Customer Reviews

3ds max Animation and Visual Effects Techniques (Charles River Media Graphics)

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

 

 

Up-to-date sprung to my mind when I skipped through this book. It follows the paradigm of building a short animated film from scratch using all the latest features of 3ds Max 5.1 and Character Studio 4. It even has a chapter devoted to Combustion 2.1. Some of the chapters I was most impressed with were the human body modelling chapters. Finally someone has added a FULL tutorial on how to model a human body from scratch! The effects chapters are amazing too, thick, hollywood explosion techniques! Woohoo! I would say this book is aimed for someone who has used Max for quite sometime and knows a little about modelling. But I recommend this book to anyone that has Max!

This book presents a good overview of the CG industry, with a few topics I've not found elsewhere. However, it is discouraging to work through a book that is filled with cheesey looking renderings. That's right, horrible. I don't mean to flame or be destructive in my criticism, but if you could only see the color plates contained in this book, you would treat the author with skepticism at best. I still can't understand how someone who obviously knows the tools he uses very well, i.e. MAX and Combustion, can turn out such B-rated models and renderings. This book is a good example that no matter how much technical knowledge you have, computer software, no matter how advanced, will never make up for an utter lack of artistic talent. Sanford Kennedy is very technically knowledgeable but his artistic skills are virtually noexistant. Try checking his website for an example of the 'great' renderings you can aspire to if you buy this book. 90% of the pages aren't even up, or have been under construction since 2001. www.sanfordkennedy.com

This is appalling, the models are terrible, the animation amateurish, and the texturing ugly (horrible misuse of procedural textures). Avoid if you can, there are many fine books on Max, this is NOT one of them.

This book leads me to believe that: a)I will NEVER be able to animate ANYTHING with a bone structure; b)I will NEVER understand the skin modifier; c)I must be a complete dolt.

I know for a fact that I am not a dolt, having worked in the animation industry for some time now, and being an intermediate 3ds Max user. A lot can be said for Max, pro's and con's, but possibly the hardest thing (for me) is animating the human body. We spent about 10 minutes in college learning this, and all the notes I have and Max Bibles and everything else do NOT teach (in layman's terms) HOW TO ANIMATE A HUMAN BODY.

This book was intended as a resource to learn how to animate a completed human model; I am not interested in learning the dreaded techniques of modeling a human just now, as this expansive learning curve is too detailed and time-consuming for me at the moment. Rather I was hoping to modify an existing model (free domain, of course!) and learn to animate it.

The models on the cd which accompanies the book are okay; they're not top of the line, and quite frankly, the nipples on the female body are a bit over the top (its really cold in virtual reality!!), but they are workable. The bone structure is fine. The textures are horrible, and the animation itself is cheeeeeeeesy, but for a learning tool its not that bad. Beware any positive sentiment you may have derived from that last comment, as the book and tutorial in general is horrible.

I have tried and tried and tried to skin this model over and over and over again, only to find the exasperating and frustrating errors of 'envelopes' associated with the model which, I assume, the author purposely created for 'teaching' the correct way to utilize the skin modifier. However, the instructions for troubleshooting this UNFATHOMABLY FRUSTRATING problem leave far too much to be desired; in essence, the instructions do not explain enough. My model is naked, and the skin on his hands is like a rubberband being stretched to its fullest capability. And no matter how many times I try to figure out how to fix this, I am left without a working answer. The book does not cover the troubleshooting of this error more than a line or two aimed for the expressly expert 3d Max user.

For instance, "....this indicates that the skin envelope needs to be adjusted.... Select one of the envelope adjustment handles..." ENVELOPE ADJUSTMENT HANDLES?! WTF ARE THOSE? IS ANYTHING LABLED 'ENVELOPE ADJUSTMENT HANDLE?' NO!! The book continues, "...move it to enlarge it..." MOVE IT? WHERE? HOW? THE ENVELOPE IS UNEFFECTED BY MY ATTEMPTS TO 'MOVE IT.' "... Part of the skin that is sticking up should move down to the hand. Repeat this process for both ends of the skin envelope...." !!!!!!!There are TWO parts of the skin envelope? WHAT?! WHERE?!!

This is what I mean - no explanation. Nothing is labled properly. When I attempted to assign all the bones in the skin modifier, I noticed over HALF of the bones ARE NOT LABLED AS BONES! WTF?!

Believe the criticisms already posted: this book is horrible, it will leave you feeling uninspired to animate humans and frustrated, and is a real waste of time and money.

Kennedy's book teaches some basics but the quality of his results leaves alot to be desired. It makes you wonder why he would slam the incredible 3D done in Final Fantasy when he isn't even in the same league and probably never will be. The illustrations and textual layout are not as clear as they should be. If you want to learn the basics, you can get something from this book. However, a good book shows you how to get good results. The results he achieves in this book are subpar.

Many other books do far better.

Not recommended.

I'm stunned that the author claims to have success in this industry given the absolutely horrible work he passes off as being professional in quality. I'm very serious that I have not seen such poor quality in ANY other book. I teach 3D and have seen much better work from novice students. My only conclusion is that the author completely lacks the capacity to be self-critical of his own work given that he obviously believes his film-in-progress merits serious consideration. Do not be misled into thinking that any of the work shown in this book would be acceptable commercially.

When i saw the firt pictures of this book, I was totaly chocked.. After 2 years using 3ds max, I was able to do much beter than Mr kennedy.. The rendering and the effects in the book are totaly ridiculous..

Even the cover has no connection with the book.. verry bad.

Last thing, the web site is full of error and never updated.

Please buy another book ! Like 3ds max 6 by Barrett Fox..

This book misses a lot of what it teaches by not including much of what you see in the book (models, etc....), I agree with most of the other reviews here, I have this book that is why I do not recommend it, better get the book by Barrett Fox on 3DSMax6 on how to complete an animation project. That is a great book.

This book actually told me how to build an entire scene, including the characters and buildings. It was fun and informative. Exactly what I was looking for.

Contrary to some of the other reviews I think this is a great book; it's one of the only books I've found that gives a "complete" overview of the film-making process with 3ds Max. While the content may not be in it's final stage; I think the major problem most would have with it is the fact that it claims to be professional work instead of merely educational examples like most books. I've always found its better to learn with "real" examples, so while I don't know how good the film would do they are excellent learning tools.