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Title: 3D Studio MAX: Tutorials from the Masters by Michele Bousquet, Kyle McKisic, Alan Iglesias, Ted Boardman, Sanford Kennedy, Frank Delise ISBN: 0827383916 Publisher: Autodesk Press Pub. Date: 17 December, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $63.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.89

Rating: 3
Summary: I would hardly call these people masters
Comment: First let me say that I had previously written a more positive review of this book; however, I may have been a little over zealous.

I asked Amazon.com to remove my review as I no longer felt the way I did about the book. Many months later I see my review still on the board, so I have taken the time to write a more accurate review of this book.

Now to the review:

The book has a good section on the Fit Deformation command of the lofting component. The model that you make (a woman's high heeled shoe) is a good practical model for learning the Fit Deformation command and the other features that go along with the lofting component. A pretty good section on animating a hopping kangaroo, however...

In the tutorial that shows you how to model and animate a kangaroo, the author clearly states that the boolean function may not work when modeling the kangaroo. She's right! I never got it to work. Boolean functions are indeed tricky, but to put a tutorial that is clearly going to have a difficult time performing a boolean function shows extreme short sightedness. As a seasoned 3DSR4 user, I had the patience to try this boolean over a dozen times before I gave up. I cannot imagine new users truly understanding the usefulness of the boolean function if it doesn't work in a tutorial.

Half the book is made up of one tutorial in which half of that tutorial is composed of programming. Most 3D artists are artists, not programers. I don't mind learning some scripting but the tutorial they provide (which is pretty neat, by the way) is way too long and complicated.

In sum, they should get rid of the kangaroo tutorial and the space buggy tutorial.

Rating: 2
Summary: I learned a little, but the book's out of date.
Comment: This book, written ages ago for MAX 1.2, doesn't do the job now that MAX is up to v2.5. While I did learn a few interesting tricks, for the most part I was dissapointed. Several tutorials contained blatant errors or would not work as explained. Most of what you learn here, you learn by fixing the author's errors or figuring out the things he forgot to tell you. Add to that the fact that it's out of date, and it adds up to a definite last resort resource book.

Rating: 5
Summary: Best starter book on the market
Comment: This is the book for anyone using 3D Studio MAX for the first time. After completing the first 3 chapters I was able to begin reading (with understanding) the more comprehensive manuals for experienced MAX users. GREAT MANUAL, THANK YOU Michele and company.