Virtual Vixens: 3D Character Modeling and Scene Placement [Paperback]

Arndt von Koenigsmarck (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 2007

Features software workshops for 3ds Max, Maya, CINEMA 4D, Lightwave, and Softimage XSI.

Hot, hotter, hottest. See how today's leading modeling artists create 3D characters that sizzle and get the techniques you'll need to create your own virtual vixens.

Steven Stahlberg, Liam Kemp, Marco Patrito, and Sze Jones from Blur Studio are just a few of the 3D artists who share their secrets for making the fantasy females you wish were real. You'll get their personal stories, insights into the profession, and new ways to conceive and construct your own 3D characters.

Then, seven hands-on workshops demonstrate the complete work cycle of modeling 3D characters to bring your own fantasies to life-from making the first sketch and preparing the template to modeling and texturing characters and lighting and rendering. You can use the techniques with any of the major software tools including 3ds Max, Lightwave, Softimage XSI, Maya, or Cinema 4D. Since the workshops don't use any previously made objects, you'll get to start from scratch with your imagination as the only limit.


Participants:
Andrea Bertaccini
Max Edwin Wahyudi
Sze Jones
Liam Kemp
Arndt von Koenigsmarck
K. C. Lee
Daniel Moreno Diaz
Marco Patrito
Steven Stahlberg
Francois de Swardt

* Tutorials suitable for 3ds Max, Lightwave, Softimage XSI, Maya, and CINEMA 4D
* An artists' gallery of top-flight 3D artists
* Interviews revealing artists' techniques and inspirations

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

is the owner of the Vreel 3D Entertainment production studio in Germany, a member of the CINEMA beta-team, and a freelance trainer for MAXON products. He develops CINEMA 4D plug-ins and serves as a forum community leader for creativecow.net and other German CINEMA 4D discussion boards.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (August 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240809807
• ISBN-13: 978-0240809809
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,115,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not bad at all, October 18, 2007

By 

J. DOE "JJ" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virtual Vixens: 3D Character Modeling and Scene Placement (Paperback)

Actually right after buying this, I thought to myself, "why bother?" well,to my surprise, the book actually has some pretty decent insights into the creativity of different artist, and some of their processes are brought to light, it gives a basic rundown of how to map and model an image, but all in all it's not a bad read, it's well written, not swamped with technical terms, and though it's not the best of learning tools, it does inspire...

so all I can say that it's a good read, quick, inspiring, and DOES give the basic concepts of how to meet your goals, but it's up to the reader to understand his/her program of choice to apply the techniques used in the book (i.e. understanding the individual tools in different programs whether it be Blender, Maya, XSI, Cinema 4d, Zbrush, etc etc)

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Virtual Vixens: 3D Character Modeling and Scene Placement, February 10, 2008

By 

Gregory Franke "Avitar" (Groton, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtual Vixens: 3D Character Modeling and Scene Placement (Paperback)

Arndt von Koeningsmarck together with and nine 3D artist/co-authors the create an uneven book. The book consists of short articles from the nine artists/coauthors, followed by workshops on creating virtual character. The focus is on creating attractive women characters but the steps are the same as those for men.

The book is definitely aimed at an artist making the transition to computer generated character design. Design is not approached from a standpoint of creating animations with the characters. Only the first steps of creating the still model of a 3D character is focused on.

The target reader is an experienced artist. A person with high school art training or undergraduate college art training from a few years back is probably the ideal reader for this book.

An appendix of Web links to aids the reader getting started in further tasks. The nine articles from the 3-D artists presenting their work address a wide variety of topics concerning being employed creating computer-generated characters. Their work is quite good.

The virtual character workshop, starting on page 136, proceeds in seven workshops to address topics in shaping a virtual character. Software packages are not addressed in depth.

5.0 out of 5 stars MUST HAVE, December 9, 2010

By 

william - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Virtual Vixens: 3D Character Modeling and Scene Placement (Paperback)

first of all I'm going to say is that this book is for any level of knowledgeable 3d artist, but mostly for intermediate, and on. Since it requires for the person to have extent knowledge of how to use his or her program of choice such as 3ds max, Maya, poser, mud box, z brush. i would strongly recommend you use 3ds max, and zbrush. The book give the artist knowledge on how to do a model if he or she has none, or looking for an easier less complicated way. All in all this book should be a must have.