Animating Real-Time Game Characters (Game Development Series) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Learn the basics of what makes a great character model and gain new insights to the many issues facing the character animator. Using the tried and proven methods found in Animating Real-Time Game Characters, youíll quickly bring your character animation to the next level. Find detailed coverage on modeling, rigging, and weighting real-time game characters using 3ds max and character studio. Explore effective keyframing techniques that focus on dramatic poses and proper timing. Discover how to work with and adjust motion capture data as well as what to look for when working with mocap studios. Get an inside glimpse at the process of taking a real-time game character from concept to export into a game technology.

With the popularity of games like Quake III: Arena, Unreal Tournament, and Warcraft III, real-time gaming is here to stay. Whether youíre a working professional or an eager novice, Animating Real-Time Game Characters will absolutely help you improve your character animation skills using 3ds max and character studio.

HIGHLIGHTS
* Step-by-step instruction with hundreds of clear illustrations
* Complete game character models and animation sets
* Detailed info on keyframing and using motion capture data
* Find dozens of ideas and notes on using the most popular game character creation and animation tools, including 3ds max and character studio
* Thousands of frames of animation ready to be plugged into your own game character

ON THE CD-ROM
* All models, images, and motion capture files are included for use with the tutorials, as well as a fun-filled game demo for the new online-only action game sensation, Betty Bad!

About the Author

For the past eleven years, Paul Steed has been modeling and animating for hugely successful games such as the Wing Commander and Quake series. He is a regular speaker at the Game Developers Conference and serves on the Game Developer magazine advisory board. He is also the author of the best-selling Modeling a Character in 3ds max.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (December 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584502703
• ISBN-13: 978-1584502708
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,068,396 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Charles River Media Game Development Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get way ahead of people learning to be animators with this!!, February 18, 2003

By	Matt Selander "CG Artist" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Paul, I have to tell you: You rock!!

Thanks to your easy-to-understand-and-follow-book, I'm now way ahead of my character setup & animation class at my school (art institute of portland). Keep in mind, this was just in a matter of days I went from clueless to...well, not so clueless!!

For people wondering if this will indeed improve their character rigging and/or animating skills:

It will. If you're already comfortable in using Max 4 or 5, you can easily take Paul's walkthoughs of rigging your character of any kind with biped and using physique to attach the mesh to the biped and be well on your way to understanding how to rig any future characters you create for excellent and easy animation. Well, easy to a point, anyway. You know how it is. With Paul's excellent methods of key frame animation, as well as using mocap, you'll be able to create convincing animations that no one would scrutinize! Even Paul's short-but-sweet section on things to consider when building a mesh can even improve your modeling techniques and thought process of when designing a character for optimum animating, hence the title of the section, 'built to move.'

The one thing that makes Paul's books so nice is that you don't even have to use the packaged files to understand how to apply his methods of madness, you can just go straight from his examples and apply it to your own work and come away with the same oustanding results. I modeled my first character with Paul's book 'modeling a character in 3ds max' by just using his techniques and came away with a model better than almost everyone in my class that had previous modeling experience.

Like I said, you just plain rock Paul. Hopefully I'll gain the skills you have so graciously bestowed upon us lowly wannabe animators to reach your status in this industry as a top-notch realtime modeler/animator someday. So far, things are looking bright!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars animation weapon, April 23, 2004

By	erik turchin (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This is the 2nd character studio book I have read. The other is the Discreet CS courseware manual. I think everyone should read them both if you want full knowledge of Character Studio. Paul's book does not cover many techniques that are implemented in the Discreet manual, but his book does indeed cover what the title implies. Game animation sets, and rigid vertex assignment. Two topics that are lacking from the Discreet manual. Paul's book successfully de-mystifies the process of manual vertex assignment via the Physique modifier. The first half of the book will give you great techniques for rigging a Biped to a mesh. His techniques are easily applied to a potential game sprite, or a straight render. The real power of this book comes from the subsequent animation chapters. The attention to detail that he drills into your head is perhaps the most valuable skill an animator can have. An outstanding chapter on pose-to-pose keyframing techniques is invaluable. It shows how easily and stylish animating in CS can and should be. There is also very valuable motion capture editing instructions that show you how to exploit mocap in combo with keys to realize the creative potential one has. There is also alot of Dope Sheet work that helps one become very comfortable with one of the more intimidating aspects of 3DS Max. If you can, read the discreet CS manual first, and then study this book to polish it all up.

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moroni, December 23, 2002

By	JHN "Noj" (Parts Unknown) - See all my reviews

Awesome book! Anyone wanting to know how to Rig their mesh for real time games or for high poly meshes this book is a must have.
Step by step instructions and tricks on how to make your mesh ready for rigging also includes Rigging, Weighting your character using manual vertex assignment, weighting it using envelopes, things to consider before you animate, Keyframe animation(two parts), Using Motion Capture and you get to practice on the sexy Betty Bad model. You've out done yourself Paul.