In this update to his best-selling character modeling book, professional modeler and animator Paul Steed shares a number of tips, tricks, and techniques that have made him one of the industry’s most recognized 3D artists. Modeling a Character in 3ds max, Second Edition provides readers a professional-level skill set as it chronicles the creation of a single low-poly real-time character from concept to texture mapping, and gives insight into the process of creating a high-resolution character.
Learn how to: * Model with primitives * Use extrusions and Booleans * Mirror and reuse models * Optimize the mesh * Create and apply textures * Loft shapes
ON THE CD: The companion CD contains models and texture maps necessary to complete the chapter tutorials.
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
Nuts to Bolts...., October 23, 2007
By
Christopher Haigood (Aubrey, Texas)
This book is a must have for your collection. It emphasizes the basics in concept design (2d sketches) and walks you through character modeling step by step. In my opinion the book does more than get you started it gives you a solid foundation from which to build. It includes more than enough screenshots plus the CD contains the MAX files for each step.
I highly suggest it!!!
Don't be Misled by the Hype!, April 20, 2006
By
Joel E. Bousley (Washington, DC)
I purchased this book a couple of months ago. Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed with Steed's approach. I found his methods of modeling to be cumbersome to say the least. It seems as if the book has not been updated since the first edition to reflect the many changes now available in 3ds Max 6 or 7 (I don't mention 8 because the book was written BEFORE 8).
When I initially dived into the modeling portion I thought everything was fine. Then -- and this is why I rated it so low -- Steed begins to divide/turn edges in Part II / Chapter 4 / Step 5, which is titled "Step 5: Add Vertices by Dividing Edges." I suppose this would not have been so bad if Steed had thought to include COLOR screen shots on the books CD-ROM, but since he neglected to do so it becomes frustrating -- to say the least -- to use Steed's method of refining one's mesh.
Considering the fact that the CD-ROM is a whopping 19.5MB, it would have been prudent to include full color reference images. Let me give you some specifics on why I found this book such a bitter waste of TIME and MONEY:
* Firstly, let me tell you friends -- it is most frustrating to try to refine one's mesh based on the author's direction when one can hardly see the edges/vertices that are being discussed.
* Secondly, there are easier methods to refine a mesh than dividing or turning edges if you have 3ds 5 AT LEAST!
* Thirdly, Steed falls flat on his face when explaining the reason for turning edges and which SPECIFIC edges to turn. Suffice it to say, grayscale pictures in a book DO NOT work!
* Fourthly, if one cannot get the edge dividing/turning method down, then you'll get stuck because the rest of the modeling tutorials are so heavily based on this method. The only reason I was able to finish the model is because of my familiarity with 3ds Max, Lightwave, and on a more limited basis, Maya.
* Fifthly, and lastly (I hope), when one is able to look at tutorials for Lightwave or Maya, as I have done, and model more quickly and effectively in 3ds Max than Steed's method, then the book leaves quite a lot to be desired...
I think that's all I will say for now, but let me warn you all -- there are far, far better tutorials available online for free. Don't waste your money on this book unless you plan on using it as fuel for a fire.
Modeling A Character in 3DS Max, 2nd Edition, March 23, 2006
By
Maxine Tu (san francisco ca usa)
I was expected more model of the book but the whole book only teached one model
not great, but not the worst either, February 19, 2006
By
BradI got this book 2 years ago when it was hyped as being top notch for learning 3D modeling. On the postive side it is easy to understand and gives you a good idea of the entire process of making a character rather than just jumping around and trying to explain a hundred different unrelated things like other 3D modeling books. The bad part is that the modeling technics are a bit dated and backwards. A person who posted a previous review mentioned that he uses wierd modeling techniques like booleans and splines instead of regular box modeling, and that is the truth. He also wastes A LOT of time turning edges. If you model in quads (4 sided polys) to begin with, and then teselate (triangulate) then its all done for you automatically. And as mentioned previously not much time was spent on the concepts of uv unwrapping and creating the image map.
Awesome book teaching real use not technical crap, October 19, 2005
By
Randy Riley (Indiana)
I haven't read the second edition yet but the first edition was KICK ASS. Paul Steed takes you through modeling a charater and teaches you all kinds of tricks that hours of reading technical books never taught me. Basically the diference with this book is that it was written by an artist and not some computer nerd with a math degree.
