Readers will discover the important pre-production steps in creating a 3D character through developing inspirational illustrations, character bio, and creating a design sheet. This book will take the reader through the storyboard process from thumbnail and inspirational sketches for a 3D storyboard and 3D animatic. Advanced features and techniques are covered including examining shape animation, muscle control, squash/stretch effects, and modeling techniques needed for realistic and cartoon characters. Tips for creating a good demo reel is also provided in this book.
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Editorial Reviews
From the Author
In response to the comment that the book seems “skimpy”, you have to understand that books in this series are not meant to be a complete overview of the software. If it was, we would have called the book Softimage|XSI In Depth. The focus of this book is character skeleton setup and animation. These areas were chosen because they were the most complete in version 1 of the software. This book covers these areas in depth, and is currently the most advanced book available. We also did not publish this to be the first book out there, or to make a “quick buck”. I have taught this same information in courses that cost thousands of dollars, so I believe this book is more than worth it’s small price. We are currently getting good reviews from professionals in the field on the Softimage User Group. Here is one review sent recently:
"Just bought Chris Maraffi's new book on XSI titled Softimage|XSI Character Animation f/x & Design and what a difference it makes to learn XSI from someone who not only knows the software, but who REALLY KNOWS HOW TO TEACH! What I have found most helpful is that in addition to really explaining each tool and command in crystal clear terms that I can easily remember, this man shows you when and how to most effectively use the software and how to strategize the most productive workflow to achieve the best results. IMHO, you can learn XSI at least FIVE TIMES FASTER using this book.
To Chris: I don't know you, but if anyone working at Softimage reads this correspondence, they ought to hire you and pay you whatever you want to rewrite their manuals.
Best wishes,
Burt Ward
Logical Figments
Feature Film Animation "
In addition, I will be providing 1.Chris Maraffi Author: Softimage|XSI Character Animation FX & Design
About the Author
Chris Maraffi is a certified Softimage 3D instructor who has taught advanced Softimage 3D classes at NYU, Parsons/New School, School of Visual Arts, Master's Institute, and New York Institute of Technology. He has also authored the popular Softimage 3D training videos Realistic 3D Character Development, several technical articles for 3D Artist magazine, and frequently does demo work at trade shows like NAB, SIGGRAPH, and 3D Design Conference. Mr. Maraffi is currently teaching at the certified training facility Mesmer and the Academy of Arts in San Francisco, CA. In addition, Chris is doing broadcast and Internet freelancing for several corporate clients.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thorough...,
By "schaneville" (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Softimage ®|XSI Character Animation f/x and Design (Paperback)
This book really goes well beyond just using XSI to do character animation. The first chapter discusses fundamentals of XSI, doing a rushed but adequate job of it. The next several chapters discuss the "animation process", including things like the necessity of creating a character profile, storyboarding, style and color selection, etc. This stuff was genuinely useful and interesting, but not really the meat of the book.The really excellent information comes in the later chapters of the book, where he discusses the basics, tricks, and advanced proceedures for character rig setup (specific to XSI). He shows you how to create a rig, and then layer controls all over it. While some controls can be manipulated directly, he shows you how to hook most to sliders in organized property pages. He goes further to show how to created automatic animation (through expressions) such as automatically rolling the foot as the character takes a step, breathing, automatic muscle flexing, etc. He touches *very lightly* on control of clothes and the like. Beyond that, lip syncing and facial expressions are covered in fair detail, all in XSI specific discussions so you know right where to find the tools that you need to accomplish the tasks (you won't, however, get a comprehensive list of lip shapes for English phonetic sounds for example). He shows you how to make animated "clips" for use in the animation mixer, and then how to mix those clips together to achive a fluid animation. Lip syncing in the animation mixer is also included. There is enough detail in the animation mixer discussion that even if you know nothing about the animation mixer, you will be producing solid animations once you finish the book. Things that are *not covered* are features in XSI that are relatively unrelated to character animation, such as texturing and the render tree, simulation, etc. Hair isn't covered either (the book was written for XSI 1.5, not 2.0). Also, while modeling is discussed, the book does not go into great detail about the modeling of your character, as the focus is more on controlling the animation rather than building the character (he does mention several interesting points about why the animation stage is more important than the modeling stage, particularly for a new-comer like me). Finally, advanced features of XSI such as the ability to transfer animated clips betweem unrelated character rigs is barely touch on, and the transfer of envelope weights between characters is not mentioned. Overall, a *very* informative and useful read for those who *don't* have a rock solid knowledge of XSI and who really don't know much about rig setup and the animation mixer. Oh, and the CD has a couple *excellent* skeleton rigs pre-built with slider controls and all.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Make your..dream (animation) come true!,
By George Rizopoulos (Athens, Greece) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Softimage ®|XSI Character Animation f/x and Design (Paperback)
This book shows you everything you need to know about character set up and character animation in XSI.The first part of the book shows you how to develop your character and other things (storyboards,camera staging,lighting ect) you need to know about production and on the second part you learn all the secrets about character animation.The author guides you from a basic rig to an advanced rig with sliders, expressions and other powerfull features of xsi but it's not only that.He encourages you to dive deeper and explore all these cool features the pro's use.The new animation mixer is covered in depth and some advanced ways of facial animation are explained step by step.Even though this book was written for XSI users it's valuable for every serious animator who wants to explore powerfull character animation!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth having....,
By "oconnelljohn" (Dublin, leinster Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Softimage ®|XSI Character Animation f/x and Design (Paperback)
Thankfully, this book covers character animation very comprehensively and also goes into some of the preceeding tasks that often aren't covered. The first few chpters don't bother with the software but cover possibly more important issues such as character design, storyboarding and creating rough animations in various manners, which is much truer to how most animaton studios would work. I feel this is far better than jumping straight in and hitting the "ok, what next stage" since everything is pre planned. Elements such as cinematography are given a nice introuduction too to give the reader more angles to think about to improve their end product. The character set up stages are well thought out with consideration for areas which can cause problems. The ik setups are solid and flexible. The expressions add extra value too. Various controllers are used for facial animation in the later sections, so most areas are covered very well.... I think this one is a worthy addition.
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