Inspired 3D Character Setup [Paperback]

Michael Ford (Author), Alan Lehman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1931841519 | ISBN-13: 978-1931841511 | Publication Date: August 5, 2002 | Edition: 1

Written by working professionals in the visual effects industry, this book is a guide to building functional characters in the digital environment. You will explore the concepts and theories of creating and maintaining efficient and intuitive skeletal control systems for your 3D characters. Interwoven within the book are thought-provoking and informative interviews with industry heavyweights, stunning visuals, and step-by-step tutorials that allow you to explore and expand your knowledge of the fascinating and challenging world of 3D digital characters.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Ford is a Lead Technical Animator at Sony Imageworks and is co-founder of Animation Foundation. He began his career as a digital artist after graduating from UCLA School of Design and has since worked on numerous feature and commercial projects at Industrial Light and Magic, Centropolis FX, and Digital Magic. He has lectured at UCLA School of Design, University of Southern California, DeAnza College, and the San Francisco Academy of Art. He is a certified Level 2 Softimage instructor whose film credits include Stuart Little 1 & 2, The Perfect Storm, The Mummy, Godzilla, Species 2, Mortal Kombat 2, and The Faculty.

Alan Lehman learned problem solving and design in the Architecture School at Pratt Institute long before the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park ruled the cinema. Since then he has applied those problem solving skills to a variety of mediums including architecture, industrial design, and film art direction. Since turning his attention to the creation of digital characters for film, he has become a technical animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks. He is also a directed studies advisor in the Animation Studies Program at The University of California Film School.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (August 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931841519
• ISBN-13: 978-1931841511
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #516,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Ford began his eBay career in 1998 and first became an eBay Power Seller in 2001. His software business has expanded beyond eBay, but he still enjoys buying and selling on eBay as a collector of antique arcade games. Michael has authored a number of books on antique arcade games, game restoration, and computer security. He is a regular contributor to collector magazines and he is a well known business writer.

Michael has always been an entrepreneur and eBay has helped develop those independent business drives into several full-fledged commercial ventures. Michael is known for telling it like it is and has a no nonsense approach to business and writing. He focuses on details which led him to document and analyze eBay auctions in a hard hitting way in order to determine what works and what does not. Michael has continued his quest for knowledge by monitoring the unsavory side of eBay which resulted in protection measures that are commonly used to identify fraudulent buyers and sellers.

Michael knows both the good and bad sides of eBay and has shared his experiences and techniques to help eBay members gain the most from eBay without losing their shirt to scammers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beginners beware, January 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Inspired 3D Character Setup (Paperback)

I bought Inspired 3D Character Setup hoping to find a smarter workflow for my own character rigs. As a veteran animator, I am always looking for new and more efficient techniques.

I found this book full of great tips and knowledge on character setup, but unfortunately it was also full of errors and missing steps. I managed to find my way around the mistakes and eventually get the desired setup (I think), but it wasn't an easy task. I was pulling my hair out on more than one occasion and I've been doing this for seven years.

Overall, I would not recommend this book to a beginner if you plan to learn from the tutorials. The authors should have taken more time to proofread and test their workflows or at least included a supplementary guide on the website that corrects the obvious errors.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars semper gumbi (always flexable), February 15, 2003

By 

Richard B Toland (Manhattan, Kansas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inspired 3D Character Setup (Paperback)

I have been using Maya extensively now for two years and bought this book to try to take myself into the intermediate level of character rigging.
The first problem I encountered with this book is that I opened it and the spine broke! Not exactly what you would expect from a [$$$] book.
I think it went downhill from there. Yes the pictures are beautiful and the it really showcases what you can do with Maya(or what others have done), but the editing in this book is terrible. Examples include naming of nodes that on the same page have two different names. The downloads don't match the book. e.g. ch13 has the low-res geo download that doesnt include the sphereCTRL or the cubeCTRL but sure has the proxyGEO. Anyone think i'm messed up? send me the right one please..
Otherwise, you are better off with the Art of Maya, or Secrets of the Pros. I think this is one not quite worth the money.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great setup - from foundation to sophistication, November 24, 2002

By 

Tsai-Yun Mou (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inspired 3D Character Setup (Paperback)

This book leads you from the most important knowledge needed to create a good character setup to the high-end setup demonstrated in the last several chapters. It's very crucial to follow the chapters from the beginning to get an clear understanding of the tools. Honestly, I read and exercised through them very fast and then followed the tutorials. It goes so deep and sophisticated that when I finished the setup, I couldn't fully understand what I was doing. I went back to the first several basic chapters and learned that actually I did a lot mistakes...such as translation and rotation tools and joint orient that you never think it's important. Those chapters are a great help too when you finish the setup and go back to read them again! You'll find new things every time you read the book. Tutorials are worthy of doing them again. They all refer to the concepts described earlier which are very basic but very easy to forget their importance!