Todd Gantzler is the Program Leader for the Computer and Video Games degree program at the University of Salford in England. Todd designed and taught the first game art classes at the San Francisco State University Multimedia Studies Center and the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. He has been teaching 2D and 3D computer graphics since 1997, and has taught digital game art and design for the last four years, and worked as a 3D artist on such games such as Gex 3D, Cyberia, and Akuji the Heartless.

The premiere title in the Game Development Essentials series explores the art of bringing a game designer?s concepts to life. A strong foundation in game artistry is the essential first step, and leading game art designer Todd Gantzler takes readers behind the scenes to show them how to create the entire visual world ? from characters to environments ? that a game player encounters on the computer screen. Hands-on tutorial instruction suitable for beginning-to-intermediate-level game artists explains the process involved in creating art for real-time 3D digital games and, specifically, video games. The book highlights the technical aspects of preparing art quickly and effectively while conforming to the limitations and specifications of today?s most widely used 3D game engines.

Pretty good book for beginners

This book is great for teaching the basics of 3D modeling even if you know nothing at the start. It can be somewhat hard to find the buttons that the author is talking about in 3ds Max 8 but once you do everything follows along with the book perfectly.

Good text book for Survey of game art

I could not help feeling that Todd intended this book to be used in the classroom. It is organized very well for a semester in "Game Art". The reader has a chance to do some basic texturing and modeling. The emphasis is on 3d Max 6 and no animation is covered. Personally, I wished less modeling was covered and more visual art and texturing was covered instead. Also, more character texturing. There is a character that you model at the end of the book, but it is just a robot-type without a face and no texturing is involved. However, it is difficult to cover so many topics in one text. You will also find that some of the web links to tools he used for texturing are out of date and broken. If you have the latest Max tools, these tools may not be compatible anyway. In summary, a good text but more on texturing and character texturing would have made it an excellent choice.

A comprehensive package

Todd Gantzler has put together a very comprehensive book for video game art with 3d Studio Max. He covers from the top to the bottom of creating scenes. From the basics of texture mapping, advanced placement with UVW unwrapping modifiers, procedural modeling, box modeling, the author covers all of the essentials.

The most important aspects of this book are:
1. Very in depth and detailed COLOR pictures (RARE in tutorial books)
2. Tutorials are very relevant to the purpose of the book.
a. Example: You actually model a spider, statue, a human, a sword and texture them all!
3. Steps are taken to explain, then produce products. So you have a reason for the method demonstrated.
4. * ALL LESSONS WORK!!!!

In short, I highly recommend this book it has taught me a GREAT deal about the industry. There aren’t many books that explain so SIMPLY yet cover so much.

Anyone interested in intermediate modeling and texturing should purchase this book.

It is for people who:
1. Have a general knowledge of 3d Studio Max
2. Want to develop thier intermediate modeling and texture skills further.

Warning: This book does not teach animation.

Please Todd Gantzler, produce another book on animation!!!!!

Excellent Starter for those wishing to learn...

This is a great title by someone who really knows his stuff. Writing from actual games industry experience(something which most 3D/Design authors don’t have) it’s evident that he really knows his stuff, and the book clearly represents that.
The title not only looks at the creative, but also the technical aspects of creating game content that is usable, and easily implementable, with essential techniques that will give you a very strong skillset. Highly recommended.