3D Books

Totally agree with the prvious reader. Don't buy the book of this
book!!.

Tons of typos. Omission of an index and a CD-ROM with example files. Grainy photos where you sometimes cannot see the curves the photo is supposed to explain. Examples are based on v3.7 even though it states 4.0 on the cover -> some examples cannot be completed if following the instructions in this book, and new features such as vertex color authoring are not mentioned. Chaotic structure (requires textures and materials to be set as early as chapter two but doesn't explain their proper use until chapter twelve). Unclear and rudimentary explanations and outright mistakes (i.e. wrong axis given to revolve objects around) etc. etc....

Worst of all: instead of a proper printed manual you get this cheaply bound p.o.s. when you spend $$$ on the actual package. Softimage actually endorsing such a terrible pulp has just cost them any business with me for the forseeable future. Shame because 3D itself is a decent piece of software despite its age and awkward interface.

DO NOT GET THIS BOOK. ...

Emmanuel's review below is glowing, but states that this book's flaw is that it has no CD. That is one of it's strengths! It *does* have supplementary files for the tutorials, but they are available online for free download (look on the back cover for the URL). One of the biggest complaints about Inside Softimage (and computer books in general) was that parts of the CD didn't function. Well, if anything on the file download doesn't work, just email Mesmer and they can fix it!

well this book is great ... but be careful this is the new release of inside softimage 3d . So i love this book the author work on the information not on beautiful color photo like in softimage 3d design guide . i love the présentation in black and white it's look like a scientifik book or a classroom book ... everithing has good information and the guy that write this book is a boss of softimage :Rossano work for mesmer one of the leader of the education of high end 3d software ... So if you want to learn softimage this book is the bible ... BUT , BUT there is a very big probleme (nothing is perfect ...) there is no CD rom, and this book would have been perfect ( i am french sorry for the ortograf ...)if there was a CD rom inside . If i take the best book for maya : "Maya 4 Fundamentals" there is great video that show you all . You learn to use the soft quick as light ... so this is a very dark point of this book no tutorial and no video explication ... but this book is a five Star manual without any hesitation !!! if you had to buy one buy this ...

The graphics are stunning. This is more of a slick art book than it is a "how to" of 3D and web design. I was expecting a little more. Not that I wouldn't recommend this book. Books like this are great to have lying around for inspiration. This book is visually rich and a delight to look at. However, I found the tips and tricks not very informative. Maybe its because I'm not into 3D design (yet!). For more in depth study, try "Creating Killer Interactive Websites" published by Hayden books.

This suck because it dosn't have great print it works for a couple key aspects but the average joe already knows them.

welcom to alasee

Some of Spinden's ideas have fallen by the wayside. The most notable idea is that the Classical Period dates from 300-600 AD rather than the 300-900 AD that is now accepted. The crux of this debate hinges upon correlations with the Maya Long Count calendar. To make a complex story short, the Mayans spanned their temple doorways with sopadilla wood beams which have been carbondated. The combination of correlations and carbon-dating prove the Classical Period lasted three more centuries than Spinden thought. (For more, see chapter 8 of Michael Coe's _The Maya_.)

Spinden also thought that the Mayan govt was largely theocratic (p 97). This idea has also fallen by the wayside especially since the further decipherment of the Mayan language. (To which Spinden contributed an insight or two. For example, after viewing a photograph from Piedras Negras, Spinden made the suggestion that inscriptions that began with bat heads
should be read "here follows a name." Decades later he turned out to right.)

In all honesty this is Herbert Spinden's second greatest book. His greatest was _The Study of Maya Art_ (pub in 1913) because in it Spinden gives the first art-historical treatment of the Maya. Readers will see that this book (orig pub in 1928) has much of the same to say as that former one. Though much has happened since this book was written, the art-historical treatment is still the strong point of this book. It is the through this lens that Spinden portrays the history and culture of the peoples who once lived in Mesoamerica.

Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America is written by a curator expert on the topic and provides a concise, excellent history of the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. Any interested in early anthropology works will relish this fine survey of pre-Columbian life, essential to a beginning study of the region and its history.

This book was first published in 1928. Since that time our understanding of ancient Mesoamerica has changed dramatically. This is a verbatim reprint of the original book, with a new introduction that sets Spinden and the book into historical context. If one is interested in the development of ideas about Mesoamerica in the early 20th century, this is a useful book. If one wants to find out about those civilizations, however, this is NOT the book to read. Many of Spinden's ideas were proven wrong in the 1930s; by 2000, the number of errors in the book is enormous. There has been much fieldwork, decipherment, and other research on these cultures in recent decades. Look for one of the many recent books about the Aztecs, Mayas, and other Mesoamerican civilizations. Dover should continue reprinting codices (the Codex Borgia and Codex Nuttall are great reprints!), and stay away from outdated textbooks.

A very useful book for the absolute beginner interested in click-together 3D game making tools. An easy style and nice short chapters make it a quick read, with helpful introductions to rapid game-making software together with sound and graphics packages such as Acid, Adobe Audition, Milkshape 3D and Paint Shop Pro.

I particularly enjoyed the sections on creating, recording and editing music and sound effects, as many books underemphasise this important side of game making.

Many people are hoity-toity about click-together game making tools, arguing that doing it the hard way - first learning a (usually demanding and complex) programming language - is the only way to make high-end computer games. Though that may be so, not everybody wants to create the next blockbuster game. Many of us are happy to click together a relatively simple game of their own making with minimal effort, for their own or their kids' enjoyment or for the pleasure of learning a new and creative skill, finding a few sound effects and creating simple game graphics. This book is the 3D version of an earlier 2D "Awesome" series (Awesome Game Creation) which I found very helpful.

Awesome 3D Game Development admittedly does labour under a few limitations. Even accepting that the reader is probably a complete beginner, the author occasionally goes overboard in explaining the obvious, such as how to set up the various demos on the CD. I also feel that "Duck Blast", the 3D game which is created over various chapters and merely involves shooting yellow ducks with your mouse, is not inspiring and doesn't seem worth the significant effort to make the game.

There is, of course, a cost implication if you really intend to buy the various supporting software on the CD after the 30-day trial versions have expired. Eg. the full version of Adobe's Audition 2.0, which according to the author is ideal for creating sound effects for your games, will put you back a good sum of money. It would have been helpful to also include discussions of various cost-conscious alternative options, eg. the free or cheap music generators (obtainable on the internet for downloading) for automatically composing background music for your games.

Computer books unfortunately age quickly. A new edition of this 2004 book will hopefully also include newer products such as FPS Creator (from the makers of DarkBasic and 3D Gamemaker) and Game Maker (the Dutch product created by Mark Overmars).

In spite of the above comments I found the book very instructive and good value for money.

This is a really horrible book for those people that want to get into the game business.

Okay let me put the facts nice and easy:
For those that want to waste some time and make a little game then this book is for you.
If you want an introduction to some software out there for game making this book is for you.
If you want to be looking for a place so later you will start making you own games I would reccomend look else where.


Now this is a great book for those that want to make a game. But by saying that don't expect to make a great game not even a game like Mario or old games cause most software is very limited and even though I know these are demos for software, I actually seen the full versions of all the stuff and I am not satisfy.
But some stuff is worth looking at like Milkshape3d. And I know and the title it say no programming required but pretty much if you want to make you own game you will need to program some stuff.

Verdict: 0.0 out of 5.0 This may attract a lot of young ones that want a future in program and I would say just start programming but for those that want to make a game with limits but just want some fun then go ahead and waste you money.

Awesome 3D Game Development: No Programming Required by computer game development expert Clayton Crooks (a partner in Advanced Information Systems, a consulting company specializing in custome hardware and software solutions), is an instructional manual for learning to use "drag-and-drop" game engines, step by step procedures for storyboarding, character development, weaponry, scoring, scenery, modeling, sound effects, and more - all to create exciting three-dimen-sional games with no need for programming skills. Extensive examples, suggestions, exercises, step-by-step tutorials, and more help sharpen creative talents, and an included CD-ROM with demos of 3D GameMaker, Reality Factory, Multimedia Fusion, and more software offers an introduction to the types of tools that any game developer regardless of programming background can have access to. A superb instructional and resource.

I was so excited to see this new format! CD and board book! How perfect, right? I don't like the design of the book. The handle is nice, but the binding is not very strong. I also prefer the paperback, as there is only one animal per page. So far, my kids, and the kids I use the book with at school, prefer the paperback version. Order the old paperback, but get this for the CD. (If you really love it!)
Other than that, I love WeeSing and will continue to buy the products, I just don't think I will be buying this style of book!

A great way to read to your young child..the music is catchy and you will both soon be singing along. We enjoy the entire series..our favourite remains "Opposites".

The lyrics on this CD/book are rather unimaginative with generally just one line for each letter sung and then repeated. Wee Sing and Learn 123 is a much better book with much more to catch the interest

I'll have to buy it and see

I really didn't find this book helpful for me. First of all most of the techniques are too general (i knew most of them already). Then it shows too many plug-in filters that I don't have. And It only shows the final image in colour.

Although some may find the info redundant, some like me, being lazy would want this book as a kind of reference to common/useful methods. It also describes alternatives to many photoshop plug-ins, such as using Eye Candy Bevel to Photoshop Bevel, which is useful. No other book I know describes plug-ins this way in such detail. Good Buy. If only it comes in full color, my favourite is Photoshop 5 Artistry...must have!~

I've always been leary of books that tell you step by step every value to input. I like the format that incourages experimentation. A lot of ground is covered here, giving a glimpse at many features of 3ds, but it should be a good springboard towards the confindence to explore the ever deepening waters of 3d software.

Many of the tutorials that ship with MAX haven't been updated since version 4 (in some cases version 3) and therefore miss out on some crucial new features.

For an author who teaches and works with forensics, I'm amazed at Mr. Kalwick's lack of attention to detail and the expected proofing of his material which really reflects on his professional credentials. The first four chapters of this book give you a basic overview of the program, no problems there. Chapter 5 however begins the meat of the book, an actual project, the whole reason I bought the book but which within a few pages will have you pulling your hair out and throwing the book at the wall because it's not written on a beginners level, step by step, command by command and if that wasn't bad enough it's full of functional mistakes which renders it useless to a beginner from the outset. You can't get a refund once the CD seal is broken but you can't really get into the book without the CD and only then do you realize you've wasted your money. If I can help others avoid my mistake I'll have justified my futile purchase. My solution! Discreet's tutorial which comes with the software is suffice and if I was to recommend another book go with the "3ds max 6 bible" as a reference publication.

As a teacher of 3D Computer Graphics I have always enjoyed this author's books (his [digital] Character Animation text are great). I agree that the tutorials are tricky, as is the hippo and car in his Maya at a Glance book. But there are very few books out there that visually give a good general overview of the major concepts and tools of 3DS Max the way that this text does. The person who wrote the negative review about the book shouldn't have bought the text in the first place - everyone has a different learning style.

So if you want to not only read about, but see all the different things Max has to offer, and know that there is not an Art of 3DS Max as there is an Art of Maya that serves as a great reference, definitely consider adding this text to your library. I would recommend it for teachers, and newbies and novices who are still learning the basics of 3D.

Indeed, this book is really just a Glance as the title of the book says.
You do model the Alien (in 3 pages tut) and Spaceship (in 2 pages tut) that shows in the cover, although it goes around literally "all" aspects of 3ds max, but again, it's simply a glance view only, with some examples pictured.
But really, is just a Glance. I personally don't recommend this book, as a beginner like me, I would have loved to see something more in depth with deeper projects. Online Tutorials serves a much better justice than this book.

Often Autodesks recommended path for learning Maya is not so hot, and this is an example of an innacurate assessment on their part of who should be reading this book. In fact there are aspects of many Autodesk books that I feel were not well planned, so you might want to explore other Maya books as well as Autodesks to see what works for you.
Apparently Autodesk sees this as an "introductory" book, and really it isn't, at all. Here's why. This book doesn't tell you "how" to do anything. It does tell you "what" things are and "why" you would use them in a very specific way, but nothing is explained in a user friendly way.
Essentially this is a book of quick overviews, but with almost nothing that will guide the reader through a step-by-step process to achieve any kind of end result. In fact many aspects of the book are almost stupidly ambiguous.
Here is a metaphor of how this book works. It's like if somebody was instructing you on how to build something but they only told you WHAT to do, but not HOW to do it. For example, say somebody decided to help you build a car. So the first thing they tell you is to "Put the engine together". You think great, here we go! Your first step is "to connect the transmission to the engine block." But you realize that the transmission isn't put together, so you ask "How do I build a transmission?" The response you get is, "put those parts together"... and that's all you get. In other words the information isn't wrong, it's just useless because it doesn't give you any genuine instruction. It doesn't tell you what parts go where or in what order, and often it doesn't even tell you where to find them. Much of this book works exactly in this manner.
With that said, if you already have an intermediate/advanced working knowledge of most everything Maya has to offer, this is probably a good book, because it gives specific overviews and general explanations on almost every aspect of Maya.
If you are new to Maya this book is completely useless. Maya calls this an "introductory" book, but it's so poorly thought out that the information comes across as being jumbled and incomplete.

Well let me start by saying this book is a great technical reference. If you're an absolute beginner like me than you'll find this book unbecoming of its title as an introduction to 3D graphics. With merely a single chapter devoted to explaining 3D computer graphics and a short synopsis in the beginning of each subsequent chapter it left me puzzled and I couldn't really understand why they would call this an introductory book. If your really interested in what every tool in Maya 8 does and what the software is capable of doing then you'll get lots of use out of this book as each tool is explained in detail. No tutorials, no work along projects and no beginners guide make this more of an intermediary book best suited for people who already have basic knowledge of computer graphics who are also using a learning series book or some other guide to teach themselves Maya. This book alone is definitely not intended to teach Maya or basic principals of computer graphics but does give you a great understanding of what the buttons in Maya do... now if it would only explain WHY I'd use that button, but I guess that's where the learning series books comes into play. I'll be ordering one or two of those next...

This is probably the worst technical book I have ever read. The author simply covers the commands of the software without any insight. There is a total lack of fluidity between the sections--each one seems to have been written by a different individual who doesn't care what was said before or will be covered later. Lots of boring repetition without purpose and very dry humor. If you still would like to buy one, BUY MINE.

This is by far-and-away the best book I have read on the subject of AutoCAD 3D. The book was a joy to work through from beginning to end, covering so many aspects (many of which other authors neglect to cover), all of which add up to produce a first class book and subsequently a well rounded course - everything you need to confidently tackle 3D CAD.

BUY IT.