Animation Books

Fantastic training book for video professionals breaking into web delivery. Easy to understand explanations and examples, perfect for someone who understands the basics of the web, and wants to get their work out there for people to see. This book shows you how to create interfaces just like myspace and youtube, so your site can be easy to navigate for any web audience. However, it also gives you the tools to get really creative with your video viewer - so you can say, with gusto, 'what box'? This is a must have for ALL video professionals, even if you're not on the web yet - you will be.

I bought this book being a big fan of the Friends of Ed series and expecting that an entire book on just Flash Video would cover all I need to know and then some. Wow, was I wrong. There is hardly anything to be learned here.

I'd be willing to bet you'll learn a lot more from a video chapter in a general Flash book like Flash Bible than you will from this.

As an example, one thing I wanted to do is display a video's current and remaining time (like YouTube does). None of the current FLV skins support this, only the Media Player component which you can't customize. This is not covered anywhere in the book. Maybe its just me but I think that is a HUGE omission. The chapter on customizing your skins is short and elementary...nothing new to learn. And that was the main reason I bought the book. I emailed the author about the time thing, and got back a link of an FLV showing only the current seconds in decimal form. Much like the book, no effort was put into this.

Luckily in an online forum someone was good enough to post their code on how to link up text boxes with the current and total playing time of an FLV, in conventional time format. Honestly I learned more from those 3 small blocks of code than I did from this entire book.

Steer clear and save your money for an ActionScript book. You won't learn anything from this book.

This is a well-written and enjoyable immersion into the nuts and bolts of creating and publishing video on the web using Flash 8. Aimed squarely at those beginning to work with Flash Video, the book is quite thorough for that audience. Most importantly, it covers all the essential principles one needs. From data rates for encoding videos to alpha channel effects to using the BitMapData and other classes, this book will set you up to launch that internet tv channel you've been thinking about.

However, if you're looking for the mind-bendingly master kung-fu video tricks that break existing rules of reality, I'm afraid you'll have to look further. Or write it yourself!

I like the clear organization and simple instructions the writers give. The book serves as a handy reference for those just starting to use video and other related objects in Flash. The code is broken down and explained for the reader and one can use these building blocks in combinations to stunning effect. Especially helpful is the section on playing multiple videos.

The writers make the whole thing fun and light. Hell, we're all playing around figuring out what we can do with these toys. I'd like more heavy, serious passages as well, though. Still, worth the cover preice, though.

Title: Foundation Flash 8 Video
Author: Green & Chilcott
Publisher: Apress/FriendsofEd


Begins with an overview of video file formats with brief descriptions of each. The various steps involved in creating an FLV file are covered using the Video Wizard and the Flash 8 Video Encoder. Ample screenshots with settings selected are provided, as are descriptions of all the menu options, etc. Basic video editing is described using readily available programs like MovieMaker and iMovie. Alternative FLV creation tools such as Sorenson Squeeze and ON2Flix are covered also, with start-to-finish examples provided for both. FLV components as well as the video object are introduced also.

Alpha channels and keying are described with various tutorials using Premiere Pro, After Effects, and FinalCut Pro. Using a single clip, users learn how to remove background from video with these applications. The keying plugins used in the Adobe program tutorials are specific to the Creative Suite Production Bundle. Users of the standalone versions of these programs will be able to achieve the same results using other included plugins.

Filters, blend effects, and masking provide an insight into the creative potential of Flash video. One compositing tutorial I found particularly useful used a single FLV file to demonstrate the different effects possible using drop shadows. Others use Illustrator shapes to create masks, and ActionScript code samples enable the manipulation of mask color as well as creating motion. Other useful topics with their own chapters include creating video walls and choosing and playing multiple videos. Bandwidth issues and their importance are stressed several times here.

Streaming video using the camera object is described in detail, as well as creating a video box and flipping video. The creative possiblities seem endless. If you have a webcam installed, you can see yourself on multiple billboards in Times Square using the Chapter 10 tutorials. The last two chapters get further into ActionScript and motion graphics using After Effects.

The book itself provides a solid introduction to Flash video, and demonstrates the many ways Flash now increasingly interacts with other programs. The tutorials are straight-forward and practical, and keep the reader interested. Like other FriendsofEd books, all the source files are

Foundation Flash 8 Video
by Tom Green and Jordan Chilcott
Publisher: Friends of Ed
Copyright: 2006
ISBN:-13(pkb): 978-1-59059-651-7

If you need some inspiration, this is a good book to read. It starts out basic and gets becomes advanced.

It explains the whole video process from scratch. One part that I liked was the description of buffering. The book explains that the key to successful playback is the data rate and storing enough packets before the video starts.

This author has fun with video. He is always showing you the amazing things you can do with a very small amount of code. He starts with showing you what the components can do and then ramps up with a very simple code sample that is required
to connect a video object to a web server.

Next Tom and Jordan go into Alpha Channels. They show you how to make a video clip with a green screen mask, attach it to a video object and add a drop shadow. Other exciting topics are: trim a video and use it like an ad banner, play video on video, adding cue points to trigger Flash events, and having someone walk across your web page in a browser. You can do amazing things like having a talking head discuss car models and adding a race car in another video zooming by in the background.

Filters are discussed and how they are added to a video embedded in a movie clip. He warns you that adding filters can be processor intensive.

Some of the things you learn are: moving your mouse across a video and creating trail of blur as you go. Also projecting a video onto an underlying image
with a screen blend mode.

Masking videos is discussed. You can create a mask in Illustrator, drag it into Flash and make it a mask layer. In Illustrator you would apply the roughen filter to 0.5 and the chalk scribble brush stroke. This would be placed as another copy above the mask to enable the details of the artwork to show.

Tom and Jordan show you how to fill Times Square with your own videos by removing the ads, and making masks for your own video feeds.

There is quite a lot of information about building a video wall. He explains getting the Flash Media Server 2 for no charge.

One of the crucial things about working with video the authors say is "Watching the pipe". This means always considering how much bandwidth you are using.

This book is not a complete resource on the Flash Media Server 2 or After Effects but, it touches on them just enough to get you interested.

The authors even leave you with a bit of information on video cameras and how to hook them up with just 2 lines of code. I enjoyed the fun approach in this book and its simplification of a complex topic.

This book is great. Lots of good information, and a cool character to boot.

My only complaint is that I wish there was a little more step by step to actually posing and animating the character between setups.

Other than that - add it to my library! This, along with Dan Ablan's titles round out my LightWave learning.

"Lightwave3D 7.0 Character Animation" is a must-have for anyone trying to learn how to rig and animate in Lightwave3D. Timothy Albee takes all the mystery out of how to properly set up a character, including tips on modeling for rigging, weight maps, skelegons, bones and IK. It also shows you methods to circumvent Lightwave's quirky process of rigging to ensure the most stable rigs possible: the kind that animators like to use. On top of that, a good portion of the book is dedicated to animation techniques, including some great chapters on posing and conveying weight through your animations. And, the CD has a lot of useful content, including all the necessary supporting files to get you rigging or animating right away.

One thing that could make this book even better is a complete demonstration of weight maps on a character. However, that could take an entire book on its own, and there is sufficient information to teach you the method. In any case, the info in this book saved me hours of guesswork...I highly recommend it.

In response to the anonymous reviewer with the title "Not For Animators" dated Sept 13 2002 - It's painfully obvious that this reviewer did not read the book thoroughly. He asked if he was "missing something" well he/she missed the entire boat.

Chapter 3 does start of with "You've got your character all ready to go ..." But the reviewer unjustly took this sentence out of context. The paragraph finishes with " ...Before you can animate him, you've got to set him up. And before you can set him up, you've got to prep him for the setup, and that means planning." Ch. 3 is about pre-bending the limbs of the character to help the IK. It is not about suddenly jumping into animating your completed character that the non-reviewer would lead you to believe.

Chapters 3 through 9 go into extensive details about the mechanics of setting up characters in Lightwave 7.x. The first 9 chapters are:

Ch. 1 About this Book

Ch. 2 Inverse Kinematics: It's Strengths and Weaknesses

2.1 IK
2.2 IK's Strengths
2.3 IK's Weaknesses Lightwave-Specific
2.4 IK Setup Basics
2.5 IK Rules

Ch. 3 Prepping Your Character for Setup

3.1 Where is He Going to Bend?
3.2 Pre-bending to Help IK

Ch. 4 Boning Your Character

4.1 Adding Bones to Your Character
4.2 Spinal Controls
4.3 Hand Controls
4.4 Foot Controls
4.5 Fingers
4.6 IK System Skelegons

Ch. 5 Converting, Organizing, and Aligning (Bones)

5.1 Converting Skelegons to Bones
5.2 Organizing the Schematic into Something Helpful
5.3 Aligning the Spine, Pelvis, and Feet
5.4 Bone Hierarchy
5.5 Recording Pivot Rotations
5.6 Recording Bone Rest Information

Ch. 6 Putting IK to Work

6.1 Terminating IK Chains
6.2 Creating Goal Objects
6.3 Activating IK
6.4 Activating Individual Controllers
6.5 Deactivating Individual Manual Controls

Ch. 7 Point Weighting

7.1 Point Weighting Basics
7.2 Beginning the Point Weighting Process
7.3 Swapping Models and Testing Weight Mappings
7.4 The Use Weight Map Only Option
7.5 Finding Stray Points
7.6 Straightening the Feet for Animation
7.7 Putting Him Through the Motions
7.8 Tidying Up

Ch. 8 Using the Controls

8.1 The Model Itself
8.2 Root
8.3 Pelvis
8.4 Spinal Bones
8.5 Head
8.6 Hand Translation Controls
8.7 Hand Rotation Controls
8.8 Shoulder Controls
8.9 Elbow Controls
8.10 Foot Controls
8.11 Toe Controls
8.12 Knee Controls
8.13 The Fingers and Thumb
8.14 Notes on Modifying the Setup

The remaining 10 chapters, except ch. 15, deal with the generic techniques and theory of animation that can be obtained in any non-3d animation book. Ch. 15 briefly goes over the mechanics of digitigrade (quadrupeds,etc...) characters.

As a solo free-lance medical illustrator/animator of 10 years, it's very difficult to come across such useful information without taking classes or working in a large studio with other creative types. I have every imaginable training video/dvd/CD, and book written about Lightwave (by Dan Ablan, Dave Jerrard, Doug Kelly, Patrik Beck, Ken Brilliant, Bill Fleming, Desktop Images, Class on Demand, etc...)

So far, I have not found any other source that comes close to what Timothy Albee has written for the Lighwave community. Kudos!

I had Lightwave for about two years, and found if you put the time into it, you get the rewards. However, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get skelagons/bones to work properly. Luckily I found this book. It took me thru the whole boning process from modler to layout to bone conversion to proper rotation and more. Amazing enough, the book knows were I had problems in the past and tells you how to correct it! In the past, other books went straight to the next step.
In short, I suppose if you're already an animator, this book may not be telling you nothing new. But if you know your way around Lightwave but never got into bones/charater animation, I highly recomend this book. It's well worth it!

When you read the first chapter you'll be lead into a false sense of comfort that newbies will be animating by the end of this book. Not true. You may successfully make it through the exercise in chapter 2 (though it didn't work for me) and even be impressed of the level of detail they show you in how to navigate the menus. But by chapter 3, you'll be lost. I got as far as opening the model included in the CD-ROM. The next section (p. 28) says "1. Pre-bend your model's arms..." and that's the end of my learning. All of the sudden you've got select portions of the model that you are working with, but the book never explains or shows how to get there (this part is pre-bending the shirt, and only is working with the shirt as if the rest of the chacter doesn't exist). If I could just figure out how to get that select part of the model on screen, I would be happy. Of course the book doesn't say HOW to pre-bend the arms of the character either, just to do so to make it look like the figure... This book is a waste unless you've got some modeling or animation experience.

This was my very first MX book
(after about 10 on Flash 5), and
I was quite happy to get an overview of the new features.
As it is an overview, some details will be
missing; as you have a good choice now,
maybe get something more in-depth.
Still, one of FoED's best authors!

This book does a very admirable job for what it was designed to do - to be a guide of the new features provided in Flash MX for those of us whom were VERY familiar with Flash 5.

As a designer whom has used Flash since 1998, this book provided me with a simple tour of the newer features I should look for and use in Flash MX. While the book may not get much use past the first read-through - you don't have to worry about buying a book and skipping past the first 200 pages of fundementals to learn what was different - and that is very comforting.

If you're new to Flash - this is not the book for you. If you made your living using Flash 5 - the time you'll save quickly skimming through this book and seeing the differences between versions 5 and MX (there's quite a few of them) is definately worth the book's cost.

There are some great aspects about this book, but also quite a few that take away from them. First of all, there are some things which are errononous -- ie: just about all of the Accessibility coverage (quite an important new feature) -- some of the things it tells you to do won't work. That piece of code is for something entirely different, not checking accessibility. Secondly, some of what is said about video is not correct as well. Finally - some of the tutorials are not completed -- it says they will be in a "later chapter" - but this doesn't seem to occur. Perhaps this book was rushed out (the typos and grammatical errors might explain this - why the review goes from a "3" to a "2"). Anyway, apart from that some valuable points and lessons in this one.

I must say, its great to learn all the new features, without having to wade through a whole book on flash mx A-Z.

I am glad that he covered the freetransform tool indepth with its new features of distort and envelope modifiers, this allows a programmer like me to make faux 3D and other fancy shapes that you could never do in flash 5, you would have to break out illustrator/freehand, which then you would have to know those application to accomplish the same thing you can do in MX in 2 seconds, yes you still need those apps if your gonna do really complex shapes etc...

I think macromedia has solved 90% of the problems and complaints with flash 5

don't forget to donwload the source code and errata from the website.

This book is more than worth the price (even without the 30% discount!)

I totally disagree with the negative reviews. Sham is a very
good writer, and makes learning Flash a fun experience. His book is geared to anyone who has a working knowledge of Flash5, and just wants to get up to speed on MX, and he states that
plainly.

This book is invaluble in exploring all the new features of MX.
I'm verrrry happy with it!

Thanks, Sham, and Friends of Ed for producing great Flash books! Keep it up, mates =)

I got really frustrated with the book. Long chapters with little substance. Very hard to find what you are looking for.Unnecessary repetition is annoying. Definitely not a book for me.

I am a java programmer, eager to learn Flash fast. This book was only slightly useful. I found the chatty style just long-winded and condescending.

Here's one example (p.56):"You're probably wondering just what the panel is, anyway. In effect, a panel is effectively what is known as a nonmodal dialog box. That is, a panel can be thought of as a dialog box that does not need to be closed."

In effect, this author needs effectively what is known as a good editor.

The later chapters on actionScript are particularly weak. Too much ink spent defining terms and listing actions out of context. I needed more worked examples. I found the built-in lessons in the Flash Help more useful than this book.

On a postive note, my tired old eyes really liked the large easy-to-read font used in this book. Why the heck do so many software texts have small fonts surrounded by acres of white space?

I knew a few basics from the files that come with flash, and was able to do very few basic things. I read through this book, and I now have a solid background in all the flash basics. I like the layout too. Great book, excellent for beginners.

I was surprised at how easy it was to start understanding and using Flash with this book. It is organized very well, the language is concise and clear, and one can follow all the examples without having to go over the author's instructions again and again as with so many other books of this kind. In that sense, this book is a confidence builder and should be read by all who are starting with Flash.

I had no previous experience with flash, and within 8 hours of purchasing the book I had a professional looking flash design website complete with links, movies, animation, and buttons. Excellent book for the flash beginner.

This book was highly recommended to me by a producer in New York. I read it and immediately knew that this is who I wanted to learn from. Great tips throughout - she really wants everyone to succeed - she's not selfish with her knowledge at all. I subsequently contacted the author through her website (www.terriapple.com) and signed up to train with her while she was in New York. She's widely recognized as one of the BEST in the business; professional, positive, smart and she has a real "Go Team!" attitude that shows in her writing style. Without a doubt, this book is the first step in working toward a career in voice-overs.

There are so many typos in this book that it is actually frustrating to read. There is also so much repetition, not in general, but huge paragraphs that can be found word for word three pages earlier. Terri Apple is very good at cheerleading and she obviously knows the business but there's too much emphasis on LA contacts and way, way, way too many text errors to recommend this book. And I'm not talking about grammar. I'm talking about "The re" "and and" or whole words left out. I found myself struggling to read this book. Since it was published in 1999 some of the advice is out-of-date, like carry a pager (pre-cell phones) which is not Ms. Apple's fault, nor her editors, if she had one. I do find her responsible for the content of her book. With so many books on voice-overs out there, I would recommend another.

I doubt that Terri Apple even edited her book one-time through. There are a number of grammatical mistakes and spelling errors, making the meaning of several sentences nearly incomprehensible. Had she or an editor read this book, they would have caught many of the obvious mistakes ahead of time. The chapters were not very well laid-out and extremely inconsistent. The book's content was not organized well. Much of the information in each chapter did not coincide with the chapter title and she would skip ideas from one paragraph to the next. Also, she repeated much of the same information in several different chapters under different sections. Perhaps she wrote the book in between her many voiceover auditions. The information in this book is outdated since the industry has changed so dramatically since its publication. Terri Apple has proved that pretty voices should only be used when they have something to say. And that a pretty voice can be an ugly read.

Personally I expected more helpful hints and techniques for improving your skills in voice-overs but instead most of the book is concentrated on advising how to promote your talent. So if you want to know how to be a voice-talent this is propably not the best book for you, but if you feel you already have what it takes to be a voice-over artist, it gives you advise what to do to get yourself into business.

The massive amount of helpful information in this book is marred by only two things:

o It desperately needs some copy editing to remove the sentence fragments and other "word-processing glitches," and

o The discussions of technology need to be reviewed by someone with a firmer grasp of how such things actually work.

Because of this, I would give it 4-1/2 stars instead of 5 if that rating were available.

In the big picture, however, these are minor quibbles with a book that otherwise covers a lot of ground and answers a lot of questions that aspiring voice actors would have. It provides an in-depth look at the voice-over business (with particular focus on Los Angeles) from the perspective of a busy, in-demand performer who has paid enough dues to know what she's talking about, and because it is fairly new it covers recent developments that older books omit. Certainly well worth the modest investment for anyone wanting to know more about this business.

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.

Well, being from the USA, Doctor Who was never broadcast over here until the rereuns hit us. Being over 30, I can remember seeing some of the shows on various PBS stations. I have now become a lover of Doctor Who, and any merchandise I can acquire ... fantastic. This book, The pocket Essential, is the blow by blow of the whole series! (I own the original, autographed copy with a forward by the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker.) It has loads of info about each episode, the classic series,and the new series, too, plus the authors critique on each. If you get the chance to get this book, do it. It IS Essential for any true Doctor Who fan.

This convenient slim volume fulfills its promise - a basic overview that covers the essential elements of each show. While the author's reviews (or "verdicts") can seem a bit didactic, they always entertain. More importantly, Campbell delivers a fitting addition to this series of paperbacks: succinct, thorough, and easy to carry along on shopping trips. Could anyone have written this? Probably not. It's too short for sloppy writing. This type of brevity takes hard work!

I was greatly dissappointed in the book. While it has some interesting points of view, it is so slanted the book should be a trapizoid and not rectangular. I disagreed on several of the ratings. All in all, I much prefer The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping. While at times they disagree on their reviews, they are fair in their outlook.

This book is a practical guide which itemises detail, time, place etc, with precise storylines and opinion set out in an easy to read format for anyone wanting information. Surprise and interest for me was the number of well known actors "Dr Who" used.

Mark Campbell brings us his fourth edition of his Doctor Who, Pocket Essentials guide. While looking better than his previous editions, due mainly to the hardcover with a bright, photo-adorned jacket, the substance is kind of disappointing. Don't judge a book by its cover. His first edition had more depth. In that first edition, he had a short paragraph on literary works or films that influenced each story. This paragraph has been removed, a pity because that was one of the aspects that separated his guide from others. Also removed was the paragraph on alternate titles for each story, not as big a loss, but a loss still. I'm assuming these sections were removed so Campbell could increase the type in this edition. Trust me; this was unnecessarily done.

Mr. Campbell falls into the trap of rating certain stories based on today's standards rather than the standards of the era in which it was made. For instance, under Web Planet he writes, "In 1965 this may have been a laudable attempt to create an alien world, but nowadays a huge suspension of disbelief is required". Well, duh! It was written in 1965. The technology for special effects in 1965 was not as advanced as it is today. You should realize that, Mr. Campbell.

Another baffler that plagues this book is that for Ghost Light, in his first edition, he rated it accurately when he gave it a 0/5 rating, a rating I totally agree with. Yet, in this current edition, in which his total ranking points have been upped from five to ten, Mr. Campbell gives Ghost Light 4/10. That left me scratching my head. Either Mark Campbell's opinion of the story improved over the seven years between editions, or he simply flunked the fractions section of math in school.

Lastly, Campbell shares the hypocrisy possessed by detractors of the Colin Baker era. Under Vengeance On Varos verdict section, he says, "The notorious acid bath scene, in which the Doctor makes a flippant comment after watching two men die hideous deaths, is deeply problematic". Perhaps. However, he mentions nothing about how in McCoy era's Remembrance Of The Daleks the Doctor manipulates Davros into destroying Skaro, with blatant disregard for any peaceful Thals still living on the planet. Isn't this "problematic", Mr. Campbell? Hypocritical? Very much so! At least the Colin Baker's Doctor never destroyed an entire world. The McCoy era gets away with acts for which the Colin Baker era is crucified by authors such as Mark Campbell.

However, all is not negative with this fourth edition. The look of this book is superb, at least on the outside. Also the inside cover is graced with a wonderful black & white photo of the Daleks marching on London, with Big Ben in the background. Campbell manages this extra size without rendering the book too bulky, thus keeping its status as a pocket reference guide. Also, there is a section on the episodes of the new series, up to and including The Runaway Bride, a two-page section on various Doctor Who reference books, and a two-page section on web sites geared toward Doctor Who. The section on the different Doctor Who spin-offs is expanded to include Attack of The Graske, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures from the new series.

All in all, despite the negatives, the fourth edition is a laudable effort, to use Mark Campbell's word. A bit of advice for your next edition, please lose your "verdict" section in favor of more factual info, such as the aforementioned sections that were removed. It's quite irksome seeing one of your favorite stories trashed with a 2/10 or 3/10 rating. The reason we purchase these guides is to relive the magic of Doctor Who, not to see our favorite stories ripped to shreds.

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.

Good Tech Manual. Received expeditiously.
Excellent 'general' manual.
Addresses a version of Adobe Premiere Elements
which is older than that which I have.

I like APE for preliminary formatting but I never ordered or received this item. However, having used and recommended other "... for Dummies" it would probably be a good learning resource.

Great book for someone new to the software. It was a huge help. Excellent index for the beginner.

Both books that I ordered were handled in an excellent manner and arrived on the date specified. Very good documentation was provided as to the departure and arrival. I was impressed with the efficienty of the order. Thanks very much.

I found the book well written and quite enlightening! Unfortunately, the product Mr.Underdahl is 'teaching' us about is a faulty one at best. After following the book, word for word, I attempted to 'cut my show'. BTW, I am NOT a 'hobbyist'. The book addresses the 'Windows XP' platform and there are a few differences with the newer "Vista". Still, the book describes the many 'functions' of this software with understated humor and precision, but it doesn't address the multitude of problems one will encounter while right in the middle of a delicate 'cut' or transition. The 'error' message pops up and literally shuts down your project. I thought it was just me until I visited the 'user to user' Adobe forum and discovered that many, MANY people experience the same frustration and ultimate problems with this program. Oh yes, I as well as the others have downloaded the '3.0.2' patch...not good enough as yet another 'error' will subsequently appear and mess it up. Sorry folks, the book is fantastic but the product is not. Adobe simply wants us to upgrade for yet more money. Not acceptable. Good luck!

Bought this book for a class and thought it would be a waste but was actually a good book. Gives you a lot of the basics for editing videos with premiere pro. Good building book.

This is a great book covering many aspects that those who by the Production Suite never get to see about Premiere because most video effects are done in After Effects and all DVD work is done in Encore.

Nevertheless if your going to take the Premiere ACE exam this is your book.

This is a good lesson, but requires some basic knowledge of computer video digital editing.

I rarely use books to learn because I typically am unable to learn in this manner. I purchased this as well as several other of the Classroom In A Book series for Adobe products.

I had never used any previous version of Premiere and I was able to edit my own videos after completing a few lessons. I stopped following the lessons after lesson 7 but that was due to my own impatience to work on my own projects and not the book.

4-star rating instead of 5 is due to my constant complaint about a book meant to be put in front of a computer to learn from. It doesn't fold flat or stay open when trying to work the lessons making it difficult to work. This is simply a quality book that doesn't take into account using a fold open flat spine or spiral spine. I wish books like this that are made to teach while using a computer would stay open to the page without damaging the book (creasing spine, etc).

I like to take care of my books and I won't fold it back, etc to make it stay open. There are spiral options as well as a spine design that allows it to open flat. Either would make this a perfect book to learn from.

1 star because I was unable to open the files on a Mac. 0 stars for Amazon not mentioning anywhere on this page that the DVD rom won't work on a Mac. The book is probably as great as others have said. I've had other books from these folks and they were very good. The book I received clearly says "DVD included for Windows" in the lower left hand corner. Try clicking on the picture of this book and enlarging: The exclusion is not there. If you have a Mac look elsewhere, I'm sending mine back.