Customer Reviews

3ds max 5 Bible

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

 

 

Be warned, I am a pretty harsh grader.
Well first off this edition does not contain the entire book in a pdf file for easy reading on a laptop/computer so that was definatly a minus. One of the reasons I liked 3DS Max 4 Bible was because you didn't have to carry around the entire book (I've had encyclopidia sets smaller that this folks).
Other than that no real complaints. Newbies will not get much out of this one as this is more of a reference book and not a book of tutorials and techniques.
The book is well written and give good (black and white) photos of what certain effects and/or modifiers look like. I give it 3 stars because its a solid reference book but when you think "bible" your kind of hopeing for more than refence.

Having previously owned Inside 3D Studio Max Vol 1-3, perhaps my expectations were too high. While the 3DSMax 5 Bible does have plenty of nice pictures and tons of simple tutorials, there's little educations value to this book other than a road map for doing tutorials. The author's style tends towards shallow overviews and sudden lessons, without much thought for explaining how to get the most from Max, what practices to follow, how to avoid pitfalls, etc. Indeed, one is liekly to learn more from Max's tutorials and reference guides than from this book. The Chapters on Maps & Materials were exceptionally dissappointing, offering little more than a guided tour of the immediately obvious.

Having bought this book and read it cover to cover in good faith that it would indeed give meaningful coverage of Max 5's new features, I find myself hard pressed to recommend this book to fellow readers.

After reading some of the other listed reviews, I was a little skeptical of this book, but a friend of mine recommended it so I thought I'd check it out and I'm glad I did. I'm a beginner to 3DS Max and this book is awesome. I tried to get the program to work before this book, but kept running into trouble. The examples are all super simple to follow and very helpful. I especailly like the variety of the examples. In one chapter, the examples are fun cartoons and in another they are amusement rides. I found myself anxious to see what the next example would be. Chapter 1 had a space shuttle example that seemed to be in poor taste, but the rest were great.

I've made it about 3/4 of the way through the book now and even though the features are getting tougher such as the Track View, this book still makes it easy to understand. Another thing I like about this book is that it covers everything, every feature no matter how small is covered. I'm constantly going back to the modifier chapter to see what the various modifiers do.

Writing in a novice view, 3ds max 5 is a huge program, but is the bible the right choice? 3ds max 5 bible is as what the title says, a "bible"; a account of the program. However, the book isn't much of a large account. In fact, some chapters (based on what I've read) lack some detail about it is being taught and followed by a tutorial. As many have said, the tutorials simply emphasize what is being taught; merely a small demo. This proves to be slightly frustating, especially for those who wish to take max to the max; learn all the ins and outs. The book is efficent, though not as on par with the files included with the program. It's well written, but with some typos. Still, it's convinient for the type who's "on the go" and for people who would rather not stare across the screen all day. It's worth the money, but it could have been better.

I am a Max user with intermediate skills. I was hoping to get a little more insight into some of the new aspects to Max 5 (particularly the lighting and optimizing it). Unfortunately, the book does not go beyond simple explanations in most cases and doesn't begin to suggest ways to optimize things to speed up rendering (a huge problem with GI and Radiosity). I was very disappointed with this, as it is worse than the tutorials that come with Max 5.
That said, as a simple reference guide, it's good. I am glad I bought it, but it could have had more suggestions.

If it was possible, I'd give this negative 5 stars

I have been using 3DS for about 9 years. I teach a college course on it. I have 8-10 books on the software including this one. It is the only book I regret paying for. This book is a colossal waste of time , money and effort. The "tutorials" are very un-insightful and unsophisticated. The author uses circular examples like "if you want to make a sphere, use the sphere tool" (!). There is very little clarification as to why or when you might want to use a tool, how it relates or depends on other tools or how it functions etc.

The examples are extremely amateurish and un-compelling--like a snow man made out of a few spheres with a cone for a nose--(Use the sphere tool and the cone tool!) It's hard to believe this author has ever used 3DS let alone done any professional CG work. The only interesting thing about the book is how the author has been able to fill so many pages (the book is very thick) with so little useful information--that took skill and dedication.

Don't waste your money on this sham--

I would like to recommend 3ds Max at a Glance by George Maestri --it is everything the 3DS Bible is not. It is well written, clear and very well illustrated, with very good visual examples. It also contains 10 times the information than the 3DS Bible in less than half the number of pages and for half the cost.

This is a good book for a beginner/novice, If you are good with 3DS MAX and know your way around it pretty good, Then this book will not really teach you anything new. Most of the stuff in this book relys on the included CD-Rom, So if you order a copy without it, Be prepared to make up stuff as you go and do your best at copying what you see in the pictures. Overall I am glad that I bought it, I only paid $1.03 for my copy brand-new, So if you can get it cheap, I say go for it. And if you already know alot about 3DS MAX, Then please dont expect this book to teach you anything you dont already know, It is for beginners.

I've been using Max 5 for about 6 months now and thought this book would be a good addition to the Discreet courseware... I was wrong! I get the impression the author "rushed" this book just to get it on the market. There is not much detail, and I feel there's much missing.
One day while in a book store, I noticed the 3DS Max 4 Bible and took a look at it. It has twice the pages as the Max 5 book does! I mean the Max 4 Bible looks like how a bible book should look, THICK! What happend? Max 5 has many more and new features than in Max 4, like radiosity, and the unwrap UVW modifier, etc.
If you are an absolute beginner, this book may help. But I'd save your $$ and stick with the Max tutorials, on-line help, etc.
Disappointed.

OK I haven't thoroughly read this book - I bought it as a supplement to max's courseware books, thinking it would go into more details on what can be done with the tools in max. Some of the demos in the book are laughably impractical. Example: placing a dozen or two omni lights against a plane to create a starry background? The author apparently isn't aware of real-life issues like render time.. Seriously, a new user is still better off using the 3ds max courseware, its short, but at least its informed.