Lightwave 3D Applied, Version 5.6

Rating:
Summary: I EXPECTED MORE
Review: ALTHOUGH THIS BOOK TRIES TO PUT THE READER IN A PRO LOGIC, I THINK THAT FAILS BECAUSE OF HIS BAD TACTIC.IT BEGINS WITH SOME BASIC INTRODUCTION TO LIGHTWAVE AND ISPIRE 3D (1 CHAPTER FOR SO HUGE PROGRAMS !!!) AND CONINUES WITH COMPLETE PARADIGMS IN THE OTHER CHAPTERS.THE WRITER ASSUMES YOU ARE A PRO, FAMILIAR WITH THE INTERFACE AND TECHNIQUES AND FORCES YOU TO BUILD A HOLE CASTLE (PLUGINS REQUIRED BUT MISSING) WHAT?????!!!!!.JUST IGNORE IT AND TRY ANOTHER BOOK OR ONLINE TUTORIAL.TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE (THE CASTLE AND OTHERS-IF YOU LIKE THE IDEA OF A CASTLE GO TO EUROPE)

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: As a young beginning and young artist I found this book to ROCK. It is a really great help in giving you step-by-step modeling techniques. You learn so many things from this book. Dave Jerrard and the accompaning authors did a great job with this one. I can't wait for the new one comes out for LightWave [6].

Rating:
Summary: Lightwave 3d applied
Review: Great book, not only for beginners, but for the experienced on too. I had some experince with other 3d packages, and this book put me right on track to work with lightwave. The tutorials are well written and the explanantion of not only the concept, but the way the authors got the concept are just perfect. I've recomended it to everyone who asked me about A good lightwave book. A must have for begginers and intermediates alike.

Rating:
Summary: very basic
Review: I am presently using this book with LightWave [6]. Many of the functions have changed since Lightwave 5.6 (for which this book was written), and some head scratching must be done to get through some of the tutorials as a result, but they are feasible. Another qualm is that the extreme detail is a bit overboard. For instance, rather than state "divide the circle into 36 segments," you receive a drawn out explanation of the geometry of a globe which can botch up the explanation or bore you to death first. The steps are intermingled with the wordy explanations, which means you have to read about a lot of remedial facts to get to the actual helpful hints. With patience, the book has been helpful, and tediously prolix. If you have LightWave [6] I suggest thinking before getting it as the interface has apparently gone through a serious facelift and the book does not cover the subject generally enough to be easily applicable to the new version.

Rating:
Summary: I'm not really pleased with this book...
Review: I know that LightWave is an exelent program for organic modeling. So I looked forward to learn more about metanurbs and patch modeling techniques. But I found only few words about it. Instead, the autor spent 2/3 of the book explaining in detail how to build a perfect castle. Yes, it looks nice, but that's not what I was looking for. Also the book has a lot of mistakes, but they're usually obvious.

Rating:
Summary: I'm ready for the next one
Review: I really hope these authors write another LightWave book. I am thoroughly impressed with their first attempt and the followup that they provide at their website. Yeah, I found a couple of small errors (which I emailed to the authors attention, who emailed back and said corrections had been made in the second printing), but I've found many more errors in other books. While all three authors did a great job, I want to especially thank Dave Jerrard for the depth to his tutorials and the explanations he gave for the steps. I never expected to learn so much in so little time. I think I'll soon be ready to make the move from Idaho to Southern California. BTW, great cover!

Rating:
Summary: Must buy if you own inspire 3d
Review: If you bought inspire and needed more direction, BUY THIS BOOK. There are some usable techniques and insight from guys who make a living doing this. Hands-on, must do all tutorials. If you are the skimmer type reader, save you money. They should let inspire 3d users know that all tutorials can be done in both and differences between it and LW are explained.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent tutorials, merely reasonable explanations
Review: Inside Lightwave 3D has some of the best explained tutorials I have read. Having had frustrating experiences with more tutorials than not, I was pleased at the level of detail and general accuracy of information and details. I have withheld the 5 star rating only because I would have liked more explanation of settings (okay, I set FastFresnel to 500%, 630 nm, but what does tweaking those settings give me?) to get desired effects. In trying to apply techniques I picked up in the tutorials, I found unintended "features" in my animations from using some settings... and didn't know enough about the options for plug-ins to know best what to tweak to fix problem (e.g. brightening stars on the limb of the Earth as camera angle changes). But a fine book never the less and certainly one of the better ones available on 3-D animation and modeling.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent tutorials, merely reasonable explanations
Review: Inside Lightwave 3D has some of the best explained tutorials I have read. Having had frustrating experiences with more tutorials than not, I was pleased at the level of detail and general accuracy of information and details. I have withheld the 5 star rating only because I would have liked more explanation of settings (okay, I set FastFresnel to 500%, 630 nm, but what does tweaking those settings give me?) to get desired effects. In trying to apply techniques I picked up in the tutorials, I found unintended "features" in my animations from using some settings... and didn't know enough about the options for plug-ins to know best what to tweak to fix problem (e.g. brightening stars on the limb of the Earth as camera angle changes). But a fine book never the less and certainly one of the better ones available on 3-D animation and modeling.

Rating:
Summary: Not recommended for beginners
Review: The tutorials are poorly written. The authors spend more time explaining the historical and artistic aspects of the artwork instead of explaining lightwave to you.