Customer Reviews

Essential CG Lighting Techniques (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation)

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

 

 

I have been searching for a book on real-world lighting solutions/techniques that can be applied to the CG world for quite some time. Other books have 'grazed' the subject but have never fully explored it. I fear that this book is no different.
Like many other books of the genre, it begins with the all too common basic introduction to the behaviour of light, including its characteristics and how the human eye percieves it. This is by no means a bad thing but I must stress that only a beginner will find value in this, as any seasoned 3D artist already knows this, and then some.
This book illustrates your basic 3 point lighting setup, a few mid-range techniques and only generalises and hints at the more advanced techniques such as setting up realistic dome lighting rigs, soft shadow/light rigs and simulating bounced light. Coupled with software specific tutorials on non-realistic glows and lastly, 60 pages on composition and camera techniques that has no business, given the subject, being in this kind of book.
Lastly, the front cover of the book is misleading in that similar pictures in the book do exist, but no explanation is given as to how they were created. Much more advanced information on lighting can be found on the internet for free.

I was hoping for more from "Essential CG Lighting Techniques", especially after hearing one reviewer compare it to "Digital Lighting & Rendering". Instead, I found coverage of theory which seemed to be paraphrased almost line by line from the aformentioned source, spruced up with generalizations that sometimes ranged from unhelpful to downright wrong. I don't know where the author got the idea that no light should ever have an intensity higher than 1, and that it's better to add multiple lights than turn up the brightness of any single source, but that kind of misleading generalization appears in the book without any qualification or justification. I cannot recommend this book as a first choice to anyone.

This is an outstanding book, possibly the best on a specialised 3D discipline yet written. ...It is far more useful than the previous classic in this field... If you like me expected lighting in 3D to be a minor event and are annoyed by the effort and skill required to obtain realistic lighting in your scenes, this is the book for you. It will equip you to speed through the process and get on to more interesting phases. It covers everything from basic 3 point lighting to lighting arrays for large subjects, dome arrays for realistic skylight and radiosity simulation, internal lighting for large and small spaces and a host of specialised problems like fire, moonlight, underwater scenes and the usual fog and light beams all with clear and succinct theoretical explanations backed up with step by step tutorials to help you make the knowledge your own. And, thankfully the book is illustrated with decent quality examples rather than the simplistic and crude models that stare from the pages of so many 3D books. After you have mastered the basic operation of your 3d program this should be the first book you buy on the art of 3D work. Well done Mr.Demers - what about a similar treatment for "Essential CG Materials" ?

This book is really good. I was looking for the kind of tips included in it. It is a bit old but good to learn from that we think already know about lighting.

I have always struggled with lighting. I hoped this book would help me, but it didn't. I'm very frustrated by the lack of good lighting books out there.

If you know nothing of MAX or lighting, then this book will probably be of some use to you, but if you want to learn advanced lighting techniques, this book isn't for you.

This book deserves a much higher ranking. It should be at the top of the list with Jeremy Birn's "Digital Lighting & Rendering". In fact, I now recommend this book over the former for my 3d students as it has more technical information. Good lighting techniques are paramount to good CG work - you can never know enough. This is a great book - don't think twice - buy it.

The reviews and the cover made me buy this book,
and i didn't take notice of the 'Another Magician'
reviewer. And now i wish i had and hadn't get the grip?
This book is like a total teaser.

The quality of the book is perfect i have never bought
a book with that quality. If you turn pages paper feels
really expensive, but??? although quality is nice i buy
a book for their contens. And here comes the problem.

The examples from the beginning and middle part of this book
make you walk away from the computer to make some
caffee or whatever. Now skipping 2/3 of the book. You enter
the last chapters. And here your heart starts to beat very wild.
By now you really need to go to the little room but no way first
you want to load that scene and let it render while you're off
doing some important stuff. Well to bad an accident just happen
and on top of that you'll find totalmente nada.

My advice to you is buy this book fill up those bookshelves, use
it to watch what scenes can be made with 3DS Max. But dont expect
to learn how to make them yourselfs.