Customer Reviews

3D Creature Workshop

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Just picked up the book 3D Creature Workshop by Bill Fleming, Editor in Chief at the newly-created Serious3D magazine.

In just one word: WOW!

Finally there is an excellent step-by-step, from beginning to end that shows you the what the experts are doing. This book is simply fanatastic for anyone creating monsters, animals, creatures and humanoids.

The first chapter sets up the book with the importance of creating a biography for your creature. Bill follows through on this in creatures he tutorials throughout the book, some of them quite amusing.

There are two chapters specifically devoted to users of 3D Studio Max R2, such as myself.

One chapter deals with creating a cartoon fish using patch modeling.

The other chapter is devoted to creating a cartoony mob hitman named Knuckles using Peter Watje's SurfaceTool.

Both of these chapters are excellent and are filled with invaluable knowledge and tips.

I would have liked to have seen a chapter on NURBS but with this changing in R2.5, maybe Bill adopted a wait and see attitude. he does cover NURBS with Lightwave and Animation Master which can be applied to Max.

Two other 3d programs are covered in additional tutorial chapters, Lightwave and Animation Master. Can't comment on these becuase I don't use them.

The second half of the book is geared towards photorealistic skin textures using Photoshop and your 3d program. This section alone is worth the price of the book. I instantly picked up several tips that I could not find anywhere else on the Net or in any other 3rd party 3d books or magazines..and trust me, I've read all of them.

If this book is any indication of what we can expect from Serious3d magazine (which ships next week), Bill, count me as a lifelong subscriber. END

Out of 9 chapters, only Chapters 5 & 6 deal specifically with 3D Studio Max. Ch. 5 requires a plug-in and various maps to finish the model. They're sadly missing from the Companion CD. Worse still, Ch. 6 requires a plug-in that costs $85 or else you cannot do the exercise at all! You only find that out on page 164!

I hold the publisher and author responsible for such blatant omissions from the book. They have the repsonsibility to tell people that unless you have this $85 plug-in, various exercises will not work. The buyer can then make an informed decision on whether they want to buy the book or not. This book is a major letdown, I honestly cannot recommend it!

It's not really updated. Probably you won't read the whole book but only a few chapters. I find useful the chapter on design creatures and the one about max. Basically 1 chapter about lightwave, 1 about 3ds max and 1 about Animation master. The others one talk about minor programs so they are useless. You can save a lot of money searching on the net for specific tutorials. I'm sure yo'll find what you're looking for :)

Ok, we've all used the Lightwave videos, books and Internet tutorials. You know the ones, they give you the fundamental steps to creating a character model, then show the finished object which is the result of many hours of tweaking. How did they get there? These presentations are great for learning the fundamentals, but stop short of teaching the nuances of creating a great character model. 3D Creature Workshop takes off where the others leave off. This book could be re-titled to The Fine Art of Tweaking 3D Models.

Ever get frustrated trying to figure out how a particular contour was created on a model? How different bumps, ridges, dents, protrusions...etc. were created? Bill Fleming has unmasked the mystery behind great character models by sharing his wealth of knowledge in this area. This book will reduce the time required to become an accomplished modeler by light years. Remember, "A work of art is never finished only abandoned"----Leonardo da Vinci.

A humble Lightwave hobbyist.

This book goes far beyond the scope of "awesome". The examples and tutorials in this book are amazing to say the least. I am a 3D Studio MAX user and fairly beginner as well. After reading the book several times through, I set out to try the tutorials. The first 3DSMAX tutorial was boggling to me, if you are not familiar with b-splines and patches, consider working with them before you get this book. After about 3 hours, I was handling patches quite well. I had learned to make a virtual studio, lay out patches, and form them to match my outline. The book shows you how to do the work, and the rest is just experimentation. After using the 3DSMAX tutorials, I went on and tried the A:M and LW tutorials. I'm happy to say that with a few extra plugins, easily found on the 'net, one can easily do in MAX what others can do in the other tutorials. How exciting. Still, the book has some of it's own faults, and can be confusing at times, if you are a true beginner.

I recently picked up "3D Creature Workshop" and "Animating Facial Features and Expressions". Now, typically, even the most entertaining novel can't hold my attention for more than an hour at a time before I leave it to hug the bookmark for a while. Putting these books down was the last thing on my mind. I read them both (cover to cover) yesterday afternoon. There's something to be said about that, and I think it goes along the lines of "you can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, or teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime." The theory in these books is something I so rarely find in artistic reference material. It forms enough of a foundation to develop individual style while learning from the tutorials, rather than the tutorials dictating the style.

Not only did I enjoy the read, I actually feel as though I bought and paid for a higher education. I would suggest to anyone who is serious about creating plausable characters and animation, that these books are solid stepping stones. Thank you for letting us stand on your shoulders.

I'm new to 3D, and really wanted to get into 3D character modeling. So I went down to my local bookstore, browsed around , till my eyes landed on "3D Creature Workshop" I was hypnotized! The cover looked cool, the book was huge, and best of all it had "Best Seller of 1998" sticker on it. So I coughed up the $75(Canadian) and started examining, and that's when I realized I bought the worst book possible The book starts out very well, no two ways about it, I was really impressed by Bill Fleming's ideas. The first tutorial wasn't that bad at all, and I managed to by pass it. Though once I got to the second tutorial, I was confused. Bill kept on skipping so many parts; with no help what so ever in the important parts. After weeks of trying the damn tutorial I gave it to my friend, and he too was unsuccessful. I was so disappointed by the Light-Wave tutorials, that I didn't bother trying the other ones, till this day I haven't finished the book. Now I read some of the other reviews about the book, and the book seems to get a high rating, which is a shock to me. Maybe that's because it's designed for more intermediate students (even though the book tries to cover that little fact up). However for me it was a waste of time and money. I only hope that my review can save people some time and money.

This book is amazing. After Reading the entire book (even though I only have 1 of the 3d rendering programs that is covered) you'll be able to take a hand drawn picture set up a "Mini Studio" and model it in 3d with out any problem. The book itself covers Patches, Metaform, etc. The book could how ever been improved if it also had a chapter or two on animating your newly created creature. If you want to create 3d models of cartoons, animals, fictional creatures, people, and so on this book is the best I have seen.

Dont even try to design a creature without it. Kudos to Mr. Flemming! Between 'Serious 3d' magazine, the '3D Photorealism Toolkit' and this '3D Creature Workshop', I'd say that Flemming's years of work with his 3D applications have really paid off. This man has a teaching style so smooth and coherent for everyone, at every level . . . that it would be impossible for someone to walk away from one of his publications without amassing a plethora of 3D genius. Again . . . thanx Bill. Oh and all of you 3D atrisans and technical directors out there, (albeit - pro or novice) these works of Mr. Flemmings are something that should most definitley be a part of your toolbox!

Being a computer graphics professional, I'm always on the lookout for reference material that will help strengthen my skill set and give me the abilities needed to stay one step ahead in such a dynamic industry. I've found these tools in Bill Fleming's new book 3d Creature Workshop. Bill's unique style of writing and the many easy to understand tutorials and examples make this book a must have for anyone interested in getting their ideas out of their minds and onto the big screen. From the initial process of character design to photorealistically surfacing your creature for maximum effect, this book will teach you the "ins and outs" of creature development. This book is highly recommended. Buy it, read it and use it!