on Harnessing for a few key reasons.

The information before the first tutorial focussed on practicality - jobs in the field. That's what I'm talkin''bout! I don't want to just do this for hobby, but as a student, target my specific area of interest to enter this field to profit.

The other deciding factor was the simplistic tutorial approach. Each sentence of instructions tells you where to look for the tool PLUS gives an illustrated icon of the tool you're looking for! A beginner like me can NOT go wrong.

The author seems to understand that 3D Max newbies will be anxious to jump in, so the first tutorial allows us to get that out of our systems by doing some basics. Then the tutorials begin to build, and you begin to learn. But the learning isn't so wordy you're looking for the "Next Tutorial - 2 Miles Ahead" sign. It's a nice balance of technical insight and hands-on.

I haven't even opened the accomanying CD, yet I am sold on this book. It's harder to put down than a best-selling novel! But I have to put it down because I have homework.

If you can't tell, I highly reccomend this book!

Being a first time user of 3D Studio I have found this book invaluable in getting started. The book itself is well laid out starting with the basics and evolving slowly into more complex applications of 3D Studio.

I highly recommend this book to people who are just starting out with 3D Studio as it is easy to read (no big complex explanations), easy to follow step-by-step directions and comes with a comprehensive add-on CD.

A definite must read if you want to learn 3D Studio

As a new user to 3d Studio Max, I had previously purchased 3d Studio Max Workshop and made it half way through the book but lost interest since I found the workshop model that you follow through the entire book to be completely uninspiring for me despite the positive reviews of that book. After a few days of not wanting to open Max on my pc and feeling pretty defeated, I borrowed Harnessing 3d Studio Max 3 from a friend and now don't want to return it. The book must be read from the beginning to the end since the tutorials build from previous chapters. I savored every word and found there was a tutorial every 2-3 pages. I loved the book and now after 800 pages feel like I can move around Max with some confidence and am better able to look for more advanced books that will focus on specifically what I want to accomplish with Max. The book is written as though it's a course book for teaching Max to students. The book's forward says there is a companion workbook you can order through AutoDesk Press that expands on the chapter tutorials. I would definitely would like that. It is definitely a beginners book but if you have been frustrated with Max and are willing to spend some time with a 800 page book I would definitely recommend this book!

If you are all but a total novice and have been even superficially introduced to 3DMAX ( no matter which relase ) this book is not for you. It is obvious even at the first glimpse at the book that it's not going to bring on any novelty to the non-beginner ... And the inadequacy of its description ( both on the back cover and online ) is just a scandal. As an advanced user I was attracted by the internet reviews but I have to say that after having read the book I found it of a really poor quality and the only part that was new to me was just a couple of pages on f/x. I would never recommend this book to anyone including the beginners for whom I'd find better books to start with. DON'T BUY IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MY MISTAKE !!!

We have a new blog setup for support on the book and to provide updated tips and tricks and extras when time permits.

[...]

We are grateful for all the positive feedback as well as the error catches, I have found our book in many studios over the last few years and it is always a nice surprise.

Stop by the blog and check out the new tips and or comment /email etc. as always we are happy to hear feedback or field questions on the book content.

Brad Clark

This is definitely not a book for beginners. My biggest issue with the book is that it gives you a bunch of step by step instructions without explaining why you're doing what you're doing. The books gives complex rigging examples without giving the main concepts behind them. The instructions are often times unclear and the pictures, which would probably explain things better than the text, are too small to be of any use. I guess since the title specifically says it's "advanced rigging" I shouldn't complain, but it seems like the only people who can follow this book are people who already know how to do this stuff.

I got this book specifically to assist in shoulder/arm rigging difficulties i've had with an animation that needed to be anatomically correct, and i wasn't disappointed. The book quickly asserts the scope of the problem, and makes it clear that a good solution requires a careful study of the model geometry, and supplies you with a realistic and powerful idea for a setup. It doesn't provide you with an ultimate solution, but rather suggests very helpfully approaches to specific problems, often supplying MEL scripts to assist, as well as downloadable example files demonstrating theory in practise.

The writing style is fluid and doesn't take you for a fool, and the included interviews with veteran TD's are all interesting. I wish there were more details on weighting and weighting practises aside from a suggestion to weight "backwards" (reducing weight from 1 instead of increasing from 0). In addition, the book attempts to include 3ds MAX in its teaching process, but largely fails, putting 90% emphasis on Maya (good for me!)

I'll recommend it to any novice/intermediate TD. I'd also recommend it to anyone wanting a better understanding of how a rig works, perhaps a modeller seeking to understand how to mend his geometry to best suit rigging.

I will second doodler's review; the content is in there somewhere, but the presentation is horrible. Pictures are unable to convey any information whatsoever do to their tiny size. Adding to the difficulty in following the instruction are the seemingly endless typos on node names, such as a dropped suffix or a dropped prefix. Whole steps seem to left out of other areas and the errata from the Course Tech website seems to contain only a fraction of the mistakes. This makes actually learning anything in a reasonable amount of time utterly impossible since you will spend most of your time trying to decipher what is a typo and what is not.

The main rigging tutorial in this book is very poorly written. What should be a great learning experience becomes a lesson in silly extra long naming pratices that will obscure all the intellegence of the actual rigging process.....the physical size of the book limits the pictures to a decorative effect. No real information is passed by the pictures and they are not included in any of the download data available. The main structure of his rig gets lost in a series of asides and remarks that make following the authors rigging tutorial into a joke. Bearly 3 steps can be included before a page change. This makes checking your work very hard and tedious. The real content just gets lost as every description includes a joint name that borders on 5 prefixes followed by 5 suffixs. By the time you select the right joint you have lost the process he is trying to teach you. So the first 170 odd pages are an exercise in translating his verbose descriptions into something logical. The content is there, it is just poorly presented.


Luckily, there is more then just the one author on this one!

Nice tips and tricks for someone that dosen't want to go that deep into Photoshop but still be able to produce decent textures for 3D. Being the only book on the subject I have to say it's the best =), but if you are seriuos about Photoshop as a 3D artist (which you should) you'll be better off getting one of those "in depth" Photoshop books. Like that you should be able to figure out what this book has to say by yourself.

I found this book quite educative, and it is a great introduction for newcomers. These are the pros and cons as I see it:

pros: Easy to follow step by step tutorials. Lots of hints and tips. Each chapter has a background and theory section. Great intro on the different mapping techniques, especially why you always should use diffusion. cons: Some of the photoshop files were missing on the CD. The whole book should be in colour. Having the "colour studio" in the middle of the book results in turning pages back and forth. Some of the actions in the 3D application isn't explained. For example how to save a selection in the 3D app, and how to texturize the selection only.

I don't go anywhere without my Photoshop 5 3D Textures F/X and Design Book. Great Techniques, Well written, and well planned out.

I am a Photoshop user who thought this book would be good for use solely within Photoshop, the truth is that this book is for use in conjunction with a 3D program - if you don't own such a program, then think twice before ordering this title. I am in the process of learning Strata Studio Pro, so eventually I will be able to put this book to some good use. The reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 is that the ad./title for this book can be a little misleading, it should read: Photoshop 5 3D Textures f/x and design FOR USE WITH A 3D PROGRAM. Having said that, the book is well written, and I learned much from it. The tutorials are easy to follow, the results of which I will only be able to fully appreciate when I have finished learning my 3D program. The book covers creating the different texture maps within Photoshop to be used on your 3D models. Do not hesitate to purchase this book if you own both Photoshop and a 3D program.

First of all, I baught the book because it says "Photoshop 5 3D" I forgot to look at the "texture" part. Whatever.

1. This book is not Fully Colored Like the punk said. There are 15 pages (color - including both sides) that is 15 out of 274)

2. This books doesn't give much. It talks about what you should do and where to get it. It doesn't actually go into how it is actually done on Adobe 5.0 (which I hoped this will do/show)

3. It talks/there is a design about a space-ship. I don't care about the damn history! I don't care who invented and what year that space ship is in, and what it carried. Stop talking about craX and start showing how to do it.

4. I also noticed something/read something. I was very disapointed and pissed... So it says the book. Once you are done with this layer dump it in a 3D program. I am on the toilet and I am like what! Wait a second! This book I baught it to learn how to use Adobe and do everything in it! Don't tell me I've got to get me an additional 3D program! i.e. 3D Max, SoftImage, LightWave, Bryce stuff.. That was a big piXs off!

5. Lots about Wire-Frame/Layers... I didn't know Adobe Did that.. I thought 3d Progs did that...

6. Last but not least.. I'm pretty new to Adobe but I did most/all the stuff "trial and error" I learned a bit I think. I use Fireworks (by Macromedia) to do most of the stuff and what Fireworks can't do I do it in Adobe.

-=] I baught another book called Official Adobe Photoshop 5.0 Studio Techniques; Ben Willmore, so as soon as it arrives (3-7 days) this other book is going back... ]=-

I REALLY REALLY! would like to get the Adobe 5.0 WOW! Book! But from what I've herd is that they are over 5 months delayed in releasing it. That suc@k@s

So I am dissapointed buying it and man.. I hate going through the process of returning it.