Customer Reviews

Ray Dream 5 f/x: Advanced 3D Modeling, Rendering, and Post-Rendering Effects

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

 

 

There isn't a lot to this book. While Mortier warns the reader that the book is not for beginners, there isn't a lot for a mid-level RayDream user either. The examples are more art gallery pieces than step-by-step explanations, and the CD-ROM files don't add much content.

As with other Ventana (the publisher) books I own, there are irritating typos and incorrect cross-references that suggest sloppy proofreading and prepress checking. It's a shame, because it reflects badly on the author, who probably had little to do with the foul-ups. The technical content seems to be accurate -- I found no obvious errors.

Mortier seems to know his stuff, and his writing style is pleasant and easy to follow. It seems his publisher let him down. What this book needed was direction. A more specific topic and good editing would have made this book a good one.

Final recommendation: if you can get this book at a discount, consider it. Try to spend a few minutes looking the book over before you buy it.

R. Shamms Mortier should reconsider his line of work. He has no business writing books that deal in computer graphics -a subject he obviously knows little to nothing about. His ideas are weak and his graphics are terrible. The average beginner can learn more from the Manuals included with RayDream Studio. I strongly reccomend the "Ray Dream Handbook" (available at amazon.com) it is far superior to any of the dribble that Mr. Mortier is spitting out.

This author is not much of a writer or a teacher, this is not just my opinion, it is a fairly universal fact. Mr. Mortier has a strong reputation for his great quantity and consistency low quality/high price computer books. Please understand, this isn't your ordinary computer book - this one has been written by Shamms Mortier.

Shamms idea of teaching is to point out the onscreen buttons, and make the reader crank the parameters to their maximum settings to see what they do. Rarely does he explain the underlying concepts of the program or show the reader how to combine concepts to make something useful. Not to mention that his 'art' is of extremely poor taste and quality. This book is BAD. I have a couple working theories as how a book of this low quality was written. First of, Shamms Moritier must have left it to the last minute, the weekend before it was due. I also believe that his monitor must have broken down this weekend, or maybe he doesn't have a monitor, either way he sat down to write this book without the convience of a visual representation of the text. After typing up as much stuff that he could think of off the top of his head, he emailed this text off to the publisher.

This is the only explanation that covers all the facts, unless Shamms Mortier is a con-artist.

The book is not that bad. It isn't that good either. The problem I had/have is that the .mov movie files on the CD don't work with Windows 95/NT 4.0. I have sent numerous e-mails to Ventana and they refuse to fix the problem. My recommendation: Don't buy books from this publisher.

This book is great! It heled me a bunch, I showeed some of my work to my boss and i got a promotion! But i really am a comp freak if you arent you should never even consider this book.