Customer Reviews

Deconstructing the Elements with 3ds max 6: Create natural fire, earth, air and water without plug-ins

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There is a reason why the used books are priced the same as the new for this item. This is an essential buy. Beginners should try get their hands on something a little easier first, but everyone with even a little bit of experience needs to get this book. Whereas many books leave you with a feeling of being "rushed" or of not being properly thought out, this one leaves you with an impression of having every single tiny detail meticulously planned. The DVD even includes video tutorials that didn't fit in the pages of the book! And the author has a website for the book and users that have problems with the tutorials. And guess what? He actually visits the website and offers help! wow! what a concept!

The tutorials themselves are brilliantly planned. First, we get reference footage, that is analyzed in order to get the best effect. Then, Draper goes through each step, and EXPLAINS EXACTLY WHAT WAS DONE AND WHY IN EACH STEP. This is vital and is sadly overlooked in many tutorials from other sources.

What will he teach you? Exactly what the book promises: extremely realistic water, earth, air, and fire. This is done mostly through the powerful new particle flow system and multi-layer materials (I mean MULTI-MULTI-MULTI-layer materials here). After only a few tutorials, I my skills with procedural materials and particle flow increased exponentially.

An essential buy.

This is an amazing book! When I first take this book in hand I thought it's impossible to do all that stuff just by own tools of 3dsmax. I was wrong! I spend endless nights and days working with this book. As a result, the book of Pete Draper opens my eyes and now I look at max from very diffrent side. Before this book I do not even think how powerful is the program I'm working with. This book is written by a man how knows what he tells and as I see he is a great teacher! This book is out of those just telling you "what to pick and what to push". This book teaches you to THINK in the terms of 3dsmax.

After compliting even a couple of tutorials you will be able to create more than you can before, becouse, as I said, you starting to create not by buttons or primitives but by open mind and knowledge that Pete gives you additionaly as a gift to his book. Now I can say, that this is not just a book, this is the gate to your future in the 3d world!

I must say, this book goes above and beyond any other tutorial book that I am aware of. Words cannot express how amazingly detailed each tutorial is. Reference photos, easy to understand eplainations, it has it all. So if you're looking to either learn a lot about 3ds Max 6 Partical Flow or to just see how Mr. Draper makes some of the most inspiring art in the 3D industry, this book is a must have. Simply put, this book is how all tutorial books should be.

This book definately is, as my fellow buyers claim, TOTALLY AWESOME and amazing. The stuff that Pete's compiled from his deep observation and knowledge is a must read for any budding or even experienced FX artist using 3ds max. Trust me, if you've not been using 3ds max for FX work till now, get ready to be amazed at what this software can do.

Thanks a lot Pete and Oh btw, we're all waiting for your next one....

A Note for people reading this to decide whether they should buy the book or not - STOP READING AND BUY IT RIGHT NOW !

If you want a one sentence review of this book:

"Incredibly thorough and amazing value for money considering the mass of material and instructions provided."

So, why is this book so great? Why don't you just buy a suite of Turbosquid plugins and save yourself the pain? Apart from the cost, because it helps you to work through and understanding the how and why the effects work, not just step by step hand holding through a tutorial. It teaches you to be more observant and how to think through a challenge.

Each chapter has an overview of how Pete will achieve the effect so you know what you are trying to do in a general sense.

For each of the effects involved, Pete starts by referencing images and movies (provided on the DVD) explaining what, how and why the effect is happening with the real world objects. Let's face it, their is no way you are going to re-create any real world effect (or model/lighting for that matter) without references and a reasonably good understanding of how and why it occurs.

Where the book "kicks out the jams", in my opinion, is in the step by step guides. Each step will provide the exact steps needed to be taken and a relevant full-colour photo. However (and this is the important bit), it details WHY you are doing what you are doing. Attach an animation controller here . . . why? Adjust the light decay . . . why? All the questions are answered.

Too many books and web tutorials simply tell you exactly what to do but don't discuss the underlying reasons. Sure you may get a result, but will you have an understanding of the principles involved so you can transfer skills from the current tutorial to a new situation?

The other reason to buy this book, and almost worth the price alone is the "taking it further" section at the end of the book. While this doesn't go through step by step, Pete outlines how you can ramp the effect up a notch, to make it truly outstanding (Example: In the tutorial on glowing coals, the Taking it Further section talks about adjusting the underlying light intensity over time to really make it look like they are throbbing with heat.) While most tutorials would stop at the final result, the "Taking it Further" section of each chapter will really make your work stand out.

If you haven't already guessed, I am a big fan of this book. I have bought several Max books for my studies, but without a doubt this is the most comprehensive and well laid out book I have purchased.

On a side note, thanks to both Amazon and Pete himself for helping me with a damaged copy of the DVD. While Pete offered to get the publishers to replace the DVD, Amazon sent a replacement as soon as I made an enquiry. Good support from the author and the seller!

Most books out there are rehashes of the help documentation or popular tutorials already out there. For this book, however, almost every single tutorial covered tricks and techniques that I've never been exposed to before in my years of working with 3D Studio. Definitely an eye-opener for anyone who wants to learn how to create any sort of realistic environmental effect.

This is one book that is a must-have.

Most 3D books are unimpressive to me-- the sorts of things that could be readily learned by reading the manual or help files (particularly in the case of 3D Studio, which has excellent help and tutorials.)

Pete Draper's book is one of the happy exceptions-- it extends one's knowledge and capabilities, and moreover, his work is excellent; these are images and animations that would get you a job, if you could make them.

Would that there were more books of this calibre!

I have had this book for about 2 months now and all I can say is wow. This book has really been helpful...extremley helpful I must say. Easy to follow, the tutorials ALL work....Pete draper expresses all aspects of each tutorial and explains the WHY factor in each step in his tutorials. I cannot praise this book high enough. It has solved a lot of underlying problems that most would use plugins to work around. I give this book a 100% feedback....and I really hope he launches another...I will definatley buy the next one.

After I received my copy of this book and tried some of the tutorials, I'm really impressed how this book teaches you how 3ds Max will bring wonders creating visual effects of natural forces and amazing results.

It not only gives you an introduction and analysis how each element is being portrayed, but it gives you more challenges what lies ahead for practical projects. I'm really glad this book shows it without any use of plug-ins. And that's what the book states.

This book delves deeply into the mechanics of creating great vfx inside Max all without using plugins. This should be part of the manuals that come with the product. Well written, well researched and, in the end, GREAT effects. Draper writes with flair and is easily understood. It's clear to me that he really did his work on this one. As well, the quality of book itself is right up there... In a day and age when disposable is the middle name ... this one book fits in the keeper category. (it sits beside my computer...)