Customer Reviews

Inside 3ds max 4

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I looked at all of the reviews and they all made it seem like this book is the worst thing ever. I'll admit, if you've never used this program before, you're going to be scratching your head. But if you're at that "I'm three-quarters of the way there and just need that extra boost" stage, I could not imagine a better book. And I've read quite a few. I read the Max 4 Bible and found that it tried to cover so much that it didn't REALLY cover anything. This book goes pretty in depth into the advanced essentials. It'll tell you the pros and cons of patch modelling, poly modelling, and mesh modelling, but it's going to assume that you know how to activate point-edit mode or hold down the shift key to extrude. Don't bash the book if you didn't know these these before you bought it, just do better pre-purchase research next time. Anyway, as I said before, incredible book and well worth the money.

Based upon the reviews I read here at Amazon I purchased this book. (...)This is NOT a step-by-step book, nor is it a tutorial. What it appears to be is a very well written detailed description of the nitty-gritty of 3DS Max. The skill level on the back of the book acuratly rates it as "Intermediate - Professional". Being a beginner, I was completely lost.

I would love to see this skill level rating system in the actual book description by the publisher themselves. Depending on reviews here at Amazon was clearly a mistake in this case (at least for me).

To those with skill already on 3DS Max, this book at least appears to be a good choice. It's unfair for me to judge the value of this book from a professional standpoint, so I'm keeping my rating a 4 (as to not lower the score too much on what appears to be a fine professional book).

Previously review made this book look like really bad. Is it that bad? Well, first of all, this book is for intermediate users, not for beginners. This book does not teach you all the advanced features of Max 4. Rather, it strengthens Max 4 users who are passed the basic Max stage, and is in the intermediate area needing more advice toward becoming an advanced user. But if you want more advanced stuff, you have to look elsewhere.

I did learn more after doing various tutorials from this book, no doubt about it. However, I do wish that it would have more step-by-step pictures that shows you what is happening, because a few places in the book is kind of confusing at times, though mostly it's organized.

I do like the IK setup procedure in the book, as this is the main reason why I bought this book.

Before you buy this book, if you're a beginner or looking for an overview, I highly recommend you buy the 3ds max 4 workship by Duane Loose first, it has to be the best 3D max book or just 3D book in general, because it teaches you so much. You can not go wrong with Duane Loose's book. It is excellent. After you buy that book, then maybe you get Inside 3ds max 4.

Back to this book. I also like the little sidebar boxes that teaches you the 'temper' of Max. I read Inside 3D max by Newriders prior to version 4, and I must say this version 4 book is way better than the old ones (with exception of the Advanced Material and Modeling version 3).

I can understand some of the bad reviews previously. But it is not that bad, if you do the tutorials, you definitely will improve, unless you're already very good. So it's not useless at all. It has helped me, for example, to figure out how to setup IK as well as overview of major features of Max.

So I do recommend it for intermediate users who still need to know more about 3D Max 4.

I was very disappointed with this one. Lots of grammatical errors (which points to a greater underlying problem with the editing and quality of this book), and the turtorials are horrible. It's as if they expect you to be able to read their minds on what the next step is (as the next step is usually left out).

You would seriously have to be on the same professional level as the guys who wrote this to complete a single one of the tutorials. And if that were the case, you'd be so busy working why would you buy it?

The fact that this book has got the rating it has (4 stars as of this review) shows that Amazon book reviews are now subject to the same user ratings "pumping" as the user movie reviews have suffered on other website sites in the past years. This type of guerrilla marketing/deception on the part of the distributors makes it difficult to trust this kind of user feedback.

RR

This book is one of the best Max book I've bought in years, Kim Lee is a very experienced 3D artist and an expert in Max. the section that covers the workflow of projects is very helpful, also it covers how to composit with combustion. If you don't want to buy abother book that spend 200 pages on fundamental stuff, this is the book to get!

I just started this book and have found it totally engrossing. It covers real world applications of max through a set of tutorials starting from workflow to the end product of an animated character. There are two tracks in the book - Gamestudio and Broadcast Animation. They are both well done with clear step by step directions and really great insight from people at ILM and other places.

Because I'm learning to use Max for animating in a game development environment this book was a dream to find.

great price, fast delivery, item was in good shape when it arrived, as indicated by "like new" description

As a beginner of both film and game developer, I found this book very useful. In fact, in all this book, I found a good comparison between film/broadcast and gate/interactive production design. Not only the technical aspects are considered, but also the workflows and management aspects. Based on author real experiences, this book is very useful as a 3DSMax advanced course covering important aspects of real productions, but a base knowledge 3DSMax is needed. I think the title of book is not the better: people think it is an entry level manual. Why not "A guide for use 3DSMax in film and game productions"?! The new "Inside 3DS Max 7", in fact, is not the same.

hi,
been using max for 5 years now and although i'm a little late in writing this review(read the book a year and a half back) credit has to be given.

this is by far the BEST max book around and the basic premise of the book is... if the authors havent used the tools in real world situations they wont blab about them and waste our time.This is meant to be an intermidiate to advanced level book(which is rare) and it really goes all the way.

it's sad the author hasent had a follow up...these are the people who should be writing more books.

any way thanks for the book kim...i recommend it to most other maxers till date inspite of there being books on max 5.

thanks

b

I picked up this book to get up to speed in modeling in Max 4. I've done production work with Max 4 in animation, lighting and rendering, so I can't speak to those chapters, but the modeling is frustrating at best. reference images they use for back plane images are not on the CD and entire steps are skipped over with either the assumption you already have the knowlege (in the FIRST chapter on box modeling?) or just blatent neglict. I have to mirror "reader from New Jersey"'s feelings...did New Riders edit this, or just shove it out to be the first on the shelf?