Customer Reviews

Digital Animation Bible: Creating Professional Animation with 3ds Max, Lightwave, and Maya

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'How to set up and run a video production studio' -- the main problem with this book is it cover so much it only gives the briefest coverage of anything. He covers subjects as basic as surge protectors and laptop computers, printers, scanners.

While digital animation proper is reduced to a couple of chapters. Lets take storyboards for instance - four scribbled panels on half a page - a couple of meaningless 'flow charts' and that is all. The animation samples are from the tutorial that comes with max and reproduced in B/W.

If you want an overview I suppose this will be a good choice, but if you want to learn 3D CG, find another book

I bought the 'Digital Animation Bible' in December 2003 and I've been reading and re-reading it ever since. I can honestly say that it is about the most useful book of its kind that I've ever come across. My background is in graphics and digital audio and I would describe my general knowledge of computing as strong...but you don't need that much computer experience to get major benefits from reading this.

The book offers comprehensive overviews of the three leading animation programs (3ds Max, Lightwave and Maya) and also gives extensive coverage to general information about virtually every aspect of the field. If you're starting out with either no knowledge or just a general grasp, you should finish up with a very clear idea of what's going on and how you could get in on the action.

Normally, I get bored with shelf-busters because they often don't tell you much you don't already know - or if they do, they take relatively straight forward ideas and pedal them out over so many pages that you either loose the thread, or fall asleep before you arrive at the meat of the issue.

George Avgeraki's book is different. He's got a real knack for condensing key ideas into just a few pages or paragraphs in such a way as to make it possible for you to 'get it' with comparative ease. He also has a positive and enthusiastic 'can do' writing style that makes it easy to absorb what he's pitching you.

There is a great intro to splines, an extremely revealing description of the use by professionals of 3rd party compositing programs for rendering, and lots excellent insights on how people actually approach their work on a day to day basis.

The chapter on 'objects and surfaces' is particularly worth visiting - even if you think that you already have the basic idea.

One of the unique things about this manual that sets it apart from the competition is that George Avgerakis has peppered it with lots of valuable little nuggets from his business experience in the field. He's done this in a way that's funny and entertaining - it never gets in the way of the the reason why you're reading the book - but it's illuminating, whether your coming to this field as freelancer or as potential (or actual) employee. If you want some insight into what your client or employer is looking for from you in the computer animation game then you can get that perspective courtesy of Mr Avgerakis.

So, in summary, a great book and well worth your reading time.

Read the review by "Bob - The guy from nowhere". It's the most accurate description of this book.

Don't waste your time or money on this one. It does not do a good job of covering any of the primary points it claims to present. Granted, it would take several books to cover each topic, but even as a general overview it's really not that useful. Digital Animation Bible? I don't think so!

At the beginning of the book, the author writes "I didn't want to open [this book] with a lot of boring stuff about how this book was organized or what you could expect to get out of it." There is a good reason for that. You will be asking yourself the same question by the end of the book.

This book is designed to give a broad discussion about breaking into the 3D animation industry (esp. in large media meccas like NYC and LA) as well as review three of the most popular and powerful 3D software packages currently available - 3ds max, LightWave, and Alias Maya.

The author owns an animation production company in NYC so he has a lot of "real-world" advice to newbies looking to become digital animators. He talks a lot about the business aspects of the trade, and provides numerous humorous anecdotes about his own trials and tribulations in the past three decades in this deadline-intensive business. Most of the first half of the book is spent detailing the career path you should take to become a successful animator. The author also gives his opinions on the hardware needed to create digital animation on a desktop workstation.

The second half of the book is devoted to comparing 3ds max, LightWave, and Alias Maya and their relative strengths and weaknesses. As someone who is totally new to 3D animation, I found this section to be most useful. The author explains in common terms all the tools and capabilities of these 3D applications. It's obvious he did his research on all three software products and he is careful not to promote one over any other.

This book is not intended for someone who is already familiar with 3D software and looking to improve their skill set. For that purpose, there are many good books that go into much greater detail over a product's toolset and capabilities. But for the beginner 3D animator wanna-bes, this is a good book to break the ice and introduce you to the exciting and rapidly-evolving field of digital 3D animation.

After having read this book I questioned myself of what subject I have actually learned. Did I read a storybook on the business or did I actually learn to create professional animation with 3ds Max, Lightwave, and Maya? It seems that George Avgerakis is very savvy when it comes to the applications of business for Animation or he would not exist in his present position. As such he does very little in the terms of providing a good example of actually creating professional quality animation. He sells you a completely different book instead, which mind you, with a different cover could tell a better tale. I would like to caution those interested in the applications of this book, there is no technical basis that would categorize this book as a tool to help you produce better work. My conclusion: Money better spent elsewhere.