Description:
3D Studio Max version 3 is a mature and flexible 3-D modeling, animation, and rendering tool. Inside 3D Studio Max 3: Modeling, Materials, and Rendering reflects and illuminates the depth of the application it covers. Written by two authorized Max instructors and experienced teachers, this comprehensive volume sprinkles screen shots, tips, and notes amidst clearly written step-by-step tutorials. The book is structured in three parts: modeling, materials, and rendering. Each section describes by example multiple techniques and their various applications. For example, in the first section, "Modeling," techniques for polygonal, nurbs, and patch modeling are described, in addition to modeling for real-time 3-D games vs. modeling for high-resolution feature films. The section on rendering effects is outstanding. With examples and tutorials, the power of Max's rendering tools is explained and demonstrated: glows, lens flares, lighting effects, camera effects, highlights, and focal effects are explained. As informative as the book is, it furnishes virtually no information on animation, bones, constraints, or modeling for animation. In addition, only three pages cover Max's powerful scripting language, Maxscript. To the credit of the authors, these are complex and deep topics, and would require several hundred pages to be properly documented. We can only hope that a future volume from this great authoring team will properly address these topics. --Mike Caputo
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