Reviews (2)

Ok as an additional reference to MaxScript
This book gives a good overview of some of the new changes to the MaxScript system with the release of Max 8.
Very Good for the New or Rusty
As an artist whose programming skills have waned over the years, I found this a very good refresher on the basics while introducing maxscript specific functions.The tutorials and lessons are very easy to follow along with and they cover a very large amount of the possibilities that maxscript offers. Be prepared to refer to the excellent maxscript documentation included with 3ds max, as the book references topics to learn more in-depth usages. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Other Applications    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computers - Other Applications    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Technology    6. Television & Video    7. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    8. Image processing: computer animation   

Reviews (9)

great book
I just received my copy, this is not much of a review but I have a question, i will update this as soon as i have my review.
"from Concept to Completion" is TRUE!
This is a great book on completing a project, it helps in every respect, lots of tutorials, references, information, examples etc....
It delivers what the cover claims
He shows how he developed, boarded, modeled, textured, rigged & animated the 3 figures shown on the cover. He doesn't wander off on side issues, nor does he gloss over the tricky parts. The book comes with a CD of usable models and scenes so you can see what and how he did it.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: Web Programming    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Interactive & Multimedia    7. Multi-Media Hardware & Software    8. Animation    9. Computers / Computer Animation    10. Image processing: computer animation   

Reviews (8)

Great reference, but not inspiring at all!
I bought this book with another book in mind, Alias' book on their program Maya. That book is a project-based heap of tutorials on their software. And since this book is also written by the people behind the program, i thought it would be as inspiring, but i was proven wrong. Don't be put off by this though; if you want a thick book for reference of all the basic functions, go for it. If on the other hand you're easily put off by excessive technical details and just want to get your hands dirty ASAP (like me) you should consider another book. Regarding the lack of inspiration, i would like to inform you about the structure of things. The book doesn't really have you model a lot on your own, but rather refers to tutorial files on the cd and use them to explain basic functions. I can't say it too many times, the whole book should be based around an interesting project where each chapter introduces you to the basic functions while you actually feel like you're doing something useful, e.g. making a part of the project. A plus to the book though is that you are free to read/do the modules in any order you'd like, and the book is made for the ease of doing so.

This book will guide you step by step
This book is really good. I always wanted to learn about 3dsmax, but it was like using a program written in Chinese. This book will help any beginner start with the right foot.

3ds max 7 Fundamentals and Beyond Courseware
This book is great learnd so much and esy to follow. Amazon sent exactly what I orderd and in a timely manner. All in All compleatly satisfied.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Computer Graphics    7. Computer graphics software    8. Computers - General    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / General   

Reviews (2)

How to do Professional Quality Annimation
As can be seen from looking at any list of movies there has been a dramatic increase in the number of annimated films. Of course this comes from the advailability of powerful software to assist in the production of such films rather than the manual drawing required in earlier days.
From devising a story and storyboards to rigging characters and animation
Chris Neuhahn and Josh Book's Professional Short Films With Autodesk 3DS Max teaches how to use the tools in 3ds Max to create short films, from devising a story and storyboards to rigging characters and animation, using different techniques in the process, and editing to produce a polished product. An actual film, Vacant Planet: a Curious Bit of Scrap, is used as a case study and files on the accompanying DVD-ROM help users develop their own stories for an animated tale. You have to have prior 3ds Max basics down to benefit: this is for the user who wants to move on to more professional pursuits in the short film format.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Design    4. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    5. Computer Graphics - General    6. Computer graphics    7. Computers    8. Computers - Other Applications    9. Animation    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    11. Image processing: computer animation   

Subjects:  1. 3ds max (Computer file)    2. Computer Animation    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - Other Applications    8. Microcomputer Graphics    9. Computer Software Packages    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    11. Image processing: computer animation   

Reviews (6)

What an Amazing Book!
I got through, maybe the first eighty pages before I realized that I hardly new anything about lighting.This author is the master.He understands and explains real light so well that any artist could walk away with a brand new understanding of how to light.I never new before how inadequate MAX lights are, and how much has to be done to make them work like real lights.Now I know.My lighting will always be better and I owe a debt of gratitude to the author.

A valuable resource
As a newcomer to 3DS Max, I was delighted to find this wonderful book to teach me about how to use lights properly.The author has written the book to give beginners a good grounding in lighting theory, and follows that with numerous examples of how to use lights to effectively light scenes.
you can judge this book by its cover
This book is really not very good at all. Looking at the cover you can see the standard of lighting in the book is not going to be great. The examples consist largely of scenes constructed from primitive spheres and cubes and don't go into any real depth...they are so far removed from real-world production problems that it is laughable. This is no surprise when you discover that the author has actually written a book on Lightwave lighting and though his production experience is fairly lengthy, these all seem to be Lightwave productions, as there is nothing within this book to suggest that the author's knowledge of 3ds max is anything but cursory. I think that if the makers of 3ds max saw this book they would be very disappointed that a book is available that makes their great application look so very very bad. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 3ds max (Computer file)    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer animation    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - Other Applications    8. General    9. Computer graphics software    10. Computers / General   

Reviews (5)

Practically USELESS!
Read the review by "Bob - The guy from nowhere".It's the most accurate description of this book.
Broad overview of the animation business & current software
This book is designed to give a broad discussion about breaking into the 3D animation industry (esp. in large media meccas like NYC and LA) as well as review three of the most popular and powerful 3D software packages currently available - 3ds max, LightWave, and Alias Maya.
A better title would have been-
'How to set up and run a video production studio' -- the main problem with this book is it cover so much it only gives the briefest coverage of anything. He covers subjects as basic as surge protectors and laptop computers, printers, scanners.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Television & Video    8. Technology / Television & Video   

Reviews (4)

Excellent Learning Resource
I've been teaching 3D Computer Graphics for over 7 years.Just this summer I began teaching 3DS Max. I went out and purchased almost every general book out there on Max.This book was great. Although it won't make a person an expert on Max, nor does it have long tutorials, it is an excellent reference book and a great resource for my students in my introduction to 3D Modeling & Animation course.
Ok
I guess I was expecting more tutorials with this book. It is good for newbies. If you have a general understanding of the software you might be disapointed.

Easy to Find Information
Every feature that I wanted to learn about was easy to find and understand.Most tasks are broken down into 2 or 4 pages and every step was outlined clearly.I didn't have to work through and entire chapter just to find the procedure for the task that I was looking for.This book helped me out a lot. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer animation    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - Other Applications    8. Computer graphics software    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design   

Reviews (31)

Don't be Misled by the Hype!
I purchased this book a couple of months ago. Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed with Steed's approach. I found his methods of modeling to be cumbersome to say the least. It seems as if the book has not been updated since the first edition to reflect the many changes now available in 3ds Max 6 or 7 (I don't mention 8 because the book was written BEFORE 8).
Modeling A Character in 3DS Max, 2nd Edition
I was expected more model of the book but the whole book only teached one model

not great, but not the worst either
I got this book 2 years ago when it was hyped as being top notch for learning 3D modeling. On the postive side it is easy to understand and gives you a good idea of the entire process of making a character rather than just jumping around and trying to explain a hundred different unrelated things like other 3D modeling books. The bad part is that the modeling technics are a bit dated and backwards. A person who posted a previous review mentioned that he uses wierd modeling techniques like booleans and splines instead of regular box modeling, and that is the truth. He also wastes A LOT of time turning edges. If you model in quads (4 sided polys) to begin with, and then teselate (triangulate) then its all done for you automatically. And as mentioned previously not much time was spent on the concepts of uv unwrapping and creating the image map. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 3ds max (Computer file)    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer animation    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - Other Applications    8. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    9. Image processing: computer animation   

Reviews (2)

Good as it gets
This is the second 3d max book that I have read by Ted.Excellent resource on lighting, materials, Reactor, and modeling.What I like most is the very insightful tips and strategies used by Ted.He does not hold back sharing his ideas on how to get the best geometry while conserving file size and polygons.On lighting, he shows a real neat tip on reducing rendering time with ray traced shadows.A lot of good tips are dispersed throughout this book.Ted also doesn't disappoint with the tutorials. They are easy to follow and include sample files for all steps.The only thing is that I wish Ted would use better spacing when writing the turtorials.The steps seem to run together and make it difficult to glance the copy while operating in 3d max. This is a book I would recommend.But don't believe that any book on 3d Max fundamentals can cover everything.It can't.Nevertheless, you get your money's worth here.

Good but hard to understand
I am sure the author covers the funamentals well but it is too technical. If I had a background in 3D modeling then I would be able to follow along but then I would not need this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 3ds max (Computer file)    2. Computer Animation    3. Computer Books And Software    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - Desktop Publishing    8. Microcomputer Graphics    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design   

Reviews (10)

Lousy
It's rare I give a book such low marks, but this one really shows what a lousy book is like.This simplistic text doesn't go into very much detail on any topics, leaving all but the greenest novice looking elsewhere for assistance.This book serves only to annoy me when I look for answers because it has none to give.
Response to review
As someone who worked on the editorial side of this book, I was surprised to read in a review that files weren't available. I checked courseptr.com, downloaded the files, and opened many of them and they worked perfectly, so I'm not sure what that particular reviewer is talking about. If you have an earlier version of 3ds Max (6 or 7), you can't use the "regular" files because 3ds Max 6 and 7 can't open 3ds Max 8 files. However, you can use the separate download file called "Data Files for Versions 6 and 7 of 3ds Max."
Very poor! Save your Money!!!
- The files for the tutorials are not available online, I tried many times until I gave up.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 3ds max (Computer file)    2. 3ds max (Computer software)    3. Computer Animation    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Interactive & Multimedia    8. Computers / Interactive Media    9. General Theory of Computing   

Reviews (10)

GOOD book
i just got this book today and i have read the first few chapters..This book is exceedingly good for n00b(me)...they explain all the tools in detail. if you just look at the size of this book, it has more than 1000 pages,this is a good deal for sure.However, the tuts are really simple and short, so if u already know the basic aspects of 3ds, then get a diff book..otherwise, AN AWESOME BOOK FOR NOOBS!!!

Excellent book, a sigh of relief!
I'd just like to say that i am extreamly pleased to have bought this book.I am a begginer to 3d Max, and i have bought books on max's previous release (3) and have not understood much of what i was being "tought"...with this book, it has set me on the way and has made me more than competant, while making me understand most of what i have read.Im no professional, but this book has made me feel at ease, and like i am starting to know the program now, and how it all works.... Almost perfect ...for beginners that is...
I based this book on the reviews from the users here on AMAZON, and I must say that they were accurate.Read more

Subjects:  1. 3ds max (Computer file)    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computer Graphics - 3D Studio    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computer animation    6. Computer graphics    7. Computers    8. Computers - Desktop Publishing    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    10. Image processing: computer animation   

Reviews (7)

Excellent for all beginners.
I've spent 13 years working in 3D computer graphics, but never once touched 3D Studio Max. A couple of weeks ago I had a hankering to start, and needed a book to guide me. A few false starts later, and I came across Sams "Teach Yourself" book. It's excellent. There's a couple of minor problems with it though they don't detract from the book. (Some of the images in the sections about shapes are very difficult to de-cipher). There's no CD with the book, but everything is downloadable from their website mentioned in the first chapter. If you need an easy way into 3DS Max, this is the book you should use. By the third evening with the book, I was already producing some pretty nifty renders, much to my wife's dismay. Now not only do I spend a lot of time playing RollerCoaster Tycoon, I spend a lot of time with Max too.....

fabulous first time MAX tutorial
Whether you are new to 3d modeling entirely, or just trying to convert your skills from some other 3d modeling package to MAX, this book is a great first-time MAX introduction. Buy this book now! This was a great book....and I intend to buy it!
I've spent hours on the internet looking thru hordes of internet tutorials to find that I have failed to complete a single one...what am I looking for you ask?A 3ds max for dummies...but since I havn't seen one of those this book will suffice, if your a dummy, like me, and need complete explinations then this book is for you, and for me as well!! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 3D studio    2. Computer Books: Desktop Publish    3. Computer Graphics - 3D Studio    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computer animation    6. Computers    7. Computers - Desktop Publishing    8. Interactive & Multimedia    9. Microcomputer Graphics    10. Multi-Media Hardware & Software   

Reviews (1)

Great Upgrade Book
This is a great book that focuses on some under-appreciated but powerful features within 3ds max 8 aimed at speeding up and streamlining production.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - 3D Studio    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Computers - Other Applications    8. General    9. Interactive & Multimedia    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    11. Image processing: computer animation    12. Multimedia   

Reviews (9)

Clear, yet detailed. A great product indeed.
I have about 20 to 25 books on max and only 2 other books have valuted my skill level as high as this CD has done. great stuff
Wanderfull! I finally really doing it! Absoutely Essential for the serious learner
This CD has greatly improved my modelling skills and knowledge in max. It is like having a teacher there showing you and explaining every step, with the advantage of rewinding as many times as you need to. I would recommend this to the beginner of max modelling. It has certanily helped me out a long way. And Tim Kugler provides great support as well.Read more

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    3. 3D studio    4. Computer Bks - Desktop Publishing    5. Computer Graphics - 3D Studio    6. Computer Graphics - General    7. Computer animation    8. Computers   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Programming - General    7. Computer graphics software    8. Computers / Programming / General    9. Image processing: computer animation   

Reviews (3)

A very solid overall book
As a member of Discreet Training Specialist team I have reviewed many books that deal with 3ds max through the years. Although I do not teach "from" a book, I do use this book as a reference in a few of my classes. Good Book!
This is a very good book, that covers a lot of different stuff.It really does cover most topics quite well, and has lots of good tips.

dont buy this book
well this book, dont like me, is very short, and dont have nothing new, if you want a good book for learn 3ds (beginer) buy 3d bible or something like that, becaus this book dont help you... is better read tutorials online than buy this kind of books..Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications   

Reviews (4)

A Great Book for 3DS Max Dummies like me.
This is a great book for getting started in 3DS Max 5. I am almost finished with it and have found it to be a great help in learning the program.Some areas could be explained perhaps a bit better, but I was able to follow those areas and the rest of the book fairly easily. Max 5 for Dummies -- Do You Really Want This Book?
Caution, reader.Caution. 3ds max 5 for Dummies leaves much room for improvement
MY BACKGROUND:I'm a Project Manager for former division of EDS and like to DirectX program for fun.I previously had never touched any version of 3ds max/Direct Studio (and had never touched any equivalent software for creating 3-d objects).Read more

Subjects:  1. Animation    2. Computer Bks - Desktop Publishing    3. Computer Books: Desktop Publish    4. Computer Graphics - Design    5. Computer Graphics - General    6. Computer animation    7. Computer graphics    8. Computers - Desktop Publishing    9. Desktop Publishing - General    10. Film & Video - General    11. Microcomputer Graphics    12. Performing Arts    13. Computer Software Packages    14. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    15. Image processing: computer animation   

Reviews (1)

Great Start for Learning Modelling
Well This is a book devoted to modelling in 3DS Max , I am an animator and wanted to know a bit more about modelling and this book is the best there is...I would had given it 5 stars , but it dosent include character modelling techniques , I think a search on the net will give you lots of tutorials on that. This book is about something which I didnt found on the net and thats Design Visulization Modelling , and modelling inorganic things. The book also features a detailed chapter on radiosity as well and tells you how best to use the newer tools avaliable in max. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer graphics    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Computer graphics software   

Editorial Review

3D Studio Max 3 is large, robust, and comprehensive, just like the massive Read more

Reviews (18)

Not For Newbies
I bought this book believing in all the positive reviews and with the hopes of improving my skills in 3D modeling and animation as necessary for my job.While the book does tell plenty about WHAT 3D Max can do, it falls short of explaining EXACTLY HOW to perform many things.Without knowing exact semantics, it is very difficult to find explanations of specific topics.With minimal classroom training under my belt, I find this book worthless in helping me to learn more, without first knowing how to exactly phrase what I am attempting to learn.I now need to buy a 'Dummies' type of book for cross-referencing and for learning the simplest of modeling and animation semantics and techniques so that I can use this book to learn more.
5-Star
Super Condition & Super fast delivery! Newbie Gives Thumbs Up
I'm brand spanking new to modeling and especialy new to Max. Although the terminology used frequently in this book is with those who have learned basic 3D concepts in mind, the book is a great reference as a walk through giving brief explanation of what almost all of the buttons and options do giving a beginner and understanding of how to get around in Max. After making it 60% of the way through the book, I have now successfully constructed and texured my own model however it lacks detail as the book doesn't go very far into modeling technique, but as you might've seen the size of the book, you can see that this information is best left to another guide. The only disappointment I had was that with some of the tutorials the author tends to leave out information with assumption that the reader has been up and modeling for some time. Otherwise, this is an excellent, must have especialy if you don't have the software manuals. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 3D studio    2. Animation    3. Color Computer Graphics    4. Computer Books: Desktop Publish    5. Computer Graphics - 3D Studio    6. Computer Graphics - General    7. Computer animation    8. Computers    9. Computers - Desktop Publishing    10. Internet - Web Site Design    11. Computer graphics software    12. Computer modelling & simulation    13. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    14. Image processing: computer animation