3ds Max 6 Animation and Visual Effects Techniques (Graphics Series) (Charles River Media Graphics) [Paperback]

Sanford Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1584503343 | ISBN-13: 978-1584503347 | Publication Date: December 24, 2003 | Edition: 1

3ds max(TM) 6 Animation and Visual Effects Techniques is a completely updated version of this best-selling book. It covers 3ds max 6 and provides an organized and thorough process for integrating all of the features of max to create, animate, render, and finish an animation project. Beginning with a review of the essentials, users learn about all of the key features used in animation and visual effects, including the fundamentals of animated filmmaking, and then work through detailed tutorials covering modeling of buildings, environments, humans, and aliens. Once they have created the models, the animation techniques are explored, including character setup with bones, lip sync, facial expression, and walk cycles. From there the process moves to scene animation, visual effects, materials and textures, event-based particles, and lighting and rendering. The book ends with detailed chapters on character studio® 4, combustion® 3.0, reactor® 2, Mental Ray® 3.2, and the Shag Hair and Dynamic Effects plug-ins. Anyone interested in learning an efficient and practical process for creating animated environments and films will find what they need here.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sanford Kennedy (Los Angeles, CA), is an author, animator, and designer. He has worked in Hollywood special effects since 1977, and computer animation since 1994. He has worked on 54 movies and numerous commercials, and recently began working on games, including Graystoke: The Temple of Ultimate Evil. He has written over 100 articles and co-authored a variety of books on 3D computer animation, most recently 3ds max 6 Animation and Visual Effects Techniques (Charles River Media, 2003).

Product Details

• Paperback: 606 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (December 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584503343
• ISBN-13: 978-1584503347
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!, June 2, 2003

By 

"mangocheese" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 3ds max Animation and Visual Effects Techniques (Charles River Media Graphics) (Paperback)

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!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A great book if you aspire to make cheesey renderings and FX, March 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: 3ds max Animation and Visual Effects Techniques (Charles River Media Graphics) (Paperback)

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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Appalling..., May 5, 2004

By 

Sean Forsyth (Dublin, Dublin Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 3ds Max 6 Animation and Visual Effects Techniques (Graphics Series) (Charles River Media Graphics) (Paperback)

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.