Rating: 
Summary: Really good for begginers!
Review: I want to tell people who want to buy this book to go ahead and do it! I am making a 3D shooter with some friends and I want to learn how to model in 3DS MAX 4. Well, when I got the package i opened it and started to read. The book inspired me and in the beggining Paul is telling you ways of inproving your method of drawing and gives you ideas of how things work. On your way through the book, Paul gives you very helpful tips on using certain tools. I can't stress enough how good this book is for new users, the tutorial is very, very, very step by step. Paul guides you through every single move throughout the book.Some people have reviewed this book as a bad book to by. They have said that this is not the true way of modelling characters. Well in this book Paul does a good job,it is a great starting point, and then you can move onto whatever technique you want. You learn how to use the tools and many different ways of going about making a character in 3DS MAX 3 and 4. I hope this review has inspired you into buying this book. If you do buy it and are glad that you bought, I'm glad and i hope that you creat many creative creatures and characters!
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth it
Review: I'm sorry but this book is written with 3ds max 3 in mind (editable mesh). If you want to model a character today I cannot insist more not to buy this book. I strongly suggest investing your hard-earned dollars on 3ds max 6 animation by barret fox because his way to model a character is much better and in a ~350pages book he even show how to create a scenario, how to rig + animate your characters and the after-production retouches with combustion 3. sorry for my english!
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, a project oriented book
Review: I've only worked through to Chapter 4 so far, but everything is steady as she goes. The main reason I bought the book was because of the writing style (easy-going and with the odd anecdote thrown in) and the fact that the entire book is based on developing one specific character (called Callisto). Too many times I see books that show you how to do anything and everything with the software, but fail to link it all together under a common theme. This book seems to avoid that by getting into the nitty-gritty of creating Callisto from the initial concept drawings to the final texturing. The other bonus I personally am thankful for is the fact the instructions are still applicable with 3D Studio MAX 3. I know release 4 is out but I can't afford to purchase a $4K piece of software at the moment... Finally, since I'm a newbie at 3D Studio Max, some of the discussion is a little over my head at times, but as the author warns, this book is written as a companion to the instruction manuals.
Rating:
Summary: Want to build a character? This is THE book to get!
Review: If you ever wanted to build a character in 3DS max, this is the book you will need, it explains everything with pictures and details every step you need to make to finish the character in the book or make one of your own, I bought this book a couple of months ago from AMAZON and have completed a couple of my own characters using the instruction of this superb book!
Rating:
Summary: Does exactly what it sets out to do...and a bit more :)
Review: If you're new to character modelling and have an entry-level grasp of the 3D Studio Max interface this book was designed for you, without a doubt. If you're more advanced you will very likely get a lot out of it as well, as it's a medley of different techniques and riddled with very helpful hints, but really this book is tailor-made for the novice. Paul has made a point of screen-dumping every step, every dialogue, and making explicit the reasoning behind what he teaches. This makes for a detailed and clear step-by-step map of the process and methods he uses to create his characters. I should add that Studio users may have some difficulty and would be well-advised to familiarise themselves with the Max interface before tackling this one, but unless you know every possible route to character creation it's probably worth the effort. A nice touch is the sprinkling of anecdotal gems thrown in. Steed has had a very public career as a character modeller/animator, and there are a few excellent star-studded stories in the mix as well as the actual education. If you want something that you can sit in your lap and work through you want this book. I recommend this book unreservedly to anyone interested in pursuing this branch of digital art. The design chapter of the book alone is invaluable to you, let alone the technical side, and Paul is amply qualified to hold forth on the subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: -=The Best 3ds Max Modelling Book=-
Review: Ok, let me introduce myself: I am 19, not-native English speaker, and I'm a complete 3ds max newbie. Oh, and I adore Quake3: Arena :)
This book is great - nothing to add :)
Everything is explained in a way, that makes the creation of Callisto model a real joy. As I said - I'm a complete 3ds max newbie and yet - I had no difficulties following the book from the start to the end.
Aw, that Paul Steed is my idol! :))
Since my English is so poor, I will stop writing nonsense and just say:
I passionately recommend this book to anyone, who is willing to become a master 3D designer :)
Rating:
Summary: THE BOOK FOR ALL 3D ARTISTS!
Review: This book is what I've been waiting for ever since I started doing 3d work as a game artist four years ago. This book is good for people of all levels as it's well done and makes learning one of the many ways for modeling fun. My one complaint is it doesn't cover using surface tools for modeling. Surface tools is the widely preferred method of modeling organic shapes but instead covers modeling with primitives. Because of this I don't think it's worth five stars and instead would give it 4.5 stars. My thanks go to Paul Steed!
Rating: 
Summary: A very extensive book but hard to follow...
Review: This is a great book from Quake 3 legend Paul Steed and its incredibly detailed with sujects that range from pencil designs to skinning plus many other helpful tips and tricks along the way. Unfortunatelly the book fell short in the illustration department and its kind of hard editing every vertex, line, face and edge on a 1500+- polygon model with confusing black and white pictures. Atleast for me, a beguinner that doesnt understand edges very well. All in all this is a very complete guide from beguinning to end but unless you have nerves of steel or completely understand how to handle edges without relying too much on the illustrations i wouldnt reccomend it for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Great! Step by Step Guide.
Review: This is a very good book - if you wish to take a step by step (and I do mean step-by-step) approach to modeling the girl that is on the cover. Maybe it should've been called "Model THIS character in 3DS Max". It has a few insights into Paul Steeds head - a few tips and tricks that he uses, some of which I found very useful but nothing that I couldn't have found on some other website or book.
By looking at the process he goes through you can begin to see how it could be used in practical terms. He totally skipped the texture creation portion though. Jumped straight from UV mapping to done!
But all in all it gets the job done. I learned a few things while reading this, and that's all I was expecting anyways. A good book to buy if you are interesting in character modeling, and a MUST BUY if you are interested in modeling supermodels.
http://www.humanistleague.org
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, not that good.
Review: To be honest, I almost bought this book. When I have thought considered for about 2 days at home, I decided No.
Here comes the comments, I don't really like the hair, I always wish to buy a book that is very comprehensive about hair modelling and perfect body modelling. In contrast, the body part which is being modelled of that character is great and quite appealing.
Bad news is, in this book, the polygonal hair is way too bad and unappealing for a game character. Unlike Kate Walker from Syberia, she has a very beautiful perspective because of the realism of her hair(very detailed) and the textures that suit her body structure. Not to say that the textures of the girl in this book is bad, but it looks like a tattoo clumped to her naked torso and legs. Looks so unreal !
And the other things is that, the functions were mostly based on 3DsMax 3, and the functions are slightly different from 3DsMax 4. Just beware of that.
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