Customer Reviews

Director's Third Dimension: Fundamentals of 3D Programming in Director 8.5

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's obvious this book is well structured and comprehensive. It stays focused on its topic too. In addition, the target reader (one who has pretty decent Director and Lingo experience) should find this book really "talks" to them. That is, you won't need to step through basics of Director--it assumes you know Director and then takes you deep into 3D.

I feel this book also covers the material in the right manner. Everything is built from scratch, every topic is focused and isn't muddied with gratuitous special effects... I know that every thing I've read I've retained. Even if there were a better Director 3D reference (which, I don't believe there is) this book has great value in teaching the topic.

This is the best multimedia book I have ever read. I am a multimedia/web graphics programmer, and I have read at least 5 books on Director and a few good Flash books, but this one has taken me further than any other single book I own.

You will need a good foundation in Lingo to really benefit from this book, and if you have that, this book will pay for itself several times over. Paul Catanese's style is very easy to follow, and it is peppered with a lot of other general knowledge regarding aesthetics, mathematics, and the general world of multimedia. I spent 20 hours of my vacation time reading this book last week and I feel comfortable with things in Director 3D that only a month ago seemed so far away in terms of my programming abilities.

Paul's chapters on download and file optimization are excellent, and he teaches not only how to work in 3D, but how to be mindful of how well your projects will work on various client machines, which is no small issue. In fact, Paul touches on so many other relevant issues such as building custom schedulers to create timeout objects that run independent of the main time line, bones animation, advancing texturing techniques, using alpha channels to create very nice texture effects, collision detection without using Havok, and many other important topics in the context of Director 3D.

Paul has also put together several "labs" on the CD to help you understand various utilities: particle systems, fog, bones animation, etc.

He really sets himself apart from so many other authors (we won't mention names) who put out quick books about Director 3D to make a quick buck that really don't do justice to the subject matter.

Paul takes the time to teach you Director 3d they way you would want to learn it in a college or university setting. It makes sense; according to the book, when it was published, he was teaching Digital Imaging at a University in Chicago.

Get the book.

Finally, this is the book that has made me understand about advance Director's 3D concepts and techniques. I have been looking through all Director 8.5 Books released to dates, and this is the only book i am happy to worked with. Its excellent in its contents, well structures, really understanding examples & very good concepts to work in 3D environment. I am developing a 3D Kiosk with walkthroughs in 3D environment. I will recommend this book to everyone who want to develop 3D content in Director for games, Multimedia application or Business application.
Thanks Paul Catanese!.. I will look forward for more advance techniques in 3D world from him!...

This book is fantastic! Flip the cover and there's a detailed chart of a 3D environment's structure in Shockwave. Extremely well organized, in depth, and easy to read, this book is really for anybody who wants to learn, teach or develop 3D with Director. Examples of code in the book, and on the CD-Rom, teach the concepts needed to develop a wide variety of applications - from 3D games to tools for business and educational content as well. Whether you are a beginner or an expert at 3D or Director or even both, I highly, highly recommend this title.

Other reviews have captured the gist of this wonderful, accessible, and thorough treatment of Director's 3D functionality. What I would like to add is that Catanese's book is just as current with Director MX as it is with Director 8.5.

If you plan to do 3D in Director MX, either games or presentations, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

I'm an IT student and possessing VB & C/C++. I have never learn about 3D and Director before. So when I want to make a Director project (game), I need a book!
And this book is the great answer. Everything you need about Director 3D is in this book! (although this book doesn't cover about Havok Physics Engine).

This book tells you WHAT and HOW, I mean, this book not only tells you HOW to make something (ex: primitive object) but also explains about that thing. (ex: what is a primitive object). So, you're not only able to programm but also understand about WHAT are you doing.

This book explains from basic and the last page explains advance technique. So, if you start from first page and finish the book, you'll become an advance 3D Director programmer (even before you read this, you're nill in 3D Director).

OK, I'll tell you what I get from this book, here is my project: a Multiplayer First Person Shooting (FPS) game! (like Counter Strike, Quake, etc). Notice that this is my FIRST 3D Director project! And I got A!

NB: if you're NOT a programmer and don't WANT to possessing 3D Director programming SERIOUSLY, I don't recommend this book, for this book is code heavy, full of code programming, just try "Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio for 3D: Training from the Source" (by Phil Gross).
Just a note: I learn about Multiuser form Director 8.5 Studio (you won't find about Multiuser in Director's Third Dimension).

It's very exciting that Director now does realtime 3D. Since the product is relatively new, there has been a lack of clear documentation available for the 3D aspect. I've been waiting for months for a book to be released to help with developing in Director 3D. I recently started reading this book and I thought i'd give a quick reaction to it, so others might accelerate their Dir. 3D learning curves. (I'll post another review after i've dug deeper.)
I'm more artist than programmer, with pretty basic Lingo skills. I've already quickly solved 2 problems that i was stuck on by skimming thru a few pages in this book. What a relief that is! I've also enjoyed skimming thru the movie examples on the CD and looking under the hood at functioning code. (Cut and paste is fun.)

I find Paul Catanese's writing to be flowing and precise. I've only got one book within hand's reach of my work area. This one.

Swerve

*(If you are new to director, i'd strongly recommend buying an additional 3rd party book devoted to the non-3D aspects of director.)

Being pretty familiar with the concepts of 3d but not familiar with Director (and it's Lingo language), this book manages to teach two important things.

Obviously the 3d stuff which I'll talk about later. But he showed me a decent Lingo coding style to ape. His sample Director programs are constructed with an eye for reuse. Not one-offs and you see the same castmember movie scripts used again and again like REAL (gasp!) code components!

The 3d he covers mostly focuses on Lingo-created 3d components (including Director3d cameras, lighting, shaders, textures, particles and 2d imaging and rendering). He talks optimization for performance with specific Director 3d adjustments. And he writes about minimizing and breaking up download size; techniques which are very specific to Director.

For those who are curious, if you stay in the 3d side of Director 8.5, you will find you are handling all of the 3d via code and rarely fussing with the "odd" Score metaphor.

He doesn't spend as much time (say <15%) as I would have loved discussing the free-with-Director8.5-and-jaw-dropping Havok physics engine (i.e. impact on performance, et al.) and specifics about 3d programs besides 3dsmax (Hard to blame him, though - 3dsMax exporter was the only one at the writing of the book)

I've been zooming through the book for a project in about one week and I've gotten through 22 of the 29 chapters (plus appendix - one on imaging Lingo - good for on-the-fly manipulation of 3d textures!!!).

I would hard-pressed to find a better book on Director 3d than this. (and, IMHO, not bad for Lingo coding style either)

It is a shame that Flash has stolen so much thunder from Director.

This book has won me over to the Director side.

I've bought just about every book on Director 8.5 3D programming and found Paul Catanese's book to be my favorite. It moves logically through the subject tackling concepts as you need to encounter them, and he does a good job of speaking in common familliar 3D terminology. Other books tend to be too Director specific when explaining 3D terms and processes. I really liked seeing it all put into standard 3D jargon so I can use this information when dealing with other 3D proffessionals in other disciplines.

The book does a great job of introducing you to matrix transformations, breaking down the concepts one a time with excellent example files on CDROM. This is typically the hardest part to unwind for most people. The examples are concise and to the point. I found them compelling to experiment with. Often example files in other books have been to complex and tend obfuscate the points being made. I found the examples in this book very clear, to the point and illustrative.

If you are an experienced Lingo programmer looking to find your way in 3D, this is a definite must have book.

Anyone working with Director 8.5's 3D engine needs to have a copy of this book to work and learn productively. Paul does not skimp on the fundamentals of the 3D engine and vector math, nor does he bore you with general Director8/Lingo stuff. This book shows you just what you need to get working in 3D and provides a solid structured reference for each aspect of the 3D engine.

I can't imagine how much more slowly I would be learning the 3D programming without having read this book--Paul definitely gave me the requisite knowledge to just jump right in and start working with this environment comfortably, saving me weeks of self-training. I can't recommend this book enough.