Customer Reviews

mental ray for Maya, 3ds Max, and XSI: A 3D Artist's Guide to Rendering

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an XSI user I normally approach all Sybex publications with a fair amount of trepidation. Sure it says XSI on the cover, but I'm about to have to sift through another maya-centric publication. My hat is off to you sir, I think this is one of the best manuals to come out in a long time (and I've bought my share). It's really great to see "the big three" programs all receiving equal attention, and for anybody who might be proficient in one package it's invaluable to have each aspect of Mental ray explained in triplicate, just in case you have to dive into somebody else's project in an unfamiliar app to tune up a render. Again, terrific job, this book is invaluable to any artist hoping to expand their render chops. I hope Sybex see's this as well (sales-wise and otherwise) and continues creating books of this caliber for maya, 3ds max AND XSI.

Cheers
Aaron Kent

After reading a couple of books on mental ray and 3D rendering, I can say that this is a thorough and unique book that just provides an abundance of useful information. I can list some of the things that stand out when reading this book:


1. It helped me understand the complete working and optimization of subsurface scattering, global illumination, caustics, occlusion, and high dynamic range images (even though I thought I knew it all).

2. Shaders.. shaders and more shaders.. I can definitely say this is the only book which dissects all the commercially available mental ray shaders on a very extensive level.

3. Since the book explains the concepts and techniques on a broader scope it can be applied to any 3D package or renderer. It may sound surprising but I have applied a lot of concepts explained here on other packages like Houdini and Cinema 4D with great success.

The author has done a great job in striking a relationship between digital implementation to the natural phenomena of cameras, lights, shadows, materials etc. It definitely caters to users of all levels of experience. I should also mention that the book is insanely up to date; the architectural shader sections are a typical example.

Hats Off!!!

This book gives a definitive methodology for using Mental Ray shaders, lighting effects and phenomena AND a clear explanation of how and why things work the way they do. Understanding the basic structure of the software is key to being able to make it work in different applications, and it is this understanding that Boaz provides in this book.

As a Maya instructor at the undergraduate and graduate university level, I am going to make this required reading for my classes, and recommend its inclusion in the department library.

I am an intermediate Maya user and I work as a generalist in a small effects studio in Los Angeles that does mostly TV and commercials. I've been looking to specialize in lighting and rendering, and this book was the perfect resource for my situation (and I've spent a lot of time/money looking for Mental Ray resources). It lays down all the basic to intermediate concepts of Mental Ray, paving the way for the reader to then move on to the more advanced techniques of programming shaders and lighting. I recommend this book to anyone looking to built a solid foundation of Mental Ray knowledge.

Having gone through numerous books and resources on mental ray, lighting, and rendering in general, I found this book to strike the perfect balance between lighting techniques, and rendering under the hood. Not only does it cover mental ray more in depth than any other book or pack of tutorials I've come across (especially in terms of shading, a topic that is better covered here than most places), it is written for both artists who make practical use of its features, through popular apps such as Maya and XSI, as well as technical people who want a comprehensive overview of 3D fundamentals relating to the real world.

For me this book was the definitive resource that jump-started my career as a technical director in the film industry. The techniques I gleaned from these pages really helped me further develop as both an artist and a problem solver. From sampling and ray tracing algorithms, the frame buffer, to to real world lighting fundamentals, shadows, and camera principles, it contains essential knowledge for anyone in the industry who wants to distinguish their know-how and really understand how these things work!

A lot of people have said great things about this book, and for the most part, I agree. After checking out a few other books, this seems to be THE book to get, for learning about mental ray. The author spends a significant time talking about rendering theory, which is helpful for learning any modern engine.

The author gives equal time to theory and each front-end for mental ray (XSI, Maya, Max). This book is quite an achievement, and I am really happy I bought it. This book is aimed at intermediate to advanced users. Those who are willing spend the time with this book will be duly rewarded.

The reason I didn't give this book 5 stars: I thought some of the examples and language could have been clearer, and there could have been more examples, making the book more accessible. It would have been really nice to have the color plates in with the rest of the text where they were referred to. Do not let any of that stop you from buying this book. It's a must have for mental ray users.

Every serious mental ray user needs to have this book and actually read it. this is not a quick guide, its an extensive reference. Plan to spend some time with this book and a highlighter pen, read and reread it. Considering it has information in mental ray stand alone, Maya, Max, and XSI its pretty amazing. This is not the kind of book you whip out on the job just to figure out which preset shader to use, its detailed information on how mental ray actually works. If you seriously study this book and really understand it, you will master mental ray. The fact that it might be slightly out of date with regards to the mia shader in Maya is rather irrelevant. if you really understand this book then you'll understand what every setting in the mia shader actually does which is much more important. I'm about half way through it. my only criticism is that it could have more hands on examples, however their are plenty of other sources for that.

Being a self-study mental ray enthusiast, I've turned to three things in my path to becoming a skilled mental ray user and now a professional in the field, working with it daily.

As such, I've turned to forums, to books and video dvd's. All three have very little information available about mental ray, a situation which has slowly improved in last three years, but during this time only one gem has really emerged: the item at hand, Livny's must-have mental ray guide.
The book takes various topics from the original and very difficult Driemeyer mental ray books - which are application independant - and puts them in a more readable form in this massive seven-hundred page book. Livny understands what's really important when using mental ray, the deep knowledge of how things work, which help the user get to the result they - and their client - needs, faster and better.

Differently from other mental ray books, Livny also handles the topic of third party and customization options of mental ray, covering various shaders and plugin options.

Since the book covers three different applications that have mental ray integrated seamlessly, the book is also very useful to rendering experts who have to jump working platform every now and then.

This is however not a book recommended for beginners, far from entry level, I personally recommend this book to average to advanced level students and enthusiasts.

Thumbs up, a pleasant surprise from a generally unknown author and publisher and a book I'll be recommending to mental ray users everywhere.

I've been searching for references to these programs that actually explained things rather than just take you through a tutorial for quite some time. As a user of both Maya and 3DsMax, this book intrigued me from the beginning. What I love about it is the author's willingness to actually explain they why behind the numbers. I also bought a few other books at the same time, but they were incredibly tutorial oriented. "Enter this number and see how it matches our picture?" Never giving the reason for that set of numbers. This one actually takes the time to explain the settings rather than just providing the right input.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the depth (and amount of information) included in this book. I'm not at the level of every chapter yet, but it is a great book to grow into. The writing style allows to learn what you are looking for, and teaches new things at the same time. It is incredibly in-depth, but the book isn't written with only the highly advanced in mind. A great book for someone with some knowledge and looking to learn more about the programs, why some things work better than others, and the things that mental ray can do.

I had been using mental ray for rendering for a long time but I still wasn't very clear on some of the principles of use. After reading this book I understood mental ray far better. The concepts are explained very clearly and it goes through the algorithms in great depth. Its too difficult for a beginner but somebody who is already experienced in mental ray and has a strong background in computing will find this book extremely helpful. The book showed me many more possibilities of use and improved my rendering quality. I love this book and highly recommend it.