Rating: 
Summary: Stay away from this insult to Lightwave.
Review: Not only is this book the worst ever written on Lightwave, but is one of the worst computer books I've ever seen. There are a total of only 264 pages of 'tutorials' (and I use this term generously) that consist of loading models into lightwave, then doing bizarre things to them using Modeler's modifiers - useful things like make a woolly, furry triceratops or a warped, corroded Beethoven bust.Most of the remaining pages are devoted to selling other programs, such as Amorphium and Poser. It appears, when looking through this horrible book, that Shamms Mortier has spent a few moments playing around with the controls in Lightwave, then writting a quick knock-up manual telling what he discovered during those few moments of play. To buy this book would be a horrific waste of money, and an insult to one's intelligence. Actually, the best and most useful part of this book is the last 10 pages - they are completely blank.
Rating:
Summary: Execrable
Review: One look at the cover should have told me everything I needed to know. If the inept rendering of two triceratops and a pickup truck on top of a giant cantelope doesn't scream "DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! THE AUTHOR IS AN INCOMPETENT HACK!!" then I don't know what does. But I bought it anyway. Because I didn't really look at the cover. And I never dreamed that a book this useless, inept, unprofessional, and frankly misguided could ever find its way to print. There had to be *some* value in it, right? Boy was I wrong. The material is weak. Half of the book is a pale rehash of the LW manual, and the other half a compendium of screenshots of various plugins. This Shamms guy seems to have no talent or skill whatsoever at modeling. If indeed he is the one responsible for such polygonal crack-babies as "TekMan," then he should be prohibited by law from ever using any 3d application anywhere, including, but not limited to, playing Doom3 and watching Tron. He shouldn't even be allowed to own a Rubik's Cube. He's a danger both to society and reality. If you see this book in the bookstore, take a flip through it...you'll be astonished at the sheer ineptitude within. You'll wonder how anyone could look at these horrendous images and say "wow, that looks great...I'm gonna put that in my *book*." The incompetence isn't limited to aesthetics; the technique is also flawed. Shamms frequently recommends freezing subpatches, which dramatically increases the polycount and complexity of your mesh, which is generally the opposite of what you want to do--i.e. create a well thought-out and efficient model. (There are exceptions but Shamms freezes as a rule.) Run screaming from "Modeling in Lightwave." This truly is the absolute worst book I own...and I own Dianetics.
Rating:
Summary: Execrable
Review: One look at the cover should have told me everything I needed to know. If the inept rendering of two triceratops and a pickup truck on top of a giant cantelope doesn't scream "DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! THE AUTHOR IS AN INCOMPETENT HACK!!" then I don't know what does. But I bought it anyway. Because I didn't really look at the cover. And I never dreamed that a book this useless, inept, unprofessional, and frankly misguided could ever find its way to print. There had to be *some* value in it, right? Boy was I wrong. The material is weak. Half of the book is a pale rehash of the LW manual, and the other half a compendium of screenshots of various plugins. This Shamms guy seems to have no talent or skill whatsoever at modeling. If indeed he is the one responsible for such polygonal crack-babies as "TekMan," then he should be prohibited by law from ever using any 3d application anywhere, including, but not limited to, playing Doom3 and watching Tron. He shouldn't even be allowed to own a Rubik's Cube. He's a danger both to society and reality. If you see this book in the bookstore, take a flip through it...you'll be astonished at the sheer ineptitude within. You'll wonder how anyone could look at these horrendous images and say "wow, that looks great...I'm gonna put that in my *book*." The incompetence isn't limited to aesthetics; the technique is also flawed. Shamms frequently recommends freezing subpatches, which dramatically increases the polycount and complexity of your mesh, which is generally the opposite of what you want to do--i.e. create a well thought-out and efficient model. Run screaming from "Modeling in Lightwave." This truly is the absolute worst book I own...and I own Dianetics.
Rating:
Summary: Very misleading title
Review: Sadly, this book doesn't really give any help at all in modeling in Lightwave. Instead, it reads like a book written by a guy who simply opened the program and sat with the manual in his lap, writing down what he discovered. Nothing about modeling your own creations using the many tools available in the program. The idea the Mortier doesn't actually know much about Lightwave is given credence by the amount of space given to programs that aren't Lightwave but that Mortier does know. Talking about Amapi and Poser doesn't give any information about Modeling in Lightwave, but it does fill space. We'll have to wait for a really good book specifically about Lightwave modeling. As for this one: AVOID!
Rating:
Summary: Far Better Books Exist
Review: Shamms Mortier appears to be an expert in a whole host of packages, since he's written tutorial books for Lightwave, Poser, Bryce, Max, Pixels 3D and Amorphium. I've not yet had a chance to read this particular book, but based on his Poser and Bryce books, I will never buy another one by him again. Although the perception of "good art" is subjective, I think his work is extremely poor, and if you're looking for anything even vaguely photo-real, forget it. For Lightwave, stick with the books by Beck, Jerrard and Ablan. For Bryce, go with Susan Kitchens' Real World Bryce 4 - tons of really useful material.
Rating:
Summary: Correct title: Aplying distortions in LightWave
Review: This book doesn't teach you nothing about modeling techniques, only tells you how to load models and hot to apply distortions to them. To the trash!!
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Lightwave book, but great for aspiring authors
Review: This book is excellent for aspiring authors as it proves anybody can get a book published, even if you can't write and you have nothing of value to say. This is just about the only useful thing about this book. This book is just as awful as every other title written by Mr. Mortier. The really bad part is that someone at Charles River Media seems to think Mr. Mortier's books are worth publishing. Because of the pitiful nature of every one of this author's titles I've seen to date I am now very reluctant to purchase any Charles River published book. It's sad that a company with so many excellent titles would continue to publish such poor quality books by the same author. If you're expecting anything along the lines of something that would be written by Tim Albee, Patrik Beck, or Dan Ablan you will be sadly disappointed. If you were looking for in-depth coverage of modeling in Lightwave keep looking, it's not in here.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Lightwave book, but great for aspiring authors
Review: This book is excellent for aspiring authors as it proves anybody can get a book published, even if you can't write and you have nothing of value to say. This is just about the only useful thing about this book. This book is just as awful as every other title written by Mr. Mortier. The really bad part is that someone at Charles River Media seems to think Mr. Mortier's books are worth publishing. Because of the pitiful nature of every one of this author's titles I've seen to date I am now very reluctant to purchase any Charles River published book. It's sad that a company with so many excellent titles would continue to publish such poor quality books by the same author. If you're expecting anything along the lines of something that would be written by Tim Albee, Patrik Beck, or Dan Ablan you will be sadly disappointed. If you were looking for in-depth coverage of modeling in Lightwave keep looking, it's not in here.
Rating:
Summary: Horrendous Example of a How-To Book
Review: This book is nothing but an overview and the examples are so stupendous any modeler of any 3D program would not do as the author has as examples. The author has fallen far short of what the title and description purports. Just when his descriptions and content end in a boorish manner and perhaps to indulge further, the chapter ends! I would use more "colorful metaphors" to describe this book but heed my advice even if you are new to Lightwave--Don't buy this book!!!! That's right "Newbie to LW"--you may be itching to get this book but it will burn a hole in your wallet and resoundingly disappoint you.
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: This book is terrible! Do not waste your money. The book tells you much less then the manuals that come with Lightwave. The artwork in the book look horrible, I was producing better models in the 4 first hours of using lightwave 4 years ago. This book is an insult to Lightwave users, dont waste your money the writer of this book obviously don't have a clue on using lw-modeler
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