XSI Illuminated: Character [Paperback]

Anthony Rossano (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0970753047 | ISBN-13: 978-0970753045 | Publication Date: July 2002

A comprehensive and understandable look at Softimage’s elegant character animation system, XSI Illuminated is a perfect companion for working animators, students, and teachers alike.

XSI Illuminated: Character is part of a complete 3D animation curriculum designed by the animators and instructors at Mesmer Animation Labs. Scene files used in the book, additional XSI tutorials, and sample course outlines for instructors are all available online at Mesmer.com. Intensive classroom training for professionals is available at the Mesmer facilities in Washington and California, and people from all around the world use the web-based Mesmer eLearning system to learn more about XSI.

Complete coverage of:
• Planning for Animation
• Non-Linear Animation with the Mixer
• Serious Polygon Modeling
• Modeling with Subdivision Surfaces
• Deformations and Weight Maps
• Using Shape Trees for Facial Animation
• Shape Animation and Lip Sync
• Building Inverse Kinematic (IK) Skeletons
• Blending Forward Kinematics with IK
• Binding Skins to Inverse Kinematic Skeletons
• Enveloping and Weighting
• Custom Properties and Linked Parameters
• Human Character Modeling Strategies
• Creating Libraries of Actions
• Facial Animation Controllers
• Advanced Character Setup
• Expressions for Human Movement
• Emotions and Facial Musculature

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anthony Rossano is the Chief Executive Officer of Mesmer, Inc. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Washington, Rossano went to work for the Microsoft Corporation. In 1988, Anthony Rossano deserted his post at Microsoft to found Mesmer, Inc.

Technically proficient in a wide range of authoring and animation programs, Rossano's expertise lies in Softimage 3D|Extreme, Softimage|XSI, and Alias|Wavefront Maya Composer. Anthony has taught all over the world, and counts among his training clients WildBrain, PDI, LucasArts, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Monolith, ILM, DreamWorks, Boeing, Lockheed, and Lear.

Anthony is a certified Softimage Instructor, and has been working with XSI throughout its development and beta testing phases. Anthony is the author of Inside Softimage 3D, published by New Riders Publications, XSI Illuminated: Foundation, published by Mesmer Press, the documtation set for Softimage|3D v4.0, and numerous magazine articles and web tutorials.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Mesmer Inc (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970753047
• ISBN-13: 978-0970753045
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,618,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overall XSI training, September 5, 2004

By 

Luis Mederos (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XSI Illuminated: Character (Paperback)

This book was an absolute surprise. As a new XSI 4.0 user, I had been disappointed with other books. The author focuses on character animation, but in discussing this objective, he takes the reader through an overview of XSI, its features, distinctive elements, and tools "how to." For example, he discusses sub-division, NURBS, and polygon modeling, explaining the differences, benefits, and disadvantages.

I would strongly recommend a visit to the Mesmer.com website (publisher), for additional details on this and other training materials.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where's the beef?, August 8, 2002

By 

William (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XSI Illuminated: Character (Paperback)

This BOOK is amazing! From the basics of animation to the more advanced practices, this book is for any animator that wants to animate in XSI. Every animation feature is covered with this book. Unfortunately, since this book does not come with a CD that contains the scene files necessary, you must download them from Mesmer's web site. That's not the bad part. First, the contents were not uploaded. Then, when they were uploaded, they were a temporary version to make downloaders happy. Unfortuantely, when you finish downloading the 43.9MB file, you find that this "temporary" version of the scene files CRASH XSI. I'm sure that the scenes will be nice and relate well with this book WHEN THEY ARE UPLOADED IN THEIR COMPLETE FORM. Until then, this book is a great fundamental resource, but a poor learning tool. 4 stars = Good Book + Bad Content. 5 stars = Good Book + Good Content.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very good, July 1, 2003

By 

"turner_scott" (boynton beach, fl USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XSI Illuminated: Character (Paperback)

this is a comprehensive book whihc doesnt waste time with obvious stuff...very good if your already familar with other 3d software...true it didnt have the cd of scene files which is strange but i never use those anyway and the info is very strong without them - highly recommended...the other xsi illuminated book is [not very good] ;)