3D Graphics Tutorial Collection (Graphics Series) - Softcover

Mortier, Shamms

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1584500107 ISBN 13: 9781584500100

Publisher: Charles River Media, 2001

Synopsis

As all graphic artists and designers know, every project requires a different set of tools, skills, and applications. In this book designers have access to a collection of 40 graphics tutorials that provide hands-on insights and tips addressing various issues and programs. These tutorials were compiled from the popular Graphics Resource Club and cover a variety of 3D applications as well as 2D support-software including Photoshop and Illustrator. The tutorials are written by a variety of experienced designers who share their ideas and solutions using specific programs. The techniques used in the tutorials can be easily applied to other professional 3D software with similar tools, making this collection a suitable resource for graphic designers of all levels.

About this title

Review

One of the best ways to learn a tool is to look over the shoulder of someone using it. In 3D Graphics Tutorials Collection, you get to watch a variety of artists use a variety of applications. This book is full of tutorials for the 3-D artist on how to use tools ranging from low-priced applications such as Bryce and Poser to Alias|Wavefront's Maya, and everything in between. The tutorials are written by users in the field, and each one offers insight and tips won from hands-on experience. You get lessons in Photoshop to create pseudo-3D images, in Illustrator to create patterns using text, and in 3-D Studio Max for modelling a talking head and learning the basics of animation using Maya.

The good news is that some of the techniques taught using one application can be applied to most others. The bad news is that the diversity of the book is both its strength and its weakness. By spanning such a broad range of applications, there isn't enough on any one of them. Everything from the long-discontinued consumer-level app Ray Dream Studio to the current professional-level Maya application, 3-D Graphics Tutorials Collection attempts to appeal to the widest possible audience. It succeeds at showing new users how projects are done in a variety of applications without their having to buy all those apps. But for a professional artist, it works out to be fairly expensive. Most professionals in the field use one program about 90 per cent of the time, and rely on a handful of supporting applications for the rest of the work. A book that offers only one or two tutorials on the program used the most is hardly a bargain. To add insult to injury, the accompanying CD-ROM includes a free working version of Amapi 4.1, but the book itself doesn't have an Amapi tutorial.

If you're brand-new to the world of 3-D modelling and haven't yet settled on which application to use, 3D Graphics Tutorials Collection will give you a peek into the workings of many. It presents the kind of overview that's not readily available from most books or magazines. --Mike Caputo

Edition details

• Publisher: Charles River Media
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1584500107
• ISBN 13: 9781584500100
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 365