Professional 3D With ElectricImage Universe (Graphics Series) [Paperback]

Lance Evans (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1584502444 | ISBN-13: 978-1584502449 | Publication Date: October 29, 2002 | Edition: 1

Professional 3D with Electric Image Universe covers the latest release of Electric Image Universe 4.0 (formerly known as ElectricImage). This new version consists of major refinements and workflow adjustments, a lower price, and new cross-platform support (Windows, Solaris, and Mac OS). Written for users of Electric Image products, including EIU, EIAS (EI Animation System), and the 3D Toolkit, the book clearly explains the different programs that make up the Universe suite of tools: Modeler, Animator, Camera, and Renderama. After thoroughly covering these tools and their new features, the book provides practical ideas and techniques for using them effectively. All of the major 3D areas are covered in detail, including rendering, character animation, special effects, and post production. Each area includes hands-on tutorials from EIU pros that teach users how to maximize the power and functionality of EIU. There is also a final project that looks at production as a whole to provide users with a start-to-finish production for analysis.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lance Evans (New York, NY) is the founder of 3DNY.org, and is the creative director of Graphlink Studios in NYC. Commercially he has produced 3D projects for many of the major advertising agencies and post houses in NY, has taught 3D and other graphics related subjects for years, and is a developer of 3D related utilities. He has been a member of Beta test teams for Electric Image, Lifeforms, Mac Maya and many other 3D graphics software companies, and writes for 3dNY.org in articles ranging from opinions and reviews to software manuals and How-To's.

Product Details

• Paperback: 492 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (October 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584502444
• ISBN-13: 978-1584502449
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,092,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Intro to Power Software, November 30, 2002

By 

Kurt D. Fillmore "kfillmore3" (Petaluma, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Professional 3D With ElectricImage Universe (Graphics Series) (Paperback)

This is a terrific book. Lance Evans has upped my knowlege of Electric Image Universe at least 10 fold. We all know that Universe is powerful software, being used on television and feature films. The folks at Electric Image and dvGarage are doing their best to make it available to animators from hobbiest to professional, but getting into the meat of the program hasn't always been easy. Lance is a teacher, and he has created a well written, well structured book that brings you along in an easy going fashion. Each topic is introduced, explained, and potential pit falls discussed. You get the feeling that Lance knows where beginners make wrong assumptions and need assistance. The only criticism I could offer would be the title. This book is a great introduction to the program, but doesn't really get into advanced topics. So is it Professional grade? You bet! You could make a sweet living using just the techniques in this book, and try your hand at more advanced animations once you've got this material under your belt.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graduate Class in 3d, January 24, 2003

By 

Brian Walchiack (Westchester NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional 3D With ElectricImage Universe (Graphics Series) (Paperback)

I am one of the minority of people in the industry that actually went to school for animation. Mr. Evans book gives us an understanding of how things work better than any professor I ever had in school. I am amazed at how he has taken subjects that ramble on for 50 pages in other books, and made them crystal clear in 10 pages. And even given more information!

This book treats the reader as an intelligent and capable person. It does not try to teach you basic things like how to use a Bezier pen the way some other material we purchased has done. There is so much in this book that as diligent as we have been by working on it every day, there is still so much we have not done yet. I think this book will take us 6 months to carefully make our way through. Mr. Evans has included literally hundreds of tutorial projects on the disk, I have never seen a book like this before. This is why I say it is like a graduate class in animation.

The other two things that I feel should be mentioned is the sheer number of topics that were covered in this tome, and how many of them are techniques I have never seen anywhere else. And I have a at least 40 other 3d books on my shelf. He tells you how to set up your render farm computers with extra TCP/IP addresses, how to manually add extra tessellation to ACIS models (I asked the developer this question and they told me it could not be done!), explains all the mouth positions for lip sync animation, teaches how to create UV data on models that don't have any, and even how to feather deformations. I could go on and on. The book even has a trailer online...I can't recommend this book enough. My company bought a book for our 3d graphics department, but each of the 5 people in it has since gone out and bought their own copy. Even though 2 of the people use other programs.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lives up to its name, January 4, 2003

By 

Mae - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional 3D With ElectricImage Universe (Graphics Series) (Paperback)

The chapters build upon each other to create a comprehensive reference. I was impressed with the advanced subjects, especially those in the deformation and morphing chapters. There are more tutorials than any other 3d book I have read, and the multi-pass tutorial was especially thorough.

The section on the modeler application had tons of tips and works the reader through many different types of projects.