This book guides readers through every major aspect of 3D Studio MAX, from customising the user interface and creating a basic material to adding lights and creating a composite scene with a background plate. Modelling exercises demonstrate how to create several projects including an interior, a fish, a human head, and an ear. Learn how to: use the various tools and modifiers available in 3ds Max; adjust light and material settings to create desired effects; create objects using poly modelling and spline modelling techniques; build a proper mesh so your characters animate correctly; unwrap your objects in order to prepare them for texturing; and avoid common industry mistakes. The companion files include colour images of all the figures in the book and example files used in the modelling chapters.

This book takes readers step-by-step through every major aspect of 3D Stdio MAX, from organic modeling to architectural rendering and advanced lighting techniques.

an ok for starting out with Max

A couple of things I want to mention right off: 1) this book is not in color, the b&w pics are very hard to make out in places. 2) this book has nothing to say about animating, its mostly all about sub-d modeling with very brief descriptions of materials, uv mapping and rendering. I will say though that Josh does have a very good writing style and make difficult subjects about the user interface effortlessly easy. My idea of "essential" 3Dsmax is being able to follow through with the entire process of modeling, texturing, rigging, animating and rendering which you really wont be able to do with this book. This book could have been so much better if it was a more complete overview of Max.

Great book, not dry at all

Well as some beginning animators I started a while back creating models and doing some animation more or less on the fly as i figured it out. I finally decided to get serious and stop wasting time. This book does excactly that. It gets to the nuts and bolts on how to start with effeciency in mind. The results is producing quality work in at least half the time it would have taken me to do the same work without the knowledge. The author also kept it interesting and fun. That is what stood out. Some may take the "whitty" comments too seriously. I thought it was just fun and it allowed me to keep reading and trying. It kept me interested. Too many books out there are simply to boring resulting in a book that has never seen past chap 3.

If your just starting and want solid, effective information on how to use 3DMAX 8 this is a great start.

Maybe not "Essential" for everyone to Own but a Great Way to get Started

I approached this book with no preconceived expectations, expecially after reading the one negative review below. When searching for books on design or development, I find there are typically two types:

1. Books written like textbooks that can be used in a structured classroom setting that cover almost everything from A-Z in an order that builds from the foundation of the subject matter to advanced topics that are comprised of all of the preceding content.

2. Books written for those who are comfortable learning in a non-traditional way and who are interested in diving into specific topics that cover just enough to accomplish a certain goal.

I’m by no means stating one type is better than the other. It usually depends on what the reader is wishing to accomplish near term and weighing that against longer-term goals. I’ve found this book to be the latter of the two types and great for accomplishing what I need to know for now to get me started in 3DS Max (while having a lot of fun doing it); allowing me to then decide if I want to take things further and apply my time reading more detailed books on specific techniques.

Keep in mind that the author’s experience is primarily in the game industry, so the content is definitely written from that angle.

The only complaint I have is that I believe the author’s one lesson in adding a 3D element to a photo indicates that the source of light in the photo is coming from one direction when in fact it is coming from the opposite direction. The techniques still apply, just with lighting in reverse.

Good Book

I had max for a while and was moving forward but had alot of little questions that needed to be answered. This book helped me understand the UI layout more as well as how to customize it. There are a couple neat character models in there as well that he breaks down step by step in the later chapters.

Great book if you are starting out...

If you are just starting out and want to learn Max with no previous 3D experience then this is a great book to start with. It covers all the basics you will need to get up and running before moving onto more application specific excercises.

Where would I be without you!?

The answer is still at the start of the program. Without this book, I would not have managed to get anywhere.
The book is superbly written, providing near vertex-by-vertex guides for the techniques put forward. The author keeps you interested during tutorials by providing little anecdotes throughout, aswell as helping you preview the finished model you are working towards, to inspire you to keep going. This may not work for everyone, but for me, I found it near impossible to stop once I got started, and could only get some rest when I had finished my current chapter, but even then, the next looking so interesting even that didn’t always work.
I actually ended up finishing the book within a few days because I was enjoying it so much, but learned alot of new techniques, and I’m now re-reading it so that I can practice them some more!

The book opens at the beginner level, and ends on some advanced projects, leaving something for all levels of expertise. As with all 3DS Max books, it can never hurt to have a little previous experience, but even complete novices should have no problems getting through the book.

Where would I be without you!?

The answer is still at the start of the program. Without this book, I would not have managed to get anywhere.
The book is superbly written, providing near vertex-by-vertex guides for the techniques put forward. The author keeps you interested during tutorials by providing little anecdotes throughout, aswell as helping you preview the finished model you are working towards, to inspire you to keep going. This may not work for everyone, but for me, I found it near impossible to stop once I got started, and could only get some rest when I had finished my current chapter, but even then, the next looking so interesting even that didn’t always work.
I actually ended up finishing the book within a few days because I was enjoying it so much, but learned alot of new techniques, and I’m now re-reading it so that I can practice them some more!

The book opens at the beginner level, and ends on some advanced projects, leaving something for all levels of expertise. As with all 3DS Max books, it can never hurt to have a little previous experience, but even complete novices should have no problems getting through the book.

A Disappointment

I purchased this book because the Essential Lightwave book by Albee was an excellent text for both my students and myself. This book falls far short of my expectations for this series.

The author Josh, a self professed "3D Jedi Master", should spend less space in the book on "witty commentary" (bashing community colleges, insulting his parents for their car, and putting down other 3D modeling software), and more time really explaining how to use 3Ds Max. Similarly, there are lots of pictures of Josh in this book, yet there are tutorials that lack sufficient illustrations to be clearly understood.

To use Josh’s own words "Often I pick up these types of books and, although I find them informative, find the quality of the work inside to be a bit uninspired. I mean, who wants to model a doorknob?". In this book the first 100 pages have you model nothing but a cube, and there isn’t sufficient information in the book to model (or render) the character shown on the cover. This book might be informative to someone who has never made a 3D model but it lacks in a good explanation of the basic concepts and principles common to all 3D applications.

Josh might be a Jedi Master when it comes to using Max professionally, but he has a lot to learn about how to teach others to become one.

Great book for beginners or refresher

I’ve bought many, MANY books for 3d and 2d art software packages and this is one of the best books for beginners out there. It’s written by someone "in the field" of game development so he doesn’t waste a lot of time explaining useless things. Again, it doesn’t cover everything like some books "claim", but it get’s you going in the right direction.