Graphics Books

This book literally launched my CG animation career. I later took a class in CG animation and modeling and the tutorials in this book were in that class. Its was an excellent class, since it helped you learn the book's content is covered in 3 weeks instead of 2-3 months of night time after work animation. But this book is $30 not $2k.
What a great book. It does assume you know the basics, so learn the basics first and then dive in head first.

not even worth giving it up to my dog to chew on.

I have read several books about 3D Max but I consider this book one of the best books ! and I have learnt a lot from it ...If you want to make professional media animations logos you have to own one !

I have read several books about 3D Max but I consider this book one of the best books ! and I have learnt a lot from it ...If you want to make professional media animations logos you have to own one !

Finally a book that merges great tutorial writing and impressive content. Going through this book, I was intrigued with every sentence. Not only did I want to read what Chismar had to say but I would learn things at random times. New techniques and tricks sprawl throughout this book, were at times I even felt a little guilty getting all this info for just a few bucks. Don't keep us waiting too long for the next one, John.

This title has a wealth of information that is geared mostly towards beginners, but can still be used by those familiar with the program. The slightly non-linear arrangement of information makes certain topics hard to locate, but otherwise this is definitely a good book.

With Rich Media leading the wave in Internet development these days, how's a busy Web Designer supposed to keep up ? Well, if you want to add After Effects to your toolbox, reading this book by Chris and Trish Meyer is a great 'ramp up' .
At WebForU2 we focus on small business and giving our clients an edge. A smarter, friendlier Website, that comes alive is critical.
The 'Apprentice' After Effects Apprentice (DV Expert Series)takes you through the basics of AE but it has a wonderful blend of practical, illustrative exercises that highlight the lesson's focus while leading you into the next. Products like AE are notorious for having so many bells and whistles, infinite possibilities yet lot's of things can be missing when your results aren't just right. Chris and Trish point out all the 'gothchas' creating close up views of the 'exact' steps and detail, the 'holding your mouth right' subtleties that make the difference in adding the new step or effect successfully.
Perhaps the icing on this cake is their genuine enthusiasm for the product and the practice. They have been using After Effects since it first appeared in 1993 and give testimony to how After Effects (and others products like it) have brought Hollywood within the reach of the personal computer creating a new culture of Artists and creativity.
Rock On !

I received this product pretty quickly and it was in very good condition!
Seller, keep up you good service! you got a 5 star from me!

Clear, methodical approach to training on this difficult application. I highly recommend the book! And--there's some video gems on the DVD too!

This book and media, After Effects Apprentice, was a great introduction to Adobe After Effects CS3. The tutorials were well thought out and taught solid AE skills.

Highly recommended!

Even if I'm not working in vfx, so I haven't a great experience, I think this book should be in every comps shelf: very simple, well written, it deals with the math under every (even the simplest) operation you can do in your compositing package (it's quite software-indipendent). It explains several wonderful tricks too.
Globally, very useful in my opinion.

Ron goes over the very concepts of compositing that are essential to know in the computer graphics feild. I have bought several copies of this book as the disappear from my desk (no longer kept in public view)

This book is exceptional and a must for anyone pursuing this area of interest. The only disappointment I had in purchasing this item is that it is supposed to come with a CD, and the CD was never shipped to me. What's up, Amazon?

That can I say about Mr Brinkman. Well he's one of the God's of compositing and VFX. Mad about the math behind Node based compositing software, which incidentally is a good thing. This is not meant to be a 'Shake' bible as it is supposed to be non software specific. However it uses 'Shake' language and node naming. This is not a criticism as 'Shake' is the meccano kit of compositing. Understand the mode and the math behind it and you can do anything. I would also assume that this will still be relevant when shake is 'reborn'.

This is also essential for other composing software where the math is hidden. If you've ever considered what happens inside that 'magic button' after you've clicked.

I also think that Steve Wright's 'Digital Compositing for Film and Video, Second Edition' is a must too. Another great book from a great man of VFX.

Having not been personally taught by Mr. Brinkman and Mr Wright these books prove to be the next best thing.

This book is a in depth study of the techniques and technologies involved in the art of compositing. Not sooo technical that no one will understand it, but technical enough that it even explains in detail the algorithms and math used for antialiasing, blurs, the transfer operators like multiply, screen overlay., etc... I am a professional cg artist and highly recommend this book.

Mann...this was my very first manga. Without this i would never have been into anime or manga. Actually Animerica Extra was my first actual manga preview of Fushigi Yugi. All thanks to my uncle Goku. Really that is his name. Meaning 5th son. But weird part is my grandparents only had 3 boys in the family out of 7. So maybe he was the fifth child born? But Fushigi Yugi is a wonderful book to start if you are just starting to like manga. It is perfect. It has fantasy creatures, humans with either super powers or just super human abilities, revengeful people, and a forbidden romance that could and should never be, but is. But all in all this is a perfect book by Yu Watase. Her best work ever besides Alice 19th and the forever gorgeous book ZETTAI KARESHI!....that is all...

Wow. If you don't have this manga, then there's something wrong with you! Whether or not you're a fan of the Tv series, Fushigi Yugi is a must have for the anime fan. Yu Watase knows how exactly to blend comedy with drama, so you can have emotional trama and kick [butt]fighting, turning into a laugh-a-minute when one of the charactes does something stupid. I particularily like the "Fushigi Auki, The Malicious Play" parodies done by the author every so often, taking a section of one of the chapters and turning it into a farce. GET THIS MANGA it is well worth your dollars.

Yu Watase, Fushigi Yugi: Disciple (Viz, 2000)

The third book in the Fushigi Yugi series dips a bit at first, but quickly roars back to become ever better than before. Miaka and the celestial warriors are basically wandering about waiting to find the next celestial warrior, and they find him in Chichiri, the mystical "cat-guy" whose powers complement the others quite nicely. All of this is well and good, and covers roughly the first half of the book (though we do get more background on Tamahome as well), which is readable, but nothing special. The second half, on the other hand, is all that and a bag of oysters, as Miaka and the crew find out there's a rival priestess and reveal her identity.

Lots of fun. *** ½

Some good news to fans- a new celeestial warrior appears, Chichiri. He trained under the watchful eye of Tai-Yi Jun { I can just imagine spending three years with her... that face
-_-}. And because of that, he learned some cool moves like how to freeze people {no da! ^-^}.

And a turning-point character shows up- Yui, Miaka's best friend. She has a thing for the celestial warrior Tamahome.

In the previous book, Yui goes missing, so Miaka goes back through the Universe of the Four Gods so Miaka could find Yui. She goes to the kingdom Qu- Dong, where she believes Yui might be, followed closely by Tamahome. The good news is Miaka finds Yui. At first Yui wants yo go back to Hong Nan with Miaka and Tamahome, but a conversation they have makes her want to reconsider.

Wanna read the bad news? I'm not telling you anymore than this.

Highly Recommended.

This is volume three in Fushigi Yuugi, a wonderful series. Miaka and Tamahome are a great couple with a wonderful love story. Their love story is very touching in this voloume. Tamahome tells Miaka his feelings and they become boyfriend and girlfriend. As they become a couple, their love is so sweet and touching. When Miaka leaves, Tamahome finds her and hugs her and tells her his feelings. When she leaves to head to a new nation, Tamahome finds her and asks her why she left. Tamahome kisses her and Miaka and Tamahome's love is very touching and romantic. Yui watches this and sees Miaka and Tamahome kissing. When she confronts Miaka about it, Miaka finds a new side to someone she knew. When Miaka discovers the truth of what happened to her, she makes a decision. Tamahome sees her and notices that Miaka is acting differently. He asks her about it- but she isn't sure how to tell him what she must do. Tamahome kisses her and finds out the truth from her. Tamahome tells Miaka that he will always protect her and they hug. This volume has lots of romantic moments between Miaka and Tamahome and they become a couple in this volume. This is a great volume.

The page designs for this book appear to have been intended for printing in full color. There was liberal use of spot color and much use of full color screen caps in the design; but as the book is printed with only black ink, the illustrations and other graphic elements are lacking in contrast--like printing a color negative on b&w photo paper. The title should have gone through a redesign to optimize it for one-color printing. While it's still legible, the effect makes me feel like I missed out on something.

This volume was suggested to us by our flight instructor, who found that the mental exercize of simulated inflight practice increased his efficiency in learning. I found it slightly overwhelming at first, but perhaps it is the challenge of the older generations to conquer the electronic media. It is a bit like learning to speak French to learn Spanish, but the overall concept should help decrease actual flight costs. Looking forward to the process.

Well written, clear and fun to read. I'm not a real pilot but I've been an enthusiastic if somewhat casual user of Flight Simulator for years and I have learned so much from this book. It's accurate, no glaring typos and assembled in a logical format.

The accompanying exercises (down loadable from the Wiley Site)are very well done and are a testament to the devotion of the authors to fulfill the purpose as stated in the title of their book.

It has taken me to the next level of flight simulation. Thanks.

I'm not a pilot and don't intend to be one. I'm mostly interested in IFR flight and have some experience with previous version of FS back to '98. I just got this book and it really looks good. Lots of pics. It's geared towards training for actual flying but I recommend it for flight sim fans also. If my opinion changes are reading the book I will change this review.

This book is a bargain for FSX users. Very detailed with over 700 pages of information. I am a private pilot and throughly enjoyed reading through this manual, especially when flying my FSX program. In addition the extra missions, charts & challanges, are certainly worth the book. The extras are free off the internet, and you'll probably have to wait until the web site is "free" as I suspect it is very busy. The book is great for learning a "new" aircraft, and best of all it gets you in the air quickly if you have never flown before. The internet stuff comes up inside the FSX program itself, and it quite complete with charts etc. for each mission. This book is certainly worth the money for what you get.

In Not Between Brother author David Marion Wilkinson relates the epic story of Texas spanning the years from 1816 to 1861. Wilkinson uses the life story of his primary protagonist, Remy Fuqua, to tell the Anglo, Tejano, and to some extent the Mexican parts of the tale. On the other side, Wilkinson puts the reader into a virtual alternate universe by following the life a Comanche warrior named Kills White Bear. The lives of Remy and Kills White Bear become inextricably bound together through a series of unfortunate incidents that are mostly fueled by their mutual desire for vengeance. Indeed, the book closes with one final tragic encounter between them.

On the larger stage of history, Wilkinson's book tells the story of Texas (or Tejas) from its days as part of the Spanish colonial empire, through its Mexican statehood, its days as an independent republic, and its annexation to the United States. The book closes as secession fever strikes and the state legislature withdraws Texas from the Union over the objections of its governor, Sam Houston.

Fuqua wants to ranch and by hard work and fortuitous marriage achieves an extraordinary level of success. All the more bitter, then is his struggle against the Mexican government, The Texas Republic, and Confederate Texas to keep what he has built. The eternal struggle, however, is between the Comanche, especially the Penatekas led by Kills White Bear, and the Anglos and Tejanos. The Comanche fiercely defended their hunting grounds and with some degree of success on the sparsely settled Texas plains. Both sides fought viciously - it injury to the truth to romanticize it. In addition to their sheer numbers and technological advantages, the whites brought diseases that no amount of courage or tenacity could resist. On the whole, the Comanche chose to resist, seemingly beyond all reason, rather than submit.

Wilkinson sprinkles his tale with historical characters such as Sam Houston, Buffalo Hump, Santa Anna, Juan Seguin, Indian agent Robert Neighbors, and Captain Jack Hay of the Texas Rangers. Wilkinson also puts the reader in the midst of historic events such as the Alamo (necessarily told second-hand to Remy), the Battle of San Jacinto where Houston won his fame and Texas its independence, and the Council House Fight, where the army's ham-handed handling of treaty negotiations led to a massacre of Penateka chiefs and warriors, which in turn led to the slaughter of captive whites and touched off a major round of Comanche raids.

The one negative review of this book asserted that the author is no McMurtry or' Mitchner' (sic - presumably the reviewer meant James Michener) - a range of literary skills nearly as large as the Texas plains, in the eyes of this reader. Wilkinson does not reach the heights that McMurtry can, but exceeds Michener in developing real characters in an historical setting (as opposed to the rather simplistic characterizations in Michener's `Texas'.

Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and the American West. The insights into the Comanche and Tejano side of the story set Wilkinson's book apart.

This is one of the very best western epics I've had the pleasure to read.
Laced with historical characters and important moments in Texan history, this book will keep you reading until your eyes droop. I am now a huge fan of this author and have moved on to other of his books. I don't know if it's possible someone would want to make a film of Not Between Brothers but I surely wish they would. This book is a cracker.

Having received this book as a gift several years ago, I am now sorry it took me so long to get around to reading it. I assure you that once you start reading Not Between Brothers, you will find it hard to put down.
Others have rehashed the story in their reviews to some degree or another, so I'll try not to do that here. Author Wilkinson does an excellent job developing both the characters and his story. There's a surprise at nearly every turn, although the reader somehow knows that chief protagonist Remy Fuqua is going to survive.
This is not just a story of a titanic clash of cultures, it is a story of hard men and women in a harsh land, where nearly every day brings an often life-threatening challenge. It is written in an heroic fashion that reminds me sometimes of Michener and sometimes of Fraser (of the Flashman series), but nearly always in a way that keeps the reader wondering what's coming next. Wilkinson writes a balanced story with a great understanding of the points of view of all the cultures that once claimed Texas as theirs.
Those who know the parts of Texas where this story takes place will almost literally be able to visualize it, to taste it and to smell it. Those who don't know Texas will come away with a pretty good picture of its geography and climate. And everyone will come away with a greater knowledge of the forces that shaped Texas and made it what it is today.
This is said to be Wilkinson's first novel and he's done a heck of a job researching and writing it. His command of the language is impressive as is his attention to detail. I found only one major factual error about a third of the way through probably missed in the proofreading( see if you can find it too). There are also a couple of times where I was able to guess why a particular incident occurs ahead of it being explained, but most of the time the reader is left in breathless anticipation of what's to come.
Despite a few missteps and a weak final chapter after the dramatic and surprising climax, my overall impression of Not Between Brothers is that I have just read an epic blockbuster. A blurb on the cover claims that it was a finalist for the Spur Award for best novel of the West in 1996. Well, if some other book beat this one, I'll have to read it and see why, because Not Between Brothers is one of the finest books about Texas or the West I have read in years!

Being a native Texan and a former history I found this to be an
interesting book.The book tells of Remy Fuqua moving to Texas to
start his life.Once in Texas he marries Beatrice the daughter of
wealthy Mexican parents.Together they have three children.His
wife and two of his sons are seized by a feirce Comanche chief by
the name of Kills White Bear.Remy rescues his wife and one of his sons.Once home Beatrice has a child that has been fathered by Kills White Bear.Remy rides with Sam Houston and does battle
with Mexican bandits and the Comanche Indians.He later has a
confrontation with Kills White Bear.A very well written fiction
book that sounds like actual history.Read this book.You will have
a better grasp of the early days of Texas.

Texas is a huge state with a rich multicultural heritage. It takes a real tour de force, such as David Marion Wilkinson's "Not Between Brothers" to do it justice. In this epic view of Texas history, Wilkinson uses fictional characters Remy Fuqua and Comanche Indian Kills White Bear to tell the story of life on the frontier between the years 1816 and 1861. Remy is a Scotch-Irish orphan who grows up in Louisiana and is permanently scarred by his unhappy childhood. He carries a "never-say-die" attitude and a quick temper throughout his life. Kills White Bear is a Comanche warrior who nurtures a hatred for the white people whose diseases rob him of many of his loved ones. Remy and his cousin move to Texas where they negotiate a piece of land from Stephen F. Austin. Remy meets and falls in love with a beautiful, wealthy Mexican woman, and this causes problems for both of them throughout the rest of their lives. Remy and Kills Bear's lives weave their separate paths until at last they intersect, with predictable dire consequences for both of them. Wilkinson's wonderful prose and unforgettable characters make for an excellent read. He weaves in a lot of history and the reader is treated to up-close looks at Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Jim Bowie, and others who are painted in wonderful shades of gray and who are not made to look like saints. For anyone who enjoys historical fiction or who has an interest in Texas, this is highly recommended reading.

...I cried. Like a baby. And just...

CLAMP, you are too mean.

That last line without the "kun" in it just felt... slightly upsetting, but all in all, the translations were pretty decent.

"That line" made me cringe a tad, but I suppose there's worser ways to translate it.

If you're a Tokyo Babylon fan, or X fan, or Subaru and Sei-chan fan, read it.

And yes, you will most likely cry.

Four words: Cried like a baby. Through pretty much the entire volume, to stop briefly during the cute fluff girl-talk moment between Yuziriha and Arashi, then to start anew during Seishiro-san's side story.

Anyone who has ever belived that there was anything other than blank emotions or hate between Subaru-kun and Seishiro-san will shed at least one tear in this volume. Anyone who read Tokyo Babylon will be bawling. Without the honorifics, I admit, i did shift a little in my seat and definitely lessens the impact of "that line", (but my convoluted mind changed it into the intimate lack of honorifics, instead of Viz being dumbasses) but it still makes me cry.

We once again see Hokuto, Kakyo of course, angsting over her. man i love this girl, she rocks, of course. she makes a speech, in her dying moments to Seishiro-san (Kakyo's dream, of the past) about love and how there's hope, and how she could never hate him and puts her trust in him, and oh man, it made me cry.

DoE Kamui's talk with Kakyo is worth seeing too. The use of the word "special" causes confliction with me. In this context, it should be something much stronger than "special", but it strikes a memory of a TB scene where Hokuto-chan tells Seishiro-san that he is "special" to Subaru-kun, and there, the word is supposed to be "special", so confict on word choice there.

This volume is dedicated to my two all-time favorite CLAMP characters, Subaru-kun and Sei-chan, and their story, which began in Tokyo Babylon, continued in various volumes, which always made my heart clench, and finally ended here, in a very tearful moment, and lots of sakura petals (what else?) during the fight. (their story "continues" in a way in later volumes, you'll have to read 17 and 18 to know what i mean)

Even though their aren't any really happy moments (though the goofy smile never leaves Sorata's face...), and evil!Hinoto makes my skin crawl, and the majority of the book made me cry (Subaru-kun sitting in a dark room clenching the blood-spattered jacket around him, and kissing the marks on the back of his hands...*cries all over again*), this is definitely my favorite volume of the 18. Anyone who has made it this far, whether reading it w/o buying it, or buying all the volumes, one by one, has to own this volume. Any Tokyo Babylon fan should own this volume. period.

Being a huge X and Tokyo Babylon fan, I find that this book is simply gold. No X fan can deny that this is one of the most memorable books from this series. They can't deny that it is heart-wrenching and very moving.

Luckily, I do not see a need to attack Viz for their translation. Others may see things differently depending on how Americanized or directly translated they like their manga to be. X is my favorite series, so I will not deny that I tend to be harsh on Viz. That having been said, here's what I thought:

Content-wise, this book couldn't be better. While it does center on just two characters, it is very worthwhile and doesn't drag on in the least. The overall mood is out to get you shocked and crying (and darned if it doesn't succeed), so don't expect tons of fluffy stuff here.

Translation-wise, this is, as I said in the title, passable. Not horrible, but probably won't meet the standards held by hardcore fans. Allow me to say this: the dialogue is much less ambiguous. The sound effects kind of seem to be mocking the artwork, but maybe that's just a recent revelation of mine. Finally, one page is left unflipped and if you're observant/know the pages of this book like the back of your hand, you'll notice and probably cringe.

There are some good points, though. As I said, I'm biased against Viz, so I'm being tough. After reading this book twice, I only found one minor grammatical error and as far as I know, the dialogue is mostly translated correctly. Of course, the artwork is just brilliant as always (and, may I argue, better than usual?).

To be honest, I rather like Viz's translation of "that line" (for those who don't know what I'm talking about, you will and how it's translated probably won't matter). Overall, I'm satisfied.

Final word: Go out and get this volume. It's a must-have.

I found this manga to be one of the best I have ever read. I am 12 years old and just cant stay away from it. The fighting scenes are great. I really love the english translation and I love being able to get into the character. It is great to be able to get into the main character and in this book I found that you really could get into the character. I think that all anime lovers will love this manga. When you are watching the series and you dont read the manga dont watch episode 0 you'll ruin it all for you. You want to know the plot before you watch episode 0. So even if you havent read it and you just want to watch and ruin the plot go right ahead. But if youre one for reading and not ruining the plot then get the manga and read. Im sure youll enjoy yourself even if you dont like reading. It isnt hard to enjoy this book and even if you dont like anime I beleive you will love this series. THE END

Apparently, the image for this sucker isn't working. However, this IS the link that came up when I went to my order and selected good ol' volume 16 of X.

How to review it....

Let's simply say I sobbed like a baby all the way through. Viz finally did a decent translation job, keeping all the heart, feeling and utter and complete angst that makes this the greatest of all volumes of X nearly as fabulous as it was in its original printing across the pages of Asuka comics.

From the trauma that graces the pages (no, not a single freaking happy moment in this one... save Sorata's goofiness at the end. He's a great spirit-lifter, even though after Hinoto's cameo you just shudder seeing his grin. GAH!) to the beautiful detail splayed across every page, this one's always been impossible for me to put down.

SEE what I mean that the fight in the anime should've been MUCH longer, seeing how many pages it takes up in this volume? Their fight went on forever across the comic's pages! Yeesh.

And such a horrible, yet fitting end... *cries herself silly*

To enjoy - Kamui smiling (WOW!), Sorata flopping his hair like mad, Nokuro looking very very bish, Girl-talk between Arashi and Yuzu that's so sweet it nearly made my teeth rot with its sugary goodness in a fine way, Kamui at Subaru's feet gripping his hand like the uke onna CLAMP's all but turned him in to, wind-caught trench coats EVERYWHERE, Seishiro's best-ever defense against ofuda, HOKUTO-CHAN! in her final moments, Kamui jumping off the roof of a Geo Metro (I'm a Metro owner, so I laughed myself silly seeing that. Thanks for the giggle, CLAMP!)...

Seishiro's side story with all of its incest and wrongnes with its pretty flowers and snow...

And the unforgettable conclusion on the drama that started with the very first pages of Tokyo Babylon.

Sayonara, Sei-chan.

And as for Subaru... no worries. We'll be seeing him again. *runs off before she blows spoilers everywhere*

Sure the program comes with a PDF manual but having a printed reference can make learning so much easier. This is not a book on technique, it's a book on features, functionality and workflow. I primarily use Final Cut Express, thankfully most of the tutorials contained in the book are applicable. There's nothing terribly exciting about the book itself, the information is presented in a no-nonsense fashion. If your looking for anecdotal storytelling, humor and opinion you'd do well to consider another title. I keep it handy at all times, it's saved me a lot of time and frustration...well worth the money.

I like Lynda's personal publications best but anything bearing her title "H.O.T." is worth having. Very practical and useful. Norman Borge

When looking for a book on FCP, I just read the various reviews. Even though some others looked quite interesting, I chose this one and am glad I did. I wanted a specific type of instruction because I have some expert-level chops and ignorance at the same time. I'm new to video but am a professional recording engineer by trade. I'm fully conversant on the Mac and non-linear audio programs so I needed a book that got both completely simple (for video concepts new to me) and also provided some depth at the same time.

The type of instruction in this book is having the user execute step-by-step, starting at the most basic level but progressing into more complex stuff fairly quick.

I forget the wording but there's some Chinese proverb........something like
You tell me, I hear
You show me, I see
I do, I learn

That's me and this book suits my learning style nicely. I'm sure there are other books as good but I doubt that any are better, hard to see how you could go wrong with this one.

I consider myself to be a "seasoned user" of Final Cut Pro. I have been editing with FCP since the original release of version 1.0 and have worked on numerous documentaries, features, commercials and episodic television.

I learned about this book from the Apple website. This is the official textbook used for Apple Pro Certification (FCP Level One). So I decided that I would "forget" everything I already knew and begin with Lesson 1. I'm very happy I adopted that attitude because there are so many neat little tips that I picked up in the first few lessons. Now I wonder how I ever survived without them. Those tips have already saved me a lot of time. I have only completed one-third of the lessons thus far and I can already see an improvement in my productivity.

Every chapter of the book is a "hands-on" lesson. The files and media for each lesson are provided on a DVD-ROM (included). You will first copy those files to your hard drive and then open each lesson file and then follow the step-by-step instructions in the book.

I'm looking forward to getting my Level One certification with the help of this book, and I can't wait to continue onto the Advanced Level certification with the second book.

Please note this is essentially the same book as the the "Final Cut Pro HD" book. The DVD is the same and so are the exercises. I had a chance to compare both and noticed only only one minor detailed (a detail is now circled on a screen shot) and, of course, there could be some that I missed. Even so, the back cover of the HD book acknowledges...

"This book was previously published under the title "Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 4. If you previously purchased this book, there is no need to purchase this revision: All the project files and exercises in the previous edition can be used with Final Cut Pro HD."

Bottom-Line: Newbie or Pro? It doesn't matter! This is a GREAT book to own if you use FCP.

Until I purchased this book, I had owned FCP4 for six months. I had learned my way around the software well enough. I felt comfortable, but not necessarily proficient. In order to improve my editing time, I went ahead and ordered this book, also with the intent of getting my Apple certification, as this is the same text used in their classes. Normally, I am the type that I will skip sections that discuss things that I'm certain I know, but I went ahead and followed every step in the book.
What a difference! Each chapter takes approximately 30-45 minutes to complete, using video clips on the included DVD. After 3 days and 10 chapters, I was hardling touching my trackball. Not only had I learned quite a few shortcuts, but the book helped me understand the editing process itself a little better. I feel that this text is very well laid out, easy to understand, and can be done relatively quickly with a sharp learning curve. I highly recommend this to anyone new to Final Cut Pro. With a little time and effort, you'll be flying around the video editing, the soundtrack design and the Live Type titling package. And, after you have completed this book, go ahead and buy Apple Pro Training Series: Advanced Editing and Finishing Techniques in Final Cut Pro 4, you will not be disappointed.

It could be science fiction
myths...
unrealistic scenario,
but certainly it is amazing.
So much work went in the
preparation of this book.
So much details.
My God!
It is really amazing....


S. Mahdi, Cairo, Egypt.

The artwork in this book is fabulous. It's a neat little companion book for sci-fi fans; it has wonderful illustrations of all the various organisms that have been portrayed in some of sci-fi's classic and canonical works. And along with those illustrations? Little one-page write ups on their biology, social structure, etc.

Once I saw that there was a Velantian in this, from E. E. Doc Smith's Lensman series, I was sold, and had to get it. Done as a page by page look at each species the artwork is excellent, and these are the sort of funny looking monster types that kids like too, so it can work on more than one level, most definitely.

Good book. I have owned this since I was a child. It was a great portal into many of these classic Sci Fi books as I would have never heard about them otherwise. Barlowe has a fantastic nack for bringing life to these aliens. Highly recommended.

I enjoy art books, mainly books of fantasy art. But this book is more a sci-fi art book, and a very good one at that. Mr. Barlowe did a excellent job with the illustrations in this book. I read H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness." I had a hard time visualizing the Old ones described in that novelette. But Mr. Barlowe helped me greatly by including them in this volume and even summarizing their history. I would love to see how Mr. Barlowe would visualize all the creatures in my book, Tales of Ancient Xenar. I know he has a fantasy art book and I hope to see that one very soon. And to be honest, the only thing I am disappointed about is the fact Amazon.com ony allows a max of 5 stars. This book deserve well more than that.

Within the covers of this book are not just three great stories of Conan by Robert E. Howard. It is also full of artwork by Gary Gianni, notes and untitled synopsis, and background information about the setting and times of the Age of Hyboria. The second book in a three book series, it is just as good as the first and the third. And as you can see from the other reviews, none of them are blow five stars. So far. So get it. Right now.

"The Bloody Crown of Conan" contains three novellas each of which is fabulous entertainment. One of the novellas (really a full novel), "The Hour of the Dragon" is in my opinion the greatest Conan novel of them all, and one of the greatest fantasy tails ever told.

In "The Hour of the Dragon" evildoers use black magic to revive a long-dead evil magician, who they hope to use to overthrow King Conan, who is the King of Aquilonia. Conan's struggle to regain his throne is the theme of this story, and a great story it is. Howard's writing is vibrant and unforgettable, and the reader is transported to the Hyborian world of Conan, the Kingdom of Stygia, and other fabulous places that existed only within the mind of Robert E. Howard and, of course, the reader.

This is truly wonderful entertainment, and Robert E. Howard deserves to rank among the greats of the "sword and sorcery" genre. "The Hour of the Dragon" is unforgettable.

If you like Fantasy books, try this one, it will keep you on the edge of your looking glass, i would just like more movies to come out on this like the first conan movie. the second one was a laugh. the first movie was done with real swords, people acually went to the hospital with missing fingers and split open chests from acuall cuts. took 5 years to make the first movie, only 1 yr for the second

No one can write Conan like Robert E. Howard. This collection of short stories will keep you on the edge of your seat. Conan is the ultimate hero, extremely strong, intelligent, honest, loyal, and violent. The envy of every man and desire of every woman. It is such a shame that Howard cut his own life short without continuing this legend for himself.

This includes three of Howards longer Conan stories, including one that is full novel length, one rough draft of another story, Howards notes on the stories preceding their completion, two essays pertaining to Howard and his writings by people who helped put this book together and on top of all that its full of illustrations throughout the book. Very affordable and the quality of the stories are the top of the heap of the fantasy genre. I count Howard as being one of the my favorite writers. I can't recomend this and the other two Del Ray Conan releases any more. What a shame it was that these great works were out of print for so long. Great primal blood and guts stuff that often resembles horror as much as fantasy!