? Navigating within the interface
? Creating and editing 2D and 3D objects
? Controlling animation with function curves
? Integrating walls, doors and windows
? Simulating water surfaces and fluttering flags
? Adjusting color and brightness of lighting
? Rendering scenes with Quick Render

Valuable tools on CD?ROM!
? 3ds Max 8 evaluation version
? Project files from the book

System Requirements: Please see the "About the CD?ROM" Appendix for details and complete system requirements.
? "Master It" sidebars answer questions and present shortcuts
? High?resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
? Succinct explanations walk you through step by step
? Two?page lessons break big topics into bite?sized modules

This book explains: navigating within the interface; creating and editing 2D and 3D objects; controlling animation with function curves; integrating walls, doors and windows; simulating water surfaces and fluttering flags; adjusting color and brightness of lighting; and, rendering scenes with Quick Render. It contains valuable tools on CD-ROM.Extra features of this book are: "Master It" sidebars that answer questions and present shortcuts; high resolution screen shots that demonstrate each task; succinct explanations that walk you through step by step; and two page lessons that break big topics into bite sized modules.

• Navigating within the interface
• Creating and editing 2D and 3D objects
• Controlling animation with function curves
• Integrating walls, doors and windows
• Simulating water surfaces and fluttering flags
• Adjusting color and brightness of lighting
• Rendering scenes with Quick Render

Valuable tools on CD?ROM!

• 3ds Max 8 evaluation version
• Project files from the book

System Requirements: Please see the "About the CD?ROM" Appendix for details and complete system requirements.

• "Master It" sidebars answer questions and present shortcuts
• High?resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
• Succinct explanations walk you through step by step
• Two?page lessons break big topics into bite?sized modules

Jon McFarland is a certified 3ds Max instructor who manages the design department for a national owner and developer of retail, office and residential properties, where he spends much of the day creating mock?ups of potential facilities. A 3ds Max user, as well as an alpha and beta tester for over ten years, he uses 3ds max and AutoCAD (Architectural Desktop) professionally to create fly?throughs of proposed facility construction and expansions (and their related visualization and advertising requirements) He also teaches 3ds max at the Virginia Marti College of Art and Design, a small, accredited art school in Lakewood, Ohio. He wrote 3ds max 4 In Depth for Coriolis Publishing and was a contributing author for Inside 3ds max 7 for Peachpit. He has been a technical editor for several books published by Coriolis, New Riders, Thomson and Peachpit.

* Navigating within the interface
* Creating and editing 2D and 3D objects
* Controlling animation with function curves
* Integrating walls, doors and windows
* Simulating water surfaces and fluttering flags
* Adjusting color and brightness of lighting
* Rendering scenes with Quick Render

Valuable tools on CD-ROM!
* 3ds Max 8 evaluation version
* Project files from the book

System Requirements: Please see the "About the CD-ROM" Appendix for details and complete system requirements.
* "Master It" sidebars answer questions and present shortcuts
* High-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
* Succinct explanations walk you through step by step
* Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules

* Navigating within the interface
* Creating and editing 2D and 3D objects
* Controlling animation with function curves
* Integrating walls, doors and windows
* Simulating water surfaces and fluttering flags
* Adjusting color and brightness of lighting
* Rendering scenes with Quick Render

Valuable tools on CD-ROM!
* 3ds Max 8 evaluation version
* Project files from the book

System Requirements: Please see the "About the CD-ROM" Appendix for details and complete system requirements.
* "Master It" sidebars answer questions and present shortcuts
* High-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
* Succinct explanations walk you through step by step
* Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules

* 3ds max is the dominant professional software for creating 3D effects in films, television, and games, used in such high-profile productions as The Day After Tomorrow, X2: X Men United, The Last Samurai, and the Oscars television show
* More than 600 pages of two-color screen shots and step-by-step instructions show visually oriented users how to tackle a broad range of intermediate-to-advanced animation tasks using the latest version of 3ds max
* The companion CD-ROM features a trial version of 3ds-the full version retails for $3,500-plus project files from the book
* 3ds max has an estimated 170,000 users who work in the visual arts-film, television, advertising, and games-as well as in architecture and engineering

3ds Max easy to learn

I have several books of 3ds Max. This one is easy to follow, and allows you to easily learn the product, step by step.

A whole lot of miniature tutorials

This book is full of 1-3 page long tutorials. It has tons of them. That is also the books downfall in my opinion. It explains so many features, but it covers none of them in depth because of the space it gives each part. It just generally brushes on things which deserve much more detail. There really isn’t as much practical excercises as I thought would be, it’s mostly load the tutorial image off the CD, apply this option, or effect and see doesn’t that look great, and now on to the next one. Wash rinse repeat. How you can cover advanced subjects in a handful of pages with quickie mini tutorials is beyond me. I’m glad I got this as a gift as I would have been dissapointed had I sepnt my own money on it.

Excellent Learning Resource

I’ve been teaching 3D Computer Graphics for over 7 years. Just this summer I began teaching 3DS Max. I went out and purchased almost every general book out there on Max. This book was great. Although it won’t make a person an expert on Max, nor does it have long tutorials, it is an excellent reference book and a great resource for my students in my introduction to 3D Modeling & Animation course.

I hope this book is successful, because I would love to use it teaching further versions of my course using future releases of Max.

Ok

I guess I was expecting more tutorials with this book. It is good for newbies. If you have a general understanding of the software you might be disapointed.

Great Resource!

This book is through and easy to use, organized throughout by individual tasks that you can do in max -- with numbered, illustrated steps for each solution. Never before have I seen 3ds Max operations made so simple -- and yet there is so much power to be tapped in just those few steps. I rate this as "Highly Recommended" for anyone working with 3ds max. It’s the kind of book that you can keep by your side for instant answers. I’ve found this to be a real time-saver that makes me (and my work)look great.

Easy to Find Information

Every feature that I wanted to learn about was easy to find and understand. Most tasks are broken down into 2 or 4 pages and every step was outlined clearly. I didn’t have to work through and entire chapter just to find the procedure for the task that I was looking for. This book helped me out a lot.