Digital Character Animation

Rating:
Summary: No animator's shelf is complete without it.
Review: George Maestri does a wonderful job. I personally recommend "Digital Character Animation" to anyone interested in the ART of character animation. Finally one of our own (traditional cel animator) writes a practical guide to digital animation. As an added bonus the book is richly illustrated in full color. This book is a work of art.

Rating:
Summary: No animator's shelf is complete without it.
Review: George Maestri does a wonderful job. I personally recommend "Digital Character Animation" to anyone interested in the ART of character animation. Finally one of our own (traditional cel animator) writes a practical guide to digital animation. As an added bonus the book is richly illustrated in full color. This book is a work of art.

Rating:
Summary: No one should be without it!
Review: George Maestri have succeded in writing a good explanatory book. It handles the complex matter of character animation well, and it is also application independent all the way. The best part , according to me, is the chapter that explains how the character design makes a character believable. A plus is all the pictures that goes with the examples and the explanations about the differences between different modelling techniques. Keep up the good work, George!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have read on Character Animation
Review: I felt that this book not only was excellently written and organized but also offered many tips and tricks to anyone in the field. The subject matter is easily inderstood and can be followed and used in many different situations. I myself do not have the hardware or software capable of anything higher than free form modelling-(limited) with Ray Dream Studio 4.0, however I now have the knowledge and the understanding of how the different tools work when I do work with the higher end software and hardware. Overall this book makes for an excellent reference and should be on everyone's desk if they plan on working in this field.

Rating:
Summary: excellent for beginner to mid level animators
Review: I purchased this book to learn how to animate realistic characters and this book is excellent for that purpose. The full color pages are excellent and the explanations are easy to understand. The book is not geared toward any animation package in particular, so I think it is applicable to many platforms. All in all, a pleasure to read.

Rating:
Summary: Very fine book, but missing a little bit.
Review: I will probably be using this book for a class in 3D animation that I teach. However, as good as it is, and it is excellent, I wish it was just a bit more technical, and perhaps up to date. In an environment that changes constantly, all of the author's concepts are sound and will last forever. However, more technical detail, especially in something like IK, would make this book perfect.

Rating:
Summary: I love your book George
Review: I'm a beginner in the field of computer animation... Your book is a must have for all those who are just starting out in computer animation.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Introduction
Review: It's a good introduction to creating and using 3D animated characters. Although I love doing 3D art, 3D animation isn't a hobby I plan to start any time soon. I just don't have the time or money! So this book that I got about five years ago needs to be set free.

Rating:
Summary: Superb. Clear. Concise. Beautiful Graphics.
Review: The book is wonderfully presented. Every page is thoughtfully presented in an orderly and clearly illustrated format. As a longtime Mac user and as an Architect, Digital Character Animation has successfully accomplished the task of conveying thoughts and images from the book to us, the reader...an objective that so many of my colleagues have failed in their many words and drawings.In this rapidly changing world - with short attention spans the apparent norm, I've read Digital Character Animation over and over since I purchased it last week. I highly recommend this book, and look forward to other books by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This book is a complete joy to read. The author explains things in plain, easy to understand terms, and when i'm done reading a chapter, i fully retain everything i've read. He covers just about every aspect of character animation, which no other book does as well. It's full of color photos that explain his techniques, which are invaluable. I am never left confused. Although the book uses a variety of software, the majority of screenshots seem to be Softimage, and 3D Studio MAX a close second.