Lighting is the one thing that makes or breaks any CG environment. This inspirational book and DVD give you everything you need to create convincing CG lightin; from the concepts and theoretical aspects to the techniques and tricks that are essential in a production environment. The stunning color illustrations throughout the book illustrate just what can be done, while the tutorials show you exactly how to do it.

Every ounce of theory is backed up with practical tutorials, using the free trial versions of 3ds Max and Combustion supplied on the companion DVD. The tutorials take you from the fundamentals of lighting, right through to advanced techniques with many new sections, including ones that cover radiosity techniques, rendering with mental ray, and compositing.

Certified by Autodesk, Darren Brooker’s new edition teaches the real methods behind real-world work. If you want a one-stop master class in CG lighting, or if you just want to brush up on your existing skills - then this book contains everything you need.

* Everything you need to learn the art of CG lighting in one easy-to-use volume
* Free trial software and detailed tutorials take you through every step of the CG lighting process
* Learn the art and science of lighting CG environments the Autodesk-certified way

This book and DVD package, co-branded with Autodesk, presents the concepts and techniques you need to create convincing CG lighting effects with 3ds Maxa vital skill for any 3D artist creating models, characters and CG environments. The stunning color illustrations throughout the book illustrate just what you can achieve, and the tutorial lessons will help you to do so.

Every ounce of theory is backed up with practical tutorials, using the free demo versions of 3ds Max and Combustion supplied on the companion DVD. The tutorials take you from the fundamentals of lighting, right through to advanced techniques. This new edition features new sections on radiosity techniques, rendering with mental ray, and compositing.

* A one-stop master class in CG lighting with 3ds Max co-published with Autodesk
* Discover both the art and the science of lighting CG models and environments
* Companion DVD includes tutorial files and bonus demo software to help you take your skills further

great book to learn every aspects of CG

I have read this book from cover to cover and multiple times for some chapters. There are two reasons I like this book

First, most chapters start with basic theories and offer some tutorials which reader can try themselves. The tutorials are very easy to follow. The structure help learn new concepts as well as how to use Max.

Second, this book almost touches every aspect of CG application in Max, such as radiosity, indoor, outdoor, MR, texture baking for games, shadow etc. By reading the book, it also help navigate and read Max help contents which are usually boring to read.

In short, it is a good book especially for persons who already know something about CG and interested in 3ds Max.

A technical book very useful

416 page which explain how to use light on 3ds...once finish it you’ll be a light creator master!

Solid intro to lighting, but not for advanced users

Advanced user aren’t going to learn anything revolutionary, but over all this is a good beginner/intermediate level guide to CG lighting. As with many other Focal Press titles, much of this book’s contents are covered in Max 9’s own tutorials and user reference.

Lights..camera...?

This is a good looking book with full color prints. One of the tutorials was highlighted in 3D Magazine as an example of 3 point lighting. I experienced some difficulty with some files when I tried to use the radiosity plugin. Also, one tutorial has missing files. The instructions kind of jumble together in think prose. Not easy to follow. The material, however, touches on light theory, shadows, HDI, and renderers. The HDI tutorial is a good one to introduce you to the concept and yes, HDI maps are included. I think this is a good cocktail table book. Nice discussions and great graphics. Can’t take learning specifics about Max lights seriously. But good discussion and some good examples.

Good book

It is a good book. It really helps to understand different notions about the cg lighting. Well structured and uses everyday language.
Tutorials are good, sometimes maybe to long, but they help to structure and have an overview of the matter.
I recommend the book to everyone who want to have an understanding of how to set up lights in 3dsmax with maximum efficiency.

50/50

Now some of the information was extremely useful, especially if you know nothing at all about lighting. But there is nothing in this book that you couldnt find from a training DVD from Gnomon or something like that. Another thing is, I had to request 2 brand new DVDs because each one was missing a lot of models and textures. 3rd DVD yielded a flawless one and I was able to complete all of the tutorials. If you know nothing about CG Lighting, its worth a look at, if you have a minor understanding, you may want to look into Gnomon or something along those lines.

A little weak...

I’ve been reviewing several books on lighting and rendering, in both Max and Maya, and from the reviews here I was expecting something a little better in this book.

The content about Max was slim pickings. It said almost nothing about most of the optional renderers like Vray and Brazil, just about a page each on those. Apart from that, there was general info from the manual.

The sections about how to actually light a scene were weak. It goes over basics of approaches like three point lighting, but I didn’t find much in this book that deepened my understanding of how to actually light, it just looked like generalizations that could have been copied from older books.

Not as direct as I had hoped

I bought this book in hopes of improving my lighting skills in 3D Max. So far, it’s more informational than instructional. I agree that there are a lot of intriguing images throughout the book, but the content doesn’t give enough direction.

Still, if you want to learn more about lighting in 3D Max, this book covers more than most books do these days. It WILL tell you why lights react the way they do in your scene, as well as where you should insert your lights in order to render an interesting scene.

Just as the title says: great overview of essencial lighting techniques

I’m not a professional lighting artist, I’ve been learning 3ds max for a few years, part-time. I’ve read several books and tutorials about changing a GI photon value from 1 to 10 or ajusting the spotlight faloff to 150, but I needed a book which gave me an integrated and comparative look on the various lighting techniques and methodologies 3ds max has to offer. This book does just that. It doesn’t set out to explain every single button or value, it gives you the essencials about the way the various techniques work,not just by explaining sequentially scanline render, advanced lighting or mental ray, but also by transmitting good insight on production methods and light theory..The book explains the main parameters you have to adjust in order to make each technique work, and the pros and cons of every one of those. Obviously, apart from the tutorials in this book, you’ll have to play with the values and learn the finer details for yourself. For me it was a great sistematization of all 3ds max lighting techniques, and I’m no longer baffled by the variety of ways I can use to light a scene, because I understood which techique works better in which situation.

Would’ve been excellent apart from a few annoying errors

Excellent book generally very well written, good techniques, invaluable resource, probably the best there is.
Would’ve been 5 stars but for the errors, on 3 or 4 that I’ve come across in the course of the book, at first I was blaming myself and thought I had done something wrong but after re-reading and re-reading discovered there was some tiny ommisson like missing out a tick box that was key to the process (page 144 see if you can find it).

And to top it off? Missing out the tutorial file C15-01.max on the DVD , now that was just careless.

Still very very worthwhile, I just wish the author had a website with a discussions board to deal with these errors post-publish.

Disappointed

Not exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for a book that would guide me through the pit falls but what I received was a mish mash of vague ideas and then comments like, "I hope you see that this stuff is great." It was like reading molases. Please learn to create outlines and procedural steps. Everything in this book can be learned from online tutorials and the 3DS Max help and tutorial system.

If you like prety pictures you might buy this as a coffee book but don’t expect to get any real tips as to how to get up to speed making those images.

Excellent book for beginner and experienced Max users

This carefully written book shows real knowledge of the subject. The book comes with a DVD with all the tutorial content you willl need. The book covers a broad range of lighting techniques and recommends excellent workflow tips for all users in any discipline. It also covers how to set-up your files so they can be manipulated in Combustion for cinematic quality and advanced effects. This book is a must have for anyone within the 3D CGI industry. The Glossy example images within the book are an excellent inspiration for beginner users, and the advanced tips and tricks will keep the most advanced users happy. Covering all areas of CGI lighting from radiosity to MentalRay. This book should be on every studios bookshelf.

Excellent book for beginner and experienced Max users

This carefully written book shows real knowledge of the subject. The book comes with a DVD with all the tutorial content you willl need. The book covers a broad range of lighting techniques and recommends excellent workflow tips for all users in any discipline. It also covers how to set-up your files so they can be manipulated in Combustion for cinematic quality and advanced effects. This book is a must have for anyone within the 3D CGI industry. The Glossy example images within the book are an excellent inspiration for beginner users, and the advanced tips and tricks will keep the most advanced users happy. Covering all areas of CGI lighting from radiosity to MentalRay. This book should be on every studios bookshelf.

Essential CG Lighting... thats the perfect book !

Essential CG Lighting is a perfect book for everyone interest to know how lighting works. After read this book, I completly understand a lot of things about the lighting. You will find in this book a lot of information about all aspect of lighting.

I had a chance to participate to the Essential CG Lighting book, Ive submit some 3d images ive done. I would like to thanks Darren Brooker for the great opportunity to participate to this really great book , Im really proud to be in this book.

For everyones who whant to know more about the lighting... Essential CG Lighting ... Thats the perfect book for you !

Essential CG Lighting... thats the perfect book !

Essential CG Lighting is a perfect book for everyone interest to know how lighting works. After read this book, I completly understand a lot of things about the lighting. You will find in this book a lot of information about all aspect of lighting.

I had a chance to participate to the Essential CG Lighting book, Ive submit some 3d images ive done. I would like to thanks Darren Brooker for the great opportunity to participate to this really great book , Im really proud to be in this book.

For everyones who whant to know more about the lighting... Essential CG Lighting ... Thats the perfect book for you !

Very Nice Book

I’m an architect and i needed some book that actually focused on several types of ilumination for architectural visualization, and this book has it, it’s divided in 4 parts, theory, techniques, tips and tricks and taking it further. I like that it has the light theory, an essential part to understand how light actually works in nature.

I’ve only read the theory, and i’ve browsed some other chapters and the explanations are very clear, very easy to follow and understand, any new or veteran user of 3ds Max will feel comfortable reading this book; lots of pictures to see in full color.