Rating: 
Summary: Awesome book!
Review: Mastering the Art of Production with 3ds max 4 is definatly worth every penny! The instructions are clearly written and easy to follow (not to mention pictures of basically every step). The entire book is about creating a 30 second commercial for a company. It even explains working with clients! Anyone who wants to sharpen their skills with 3dsmax, this is the book to get. Also, the book has a section on Combustion for post-production.
Rating:
Summary: Unique!
Review: That's the first book that covers every step in creating a proffessional project. About 250 pages dedicated to modelling, an excellent guide to maxscript that helps you create menus that simplyfy the animation stage later on, riging-skinning, camera tracking and even an Combustion section for making the final cut...
The only thing I would have loved to see in addition were some hints for the "Visual Maxscript editor" which looked very promising to me.
Anyway... It's a must buy for every max artist who's ready to mature his skills as well as an excellent book even for newbies.
Rating:
Summary: I dont know what some of these people are talking about
Review: This book is a no brainer 5. He who gives it any less is just out to get somebody or has a hard time with comprehension. As for the C++ error on the previous review maybe you should contact your *discreet resaler* :) . The C++ error has nothing to do with the book, what you are describing works fine on my system. This book is extremely easy to understand and actually fun to read. I would highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book Ever!!!
Review: This book to me is the greatest book I had ever bought.
I bought the combo. Mastering the Art of Production with 3ds max 4 and Modeling a Character in 3DS Max. These two books are the greatest books on the face of the earth. I opened up Mastering the Art of Production with 3ds max 4, and In the first few tutorials I can now actually box model. It has step-by-step tutorials from begining to end. The greatest tutorials for 3ds Max. I am happy that I have bought this book. It is the greatest book ever. If I could go higher I would rate it 5+.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book Overall
Review: This is a good book overall. It basically takes you through the whole book like you are a professional 3d Artist and you have just received a job from a major company to design a commercial. The book takes you step by step through the whole process from design, to the final render. In my opinion this book is not the idea book for beginners. It was my first book to buy, and after finsishing it I sat at my desk wondering to my self, "What now?" It explains everything well, but it only explains a tool for the purpose of using it in the example givin. So when you finsh the book, you know how to do the things in the book, but as for creating something other then what is givin your left in the dark. Mainly because you only know how to use a certain tool for a certain object. The lighting section is very week too. After completing this book I still have no clue on how to light a scene properly. So I say if your a Newbie to 3d Studio, get another book first. Then come back and get this book. Everyone is diferent in the way they learn. But you should definetly buy this book some time in your life.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as great as some say
Review: Well I bought this book mainly because of the "rave" reviews it got here on Amazon. While I'm not done with it yet, I'm less than impressed with many things I've encountered so far. The authors seem to spend more time talking about things that are irrelevant and spend little time pointing out details which are important (worse yet they leave it to the user to decide only to have it be something that can't simply be "just anything") While the intro chaoters seem good, I'm having some problems with the modeling part of the exercises. I'm hoping that the book gets better but I'm not sure if I'll even bother sticking with it. First of all, the reference for the models (front view, side view) dont even match each other. So great, you have to stay in one viewport when "following the book" or else your model gets distorted worse and worse as the steps progress. the book has many "vague" areas where it leaves modelling up to the user, but in a few cases it has implications on steps down the road. So great you have to go back and re-tweak a step in the model like 6 -10 steps earlier! arrgh. Also the figures are never cited in the text ("as shown in figure..") so you have text, and you have pictures. Its up to you to correlate them. Now I'm trying to model the alien, and on page 108 you have to slice plane cut the Poly model. Problem is, if I get a max fatal runtime C++ error every time I try to chamfer the damn edge (the very next step). SO great, I have to deviate from the book in ordr to avoid the error. Problem now is, all of the successive divide steps do NOT create the same edges the book shows. So basically I'm [messed up]. arrrgh. Well we'll see what what happens, but frankly I'm so dissapointed with this book, I may just move on to something else. It might still be good for nitpicking out some details, but it terms of making the "production" ... well looks like it won't be happinin. I recommend you borrow this from a friend or buy it used.
Rating:
Summary: Not as great as some say
Review: Well I bought this book mainly because of the "rave" reviews it got here on Amazon. While I'm not done with it yet, I'm less than impressed with many things I've encountered so far. The authors seem to spend more time talking about things that are irrelevant and spend little time pointing out details which are important (worse yet they leave it to the user to decide only to have it be something that can't simply be "just anything") While the intro chaoters seem good, I'm having some problems with the modeling part of the exercises. I'm hoping that the book gets better but I'm not sure if I'll even bother sticking with it. First of all, the reference for the models (front view, side view) dont even match each other. So great, you have to stay in one viewport when "following the book" or else your model gets distorted worse and worse as the steps progress. the book has many "vague" areas where it leaves modelling up to the user, but in a few cases it has implications on steps down the road. So great you have to go back and re-tweak a step in the model like 6 -10 steps earlier! arrgh. Also the figures are never cited in the text ("as shown in figure..") so you have text, and you have pictures. Its up to you to correlate them. Now I'm trying to model the alien, and on page 108 you have to slice plane cut the Poly model. Problem is, if I get a max fatal runtime C++ error every time I try to chamfer the damn edge (the very next step). SO great, I have to deviate from the book in ordr to avoid the error. Problem now is, all of the successive divide steps do NOT create the same edges the book shows. So basically I'm [messed up]. arrrgh. Well we'll see what what happens, but frankly I'm so dissapointed with this book, I may just move on to something else. It might still be good for nitpicking out some details, but it terms of making the "production" ... well looks like it won't be happinin. I recommend you borrow this from a friend or buy it used.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a complete animation book on MAX
Review: What an impressive book! This thing has everything... modeling, character setup, skinning, sophisticated material design, MAXScript, animation, rendering tips, and post-production (a full chapter on Combustion!). There are even Photoshop tutorials on the CD along with great information on net rendering. This book is excelletly executed. It has been a complete joy to work through. I wish other authors would pick up on this type of book and write more books like it. Mastering holds your hand through every step of a complete production and it does it well! I've learned quite a bit and hope to see other books like this.
Rating:
Summary: Highest Possible Recommendation.
Review: When you will receive the book. You first toughts will be.
"that book is not that thick, there must be an error..." Dont let that fool you. The book is really a big 630 pages. I have bought other max books and this one is one of the top books i would recommend. My recipee so far to learn max. Visual quickstart guide for max 4. This book will get you up and running. Modeling a caracter in 3d studio max.Different modeling techniques from Paul Steed. And this book. I have other ones but they do not compare to these 3 books so far. Ok enuff of the cheap pops. Inside you will have tons of photos, maxscripts, and a nice companion cd to boot. Also in this amazing book you will learn: Business side of the 3d business, do's and don'ts.
An Overview of what you should do to save time and money and to make money. Modeling: the set up (virtual studio) tutorial alone is worth the price of the book. This set up for reference and modeling is the easiest one i have seen yet and it does not take forever to do too. You learn many modeling techniques...box modeling..splines etc..etc...etc.. You learn max scripts and how to apply them to your works.
If you ever wondered how to make wheel turns on a car in max or how to make tank tracks turns, there is a script in the book that makes it happen. You learn to build interfaces to animate your caracters. You learn texturing and mapping. And there is a cool set up for lighting that makes your animation look like real stuff not like the usual plastic look that you see in the usual 3d images. You learn how to use enveloppes and skining and how to bone your caracters for animations. You learn rendering and post production to combustion wich is a great tutorial by the way. In fact this books cover most of the stuff that took me 3 other books to get info on. I am forgetting stuff but this book is top of the line and the authors should do more books on max that way. The only thing missing was a chapter on caracter studio. That should have been in the book since most people use caracter studio to animate their work, but they still give you the basics to make your single caracter work. Chapter by chapter here it is: Chapter 1: the job
Chapter 2: modeling the remote control
Chapter 3: modeling the alien
Chapter 4: modeling the rover
Chapter 5: introduction to maxscripts
Chapter 6: technical set up for thr rover
Chapter 7: skeletal set up for the alien
Chapter 8: alien skinning and defromation
Chapter 9: alien ui control system
Chapter 10: camera tracking
Chapter 11: texturing and lighting
Chapter 12: animation and rendering
Chapter 13:postproduction with combustion There it is all you need to make a cool animation. My highest possible recommendation!!!!!!!!!!!
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