FREE delivery April 11 - 17. Details

Or fastest delivery Tomorrow, April 4. Order within 27 mins. Details

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$39.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

admire

Ships from

admire

Sold by

admire

Sold by

admire

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Thursday, April 11 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Friday, April 5. Order within 12 hrs 27 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Jenson Books Inc

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Follow the author

Tony Mullen

Follow

Introducing Character Animation with Blender 1st Edition

by Tony Mullen (Author), Ton Roosendaal (Foreword), Bassam Kurdali (Foreword)

76

See all formats and editions

There is a newer edition of this item:

Introducing Character Animation with Blender
$49.99
(51)
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$39.00","priceAmount":39.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"39","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"dO%2FgFmBOs4PWR8fr9TpahmEJFmQov2R3Y9x2MAmBdDjmIcM9FbISAB2L4uOTeSSX4n27b5EpseJ%2Fd1edxc5YT2urutblHk52VI468uPFFACMWvIxbUQA7o2OuykBeyoPgRMFthqKCMcPS6iWQ%2Bf%2Bm8xqF0OQDe27uMd7XLp0sBDJO7FNi7EtqBMRbo%2FZ7ha9","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$15.21","priceAmount":15.21,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"21","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"dO%2FgFmBOs4PWR8fr9TpahmEJFmQov2R3w9l%2FL3gsiNf8QcFaijOEW38kUyp%2FXmjn3MeklmmpE3aknaGkZ1Gt2bGZ0oPrx4jSKgC4xWqkJOjmRR3%2FAypfrmgNZ8EouG%2BrZaCAY1ZO8OLcmX8%2BG7oASqnFZh94k79lA3NsrMmeKHt%2BuOwl7rXS39TnN9ESjxuR","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Let this in-depth professional book be your guide to Blender, the powerful open-source 3D modeling and animation software that will bring your ideas to life. Using clear step-by-step instruction and pages of real-world examples, expert animator Tony Mullen walks you through the complexities of modeling and animating, with a special focus on characters. From Blender basics to creating facial expressions and emotion to rendering, you’ll jump right into the process and learn valuable techniques that will transform your movies.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

ISBN-10

0470102608
ISBN-13

978-0470102602
Edition

1st
Publisher

Sybex
Publication date

February 27, 2007
Language

English
Dimensions

7.25 x 1 x 9 inches
Print length

512 pages
See all details

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Open your mind to the possibilities

Let this in-depth professional book be your guide to Blender, the powerful open-source 3D modeling and animation software that will bring your ideas to life. Using clear step-by-step instruction and pages of real-world examples from talented Blender users, expert animator Tony Mullen walks you through the complexities of modeling and animating, with a special focus on characters. From Blender basics to creating facial expressions and emotion to rendering, you'll jump right into the process and learn valuable techniques that will transform your movies.

Walk through the complete process of building a character
Master mesh modeling tools and organic modeling
Fashion skin, hair, and clothing with material shaders, textures, and other tools
Learn to sync lip movements with a sound file
Understand interpolation curves, keyframes, and the basics of animating

Model your characters using a variety of mesh editing techniques

See how armatures, lattices, and IK interact

Light and render your work for exactly the effect you want

Valuable DVD with complete Blender installation

The companion DVD provides the Blender installer for Windows®, Macintosh®, and Linux®. You'll also find:

All the source files you need to produce the examples and tutorials in the book
The short film Elephants Dream and all the files used to create it
An impressive gallery of short animations created by Blender artists around the world
Plenty of useful links to related Blender resources
A large collection of third-party software and plug-ins, including Audacity, Python, and the popular BlenderPeople

www.sybex.com

About the Author

Tony Mullen, Ph.D., teaches at Tsuda College, Tokyo, where his courses include modeling and animation with Blender as well as the Python programming language. Mullen has been a cartoonist and an illustrator. His screen credits include writer, co-director, or lead animator on several short films, including the award-winning Gustav Braüstache shorts.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sybex; 1st edition (February 27, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0470102608
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0470102602
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.25 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,477,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #388 in 3D Graphic Design
- #1,193 in Digital Video Production (Books)
- #1,525 in Software Design & Engineering

Customer Reviews:
76

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Tony Mullen

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

I'm a lecturer in computer science at Tsuda College, Tokyo and an independent filmmaker. I'm interested in animation of all kinds, but especially in CG animation using Blender, the open source 3D modeling and animation package.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

76 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

Translate all reviews to English

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

JULIAN ENCISO

Perfecto para aprender

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2024

Verified Purchase

Este libro me ha permitido aprender muchísimo sobre animación con Blender 3D. La calidad de impresión y encuadernación es óptima, ha aguamtado el uso continuo sin perder su integridad.

Helpful

Translate review to English

Michael Tiemann

More than an introduction--it's an invitation to a whole new world!

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2007

Verified Purchase

The blender community has accomplished some amazing milestones in the past few years, creating an open source 3d production environment that rivals the best (and most expensive) proprietary systems in terms of power, performance, and flexibility. It is truly amazing that one can download for free software that's been used to create artistic and commercial works that have been seen at film festivals and mainstream television worldwide. Sooner or later, one who is interested must ask: what shall I do with all this power? This book helps answer the question, at least when it comes to character animation.

I have been to Blender workshops around the world, and I have seen amazingly talented artists demonstrate methods they've developed over the years to create all sorts of characters, from humans to monsters, from animals to dragons. Watching these creatives who are half my age do more in 30 minutes than I ever thought I could do in a lifetime has been a humbling experience. When I learned that some of these folks would be sharing their knowledge in the form of this book, I pre-ordered it right away.

I have now had the book for a week, and I am *thrilled* that it has turned out as well as it has. The examples are well organized, the methods are completely explained, and the book ships with a DVD that contains everything, and I mean *everything* you need to follow along and/or check your work. The quality and quantity of information is perfectly balanced with the pace of instruction, and I cannot wait to continue reading it in more detail, practicing the methods, and bringing new characters to life.

Well done!

35 people found this helpful

Helpful

D. Hutcheson

Good book; Lousy packaging

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2008

Verified Purchase

Bought this for my teenage son who's interested in animation. 1st copy arrived with no DVD. Returned it for a 2nd copy, which arrived with a DVD cracked & fused into the binding, as another reviewer experienced. The 3rd copy arrived defect-free, and has lived up to expectations, providing enough guidance to keep my son glued to the PC for hours on end.

Helpful

Theodore Gage

Just buy this and think about it later

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2007

Verified Purchase

Blender is a free open source 3d application that includes a complete compositing and non-linear video editing system, with a ton of user-created extensions, plugins, scripts, tutorials and guides. However it can be intimidating to people starting out and let's face it, you have to be pretty motivated to teach yourself anything (downloading and collecting all the files you need to start, finding a good tutorial to get started, peering back and forth between two screens if you're lucky to look between the web page and blender as you slowly pick it up after a few weeks. it's annoying there are so few print resources for this amazing tool that collect everything in one place. combing blender with a program like aftereffects and photoshop and you are a one-man production studio. you don't even need that great a computer.

so anyway, this is a complete class in a book. The price is ridiculous, at a minimum because it includes many files and programs that although are free, most people either haven't heard about or are too lazy to find all together. it is excellently written, with great diagrams and a long section of glossy color renders, and really "gets it" in terms of focusing on the aspects of blender you will need to know for character rendering and modeling in general. THIS BOOK WILL TEACH YOU 3D ANIMATION FROM THE GROUND UP. while never insulting your intelligence. incredible value for what it is and even advanced users can get a lot out of it. highly recommended

26 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mr. Trevor Noble

Good quality

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2023

perfect

Not a blender artist? Don't bother!

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2010

Verified Purchase

I am very frustrated with the book.

I am new to blender, and the 3D modeling thing. I really tried to follow the first three chapters. The author explains all the concepts and even reasons for doing certain things (for example to aid in animation later on).

However the style of teaching where you must follow the directions precisely, copying everything vertex by vertex, unfortunately does not work for this book. The illustrations/diagrams/screenshots or whatever you want to call them - are very poor. When you are told to position your vertices exactly as in the Figure A, and half of figure A's vertices are missing (see Figure 2.11 - on top of eyes) - then what am I to do?

If you are experienced with Blender, perhaps you can "make up" the hidden parts of the diagrams and keep up with the author.
Unfortunately as best as I tried, my models always came up crooked, incorrect and just plain frustrating.

I got through about 60 pages, and yet again failed to draw "Captain Blender".

Also, when I requested the author to send me the step-by-step model to follow along with a tutorial - I only got the final model as a result (with hundreds of vertices, subsurfing etc..). What good does that do me to learn how to Create such a model?

In any case I cannot in my good conscience recommend this book to anyone, because they will just get frustrated and give up. I am not trying to be negative or anything - but writing this to anyone, who like me, wants to learn Blender modeling.
All the positive reviews here are misleading. Beware. I don't know what book they read - but it wasn't this one.

Maybe it's just the way artists teach? Leaving some important things out... I am a computer scientist so I wouldn't know.

The reason I gave it 2 stars (instead of 1) is because the 1st chapter and 1/2 was excellent.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Ashtree

Flawed, but still an essential purchase for the Blender user!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2007

Verified Purchase

I reviewed this book when it was first released, and gave it a 5-star review. I've come back to edit that review because, in retrospect, I realise that I was so delighted to find ANY book on Blender character animation that I overlooked some definite flaws. I now rate it as 4-star (but while Amazon allows me to revise my wording, it won't let me change the number of stars.)

I've recently been working through the book again, and have come back to give the following revised review.
==========================

For several years, I downloaded Blender on a regular basis, tried to learn how to use it, and gave up because I found it far too difficult.

The appearance of this book changed that. Now for the first time, I 'get' Blender, and see that its quirky and apparently non-intuitive interface really makes a lot of sense.
I'm also even more awestruck at how jaw-droppingly good Blender actually is. Yes, this FREE downloadable program is shockingly *better* than 3D software packages I've purchased at several hundred pounds/dollars a shot.

This book takes you all the way on your journey, from the interface basics, to modeling your figure, to full-fledged animation. I highly recommend it, and would go so far as to say that it *is* an essential purchase for a Blender user.

There are a few minor annoyances - not everything that's supposed to be on the accompanying disk is actually there, and there are a few minor typos scattered through out the text and places where the instructions could have been a little clearer.

Sadly there are some that are not quite so minor. For example in setting up the rig to animate my model, I followed the instructions exactly, yet always ended up with a rig that just didn't work. After many, many frustrating attempts, I loaded up the author's figure from the accompanying disk, and checked through it bone by bone...

And found that an important set of bones in the author's rig were set up differently from the instructions in the book. I guess the sentence about re-parenting the hand IK bones must have dropped out somewhere.

Thereafter, having wasted days trying to figure out what was going wrong, I kept two instances of Blender open. In one, I had my own work-in-progress, in the other I had the author's model, and I kept comparing them every step of the way.

I would go so far as to say that if you don't have the accompanying disk, this book will be... well, not *useless*, but you'll never succeed in following the projects it outlines.

In spite of the above, I still think it's currently the best (uh... the only?) book available on Blender Character animation. I still think it's a must-buy for someone trying to learn Blender. But I would add this caution: Make sure you get a version that includes the disk of examples (ie, don't get a second-hand book where the disk has gone astray, and don't get an electronic download (which doesn't include the material on the disk.)

Because of the errata, I now rate this book at 4 stars, but so long as you heed the caution about needing (and using) the disk, I would still recommend it highly.

8 people found this helpful

CoverTopic

Introducing Character Animation with Blender

Reviewed in Germany on March 4, 2011

Verified Purchase

Ehrlich gesagt mag ich Bücher nicht in denen über mehrere Kapitel ein ganzes, fertiges Beispiel erstellt wird, lieber ist mir wenn es sich um kleine geschlossene Beispiele handeln die jeweils ein Thema behandeln. Das hat Tony Mullen im Buch "Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!" besser gelöst. Trotzdem ist das Buch gut geschrieben und die nötigen Informationen lassen sich problemlos rauslesen. Das Ziel Charakter Animation zu erlernen wird erreicht, wenn vielleicht auch nicht so wie es der Autor vorsieht. Nämlich durch nacharbeiten des Beispiels.

Trotz vieler, mir zum Teil zu langer, Erklärungen ist das Buch mit sinnvollen Informationen gefüllt. Tony Mullen ist dafür bekannt Profiwissen verständlich, anhand von Beispielen, zu vermitteln. Und da ist auch dieses Buch keine Ausnahme! Vergleichbar gute und tiefgreifende Tutorials sucht man im Internet oft vergebens.

Einige wird es freuen das hier auch relativ ausführlich auf das organische Modellieren eingegagen wird. Mich hat es leider eher gestört hat, weil es nicht der Grund war warum ich das Buch lesen wollte.

Nach "Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!" - das wirklich mal ein interessantes Spezialgebiet gekonnt abdeckt, ist es definitiv eines der besten Bücher für Blender.

ACHTUNG: Dieses Buch bezieht sich auf die Blender Version 2.4.x. Eine Neuauflage für Blender 2.5 (oder 2.6) des Buches ist bereits in Arbeit. Die Techniken die man in dieser Version des Buches lernt lassen sich zwar auch in 2.5 anwenden, allerdings sollte man dann schon bereit sein auszuprobieren, inwiefern sich das Benutzerinterface sich geändert hat. Generell ist aber der Umstieg von 2.4 zu 2.5 reine Umgewöhnungssache. Wenn man aber bisher ausschließlich mit 2.5 gearbeitet hat, ist es evtl. besser die Neuauflage (vor-) zu bestellen.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

Keyboard Gnome

Blissfully Clear & straightforward

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2011

Verified Purchase

I found Blender 3D baffling at the start. And despite perseverance 'found the first book I got just added to the problem. But thankfully not this one. Tony Mullen has a no nonsense, blissfully straightforward style. His exercises and guides are easy to follow (no peering at the screen and wondering where he'd found such-and-such a button) and learning is near-effortless. And "near-effortless" is as good as its going to get with as powerful a program as Blender! I see he's already produced an edition for the latest version of Blender, but using this 2007 book with my recently update (Blender 2.56) isn't proving a problem.

So if you're keen to learn Blender animation, this book can take you from newbie to modelling, texturing, lighting and animating in a well paced way.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Rare, but not the best quality.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 6, 2007

Verified Purchase

This book was like a treasure uncovered in the as yet mostly uncharted water of Blender character modelling and animation. I was delighted to buy it and work my way though almost 95% of the book. However, this was not a painless task!!! Many of the tasks and instructions are either based on a previous, now defunct version of Blender, if you install the latest one available on the website. Part of it just seemed to be carelessly written. After much struggling, as a newbie in this area, I realised that the book's basic flaw is that is it written by an obvious expert for experts. By this I mean that the content might not always be de facto incorrect... just not explained in a way that would make sense to someone who has no Blender knowledge or experience as context to make sense of it.

It is a shame that specimens like this achieve acclaim purely because there is not much else available on this subject.

4 people found this helpful

Andy

Was hoping to get into Blender but haven't managed it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2016

Verified Purchase

Was hoping to get into Blender but haven't managed it

See more reviews

Buy new: $39.00$39.00 FREE delivery: April 11 - 17 Ships from: admire Sold by: admire

Buy used: $15.21

Follow the author

Introducing Character Animation with Blender 1st Edition

There is a newer edition of this item:

Purchase options and add-ons

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Tony Mullen

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$39.00

FREE delivery: April 11 - 17

Ships from: admire

Sold by: admire

Buy used:

$15.21