Customer Reviews

3ds max 6 Essentials: A Real-World Approach (Charles River Media Graphics)

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

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

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