Customer Reviews

trueSpace F/X Creations (Graphics Series)

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

 

 

Nick Robalik's TrueSpace F/X Creations is a complete introduction to all aspects of using the computer to create "Hollywood Quality" special effects, animation, and imaging. Robalik shows how to create freezing effects, drifting smoke, dust storms, car exhaust, rising steam, cold breath mist, galactic wormholes, explosions, alien footsteps, and whatever else your mind can visualize or imagine. TrueSpace F/X Creations covers the various plug-ins available including Primal Particles, Wave Generator, CoolPowers4, and Dynawave. Of special note is the chapter on Python Scripting. Color sections illustrate the impact special effect images can have. A variety of scripts are included on the companion CD. Anyone seeking to enhance their computer generated project with special effects should begin with a thorough reading of Nick Robalik's TrueSpace F/X Creations!

Creating disaster has never been more beautifully simple. Any True Space user will appreciate this comprehensive guide to burning, steaming, freezing and completely annihilating any object under the sun. It's a must-have for any animator who allows their destructive imagination to go wild. Also, for any True Space beginners, this book demonstrates all the capabilities and possibilities of the program with the included plug-ins. This is a great find! Cuts out all the dull excess and gets straight to the cool effects.

First off, No Special effects are possible in any 3D program, without plugins. Second off, Truespace has a great group of developers working on new and different plugins for this terrific program. Third, Nick does a great job tackling a very demanding subject, Kudos!

I'm not quite sure why a small number of the reviewers didn't like the book - I found it to be a facsinating introduction into the world of special effects, and as what I'd consider a bonus, detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to create them using trueSpace, a program I never thought was good for much more than simple 3D stills and even simpler animation. Boy, was I glad to be proven wrong! ANYONE with an interest in advanced 3D or special effects animation should DEFINITELY pick this book up - it's worth much more than the cover price as far as I'm concerned. Buy it!

An essential guide to get the most out of must have plugins for hollywood like F/X creation.

This book is as much about the leading edge must have plugins you REALLY should have as as it is about actual F/X creation.

Nick begins with an overview into the fundamentals of F/X creation etc.. then delves into the plugins and shaders and how best to use them to get stunningly realistic F/X never thought possible from TS.

The chapters proceed with intelligently written step by step tutorials each covering a different type of F/X technique and its best coresponding plugin to aid you in the best possible end product.

Some of the plugins covered are Primal particles, cool powers 4, Dynawave, pyrocluster, wavegenerator , meshforge to name afew.

If you're looking for a book that will help you achieve realistic and stunning F/X, which plugins ought to be in your arsenal of tools, and how to achieve the best results in the least amount of time needed, then this book really is a must for you.

The cd has some great demos and should be enough to help you decide which plugins you should purchase first.

Bottom line: A brilliant book ,thorougly enjoyed it!- much needed. Just Don't forget to buy the plugins too!

Overall, a pretty good book. But based on the contents the title should probably be "trueSpace Plugins". The techniques described for using plugins are very good, however, some of the plugins in the CD are demos (crippled functionality). This was somewhat confusing since it does not agree with the steps indicated in the book. For example, chapter 6 discusses how to use a particular plugin, however, the plugin on the CD is a demo copy. Therefore, the steps outlined in the book do not agree with the contents of the CD. Other than this, the information was helpful in determining what plugins are useful for what effects.

Considering the chronic lack of commercially published trueSpace materials, this book could be seen as a welcome enough (if slightly dated) supplement to Frank Rivera's Inside trueSpace 4. You might however want to purchase Frank's book before getting this one.

Add me to the list of the very disappointed. The subject matter is very limited in that it's basically a walk-through of different plugins. Not very many color plates (a must for a computer graphics book, at least for me). The black and white pictures on the normal pages are pretty bad. Maybe it's the writing style, or maybe it's me, but I just could not follow a single chapter. On this type of book, you want to be able to open it anywhere, start reading and learn something interesting; no such luck here.

If you want to spend fifty dollars on a truespace book, buy "inside truespace 4" which essentially covers this material and way, way, way better.

Of all the trueSpace books on the market, trueSpace F/X Creations is one of the least useful and most disappointing. What should have been a serious look into high-end effects and visual techniques manages to be nothing more than a poorly written walk-through of some of the more popular plugins. And while Mr. Robalik gives parameter settings suggestions for achieving certain effects, these same settings could easily be arrived at through simple experimentation by even a novice user.

Mr. Robalik's instructional writing ability, and indeed his knowledge of his subject, come into question throughout this book. He takes the *relaxed* writing style to such an extreme that some sections read like the contents of an Internet chat session. And while some of the blame for the abundant grammatical and punctuation errors must be passed to the editors at Charles River Media, it is obvious that technical writing is not one of Mr. Robalik's strengths. As for his abilities in the area of visual effects, one has only to look at some of the finished examples in the book to see that his talents are mediocre at best and do not produce anything even close to professional results.

If a person wishes to create visual effects in trueSpace, I suggest saving the money that would have been spent on this book and spending it instead on one of the many fantastic plugins available for trueSpace. The documentation that comes with plugin will offer the same information as Mr. Robalik's book - without the worthless commentary.

This quote from the authors web site says it all.

"...no longer supports any product that may be affiliated, in any way, with Caligari's trueSpace product, or any of their other products."