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Rating: 
Summary: lush and beautiful
Review: A lush, beautiful introduction to the world of 3D. Perfect for newbies and those just wondering what 3D is all about. Plus it includes a Cinema 4D tutorial (building a photo-realistic pool cue).This book left me wanting more from this publisher and this author.
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Summary: Digital 3D Design!
Review: Danaher, computer artist, writer, and educator, creates an excellent introduction to the principles and terminology of 3D computer illustration. With 500 full-color illustrations and clearly written text, it is the best primer for understanding how artists and designers use 3D computer software to create animations, illustrations, and models. The format, index, and glossary also make it useful as a resource. Danaher includes a brief history of how artists represented the 3D world in 2D illustrations, followed by a survey of today's most popular software for animation and rendering. Secondly, he explains core concepts such as nurbs, Bezier splines, ray tracing, and radiosity, to name a few. Each concept is explained in a two-page spread including simple computer illustrations. Although this is not a software spec how-to book, Danaher offers "simple lessons" such as modeling parametrics, Booleans, and animation and texture mapping. He also introduces Web 3D including topics such as VRML, Cult 3D, and Hypercosm. Finally, he showcases a portfolio of computer renderings, including three illustrations by the author that are breathtaking. An appealing book for anyone who wants to gain a basic understanding of the concepts of 3D computer visualization. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; professionals; two-year technical program students.
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Summary: Fantastic Introduction to 3D Terms and Concepts
Review: Digital 3D Design is like a visual dictionary for the 3D design world. Out of all the 3D books I own, this is the one I recommend the most in teaching 3D and animation classes (with Bill Fleming's Photorealistic Toolkit a close second!). It covers concepts and terms (introductory and advanced) in very clear and concise ways, fully illustrated. It discusses all the major 3D packages, including Maya, LightWave, Cinema 4DXL, ElectricImage, SoftImage and others, discussing advantages of each. It covers views, 3D space, lighting, shading, textures, resolution, UV mapping, splines, curves, polygons, points, advanced modeling concepts, raytracing, rendering, radiosity, setting up skeletons, animation, inverse kinematics--everything you'd expect if you were looking for the ideal textbook for a 3D class (I'm using it for my modeling and animation classes). All this for around less than $30. A book every 3D designer, and instructor, should own! Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive for beginner
Review: Over the past couple of months I've read a small pile of computer graphics books from the "Inspired" and New Riders [digital] series and others. I would put 3D design in the position of being one of the first practial how-to books a beginner should work with. Each section is clearly laid out, doesn't confuse with too much detail, and helps you gently step into CG. This book will get you oriented and everything after this will just be deeper studies in specific areas.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive for beginner
Review: Over the past couple of months I've read a small pile of computer graphics books from the "Inspired" and New Riders [digital] series and others. I would put 3D design in the position of being one of the first practial how-to books a beginner should work with. Each section is clearly laid out, doesn't confuse with too much detail, and helps you gently step into CG. This book will get you oriented and everything after this will just be deeper studies in specific areas.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive for beginner
Review: Over the past couple of months I've read a small pile of computer graphics books from the "Inspired" and New Riders [digital] series and others. I would put 3D design in the position of being one of the first practial how-to books a beginner should work with. Each section is clearly laid out, doesn't confuse with too much detail, and helps you gently step into CG. This book will get you oriented and everything after this will just be deeper studies in specific areas.
Rating:
Summary: For Rank Beginners(and that's a good thing!)
Review: The BEST book out there for beginning 3D artists. Period. Should be included with all 3D software packages. If you're thinking about getting into 3D design, buy this first!!!!!!
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