XSI Character Modeling for Animation

Rating:
Summary: Great Bargain
Review: I bought this Dvd with the hope of learning more tricks about modeling in XSI, and thats exactly what I got. I can't say enough good things about this DVD. Its around three hours long but the movies are speeded up so really its more like 5 hours long. You really need to go through the vids in slow mo to pick up whats going on. It definitly requires repeated viewings and for my money is for the serious minded student or professional because its takes some time to grasp some of the concepts. But I definitely picked up some great tips and my modeling has already improved simply by thinking more about the way the muscles underneath the figure will be moving when animated.

One of the best things about the DVD is that although it is done using XSI, its really all about hardcore figure modeling and can be done with any package. I went through and built the figure in Maya as that is what I use at work. I wish I could find more product like this, where the authors hit the fundementals quickly then hit the advanced stuff,If I miss something hey I can always rewind. I would say this dvd is as good as the gnomon stuff if I had to compare.

Rating:
Summary: Strongly recommended
Review: This DVD has some unusually useful ideas for creating subdivision surface models that look great and that will move and distort the way you want them to, especially in problem areas. Rosenstein starts by demonstrating some fundamental principles that he has found about polygon connections, and then uses the principles to first build roughed-in human body parts from rotoscoped drawings, and then to combine and refine the parts and sculpt details. While he pretty much builds the whole organic model while you watch, Rosenstein spends lots of extra time on specific problems that modelers are likely to have scratched their heads about. (We're not in the manual anymore, Toto.)

Along the way Rosenstein discusses and demonstrates many of XSI's polygon modeling and deformation tools as well as real efficiencies in viewport and lighting setup and workflow.

The great strength of the DVD, though, is that Rosenstein doesn't just plunk down recipes to follow. Instead, he gives you principles (along with plenty of examples) that you can apply for yourself to make your subdivision surface models look and move the way you'd like.