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Rating: 
Summary: Essential Animation:Master Reference
Review: Given the sparseness of Hash's packaged software manual, I'd say that this book is an essential baseline reference for A:M 2002 or A:M2003. I think the 2 complement each other. Use the Hash manual for some quick start action with the software with lots of pictures and then come back to this text for serious study. I'm not sure the book is for pure beginners in 3D. For them I would recommend picking up "3D Graphics & Animation" by Mark Giambruno which provides a good overview of 3D terms and concepts. Let's face it, 3D software is among the most challenging types of software one can attempt to learn. I found if I re-read the tutorials in Rogers' book a few times the information is there. Patience is required. Do not expect to get it all in one read. In a few places I would have liked more illustrations and cd-rom videos for some steps, but what is provided is adequate. The style and tone of the writing were in line with my learning needs. Rogers takes time to explain not just the A:M features, but many times also why and how they should be used in your art work like the chapter on lighting. The book's scope is wide so if you need a lot of depth on a particular function it may not be covered with enough detail to suit your needs. In all fairness though, that book of details doesn't exist anywhere for A:M. All-in-all I think this is a solid work that deserves to be one of the references in your library when learning this software.
Rating: 
Summary: A:M BLUNDER!
Review: I am upset with this book. It is a great book to learn where everything is located and how it works in Animation Master, but it is written like a TEXTBOOK. Hard to follow tutorials mainly do to the Authors "know it all", he assumes that everyone who reads the book is tuned to the same frequency as he is on. The only thing that is very well done are video tutorials, which do help to understand how the author got from point A to point B. But not all the time. And you do need to have a working version of Animation Master if you plan to learn it hands-on.
Rating:
Summary: GAH! Horrid!
Review: I am writing this review because I am SOOO angry after spending 20 minutes reading the same pages over and over. I had to find a way to make the Author pay for the pain he gave me. This book said that it is good for a beginner and advanced alike. Well, I don't know about the latter, but it is hardly useful for a beginner. Just look at this line in the first chapter: "Lock: This tool locks a bone, basically indicating that it is the base to an Inverse Kinematic chain without being at the highest level in that heirarchy." Inverse Kinematic? Heirarchy? Wha...? Too much of this book is written in the same way. The author busts out with loads of jargon, but never bothers to define it- via example or analogy. I have been doing Technical Writing for 6 years and, if I didn't know any better, I would think that the author is just pulling the text out of the manual, as he doesn't know enough about it to explain it to a layman. Further, the text is long and dry. The author/editor doesn't chunk information into easy-to-read pieces, rather choosing to overwhelm the reader with a cascading wall of words on each page, with hardly a breather for indentation or line breaks. This is a naive and frustrating mistake for a software guide, as any author/editor worth his salt should know that the user will be glancing from page to screen and back. With better chunking of information, one wouldn't spend 20 minutes trying to find his spot in the middle of a run-on sentence. Because the author/editor doesn't know how to properly format text for usibility, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the illustrations are WOEFULLY lacking and misplaced. You'll often find yourself pointed to an illustration on a sepperate page (leading to more lost-my-place frustrations), and too many critical or difficult steps were left out completely. This book is a great example of how NOT to write a useful refference/learning guide. I cannot stress my frustration more. The only reason I give it 2 stars is that it is one of few references for A:M out there. Pray for the day when another reference emerges. GAH!
Rating:
Summary: A lot of type with a lot of hype
Review: I purchased this book but found after receiving it and trying to use it that he types a lot of words but gives very little practicle direction. He supplies very few tutorials on how to use the material. He could take some lessons from the Jeff Paries book. In my opinion this book was not worth the money spent by a long shot.
Rating:
Summary: About Time
Review: It's about time Animation:Master had a book this good to help people learn it. It's just too bad that it had to come from a third party instead of the software company. I have started and stopped with A:M for over three years I read Jeff Praires books. I read the manual. But i made little progress and was frustrated at every turn.
This book has finnaly explained things in a way that I can understand them! I have made my first model and a simple walk cycle, I even remember why I bought this program in the first place again!
Rating:
Summary: Great compliment to the documentaion
Review: The first review on this book wasn't very good. The review complained that the book was not for a beginner. He was very wrong. This book can be used by beginners to Animation Master. It is not designed to be a book for a beginner to Animation in general. The author does use lots of jargon, but to those familar with 3D Art and Animation it is nothing to worry about. The book is a great compliment to anyone's Animation Master skills. This book used in conjunction with the included documentation works great. There were certain techniques I was unsure about, but this book cleared them up. Again, I must stress that the book is not a beginners book to CG Animation , just a book for Animation Master beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Essential for A:M 2002 Users
Review: This book is by far the best publication ever written about Animation: Master (which isn't saying much at all.) It's well written and concise, and has only a few flaws (such as limited information about FX.) If you use A:M, you should consider this book an essential purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is a great book. I wouldn't suggest it as your first read if you've never done any 3d animation, though. Do ALL the tutorials in the manual that comes with the software first. By the time you finish them you'll know most of the critical lexicon that seems to get some people so frustrated. 3d animation is complex and hard to learn. It's just less hard with Animation Master and this book at your side. If you get stuck on some detail I'd suggest either posting a question at the Hash forum or just move on to another topic in the book and come back to the problem later. Sometimes when you take a break from a problem and come back to it a few days later it becomes easier to solve. People who study the learning process actually have a name for this phenomenon, but I don't remember it . . . hehehe ;)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is a great book. I wouldn't suggest it as your first read if you've never done any 3d animation, though. Do ALL the tutorials in the manual that comes with the software first. By the time you finish them you'll know most of the critical lexicon that seems to get some people so frustrated. 3d animation is complex and hard to learn. It's just less hard with Animation Master and this book at your side. If you get stuck on some detail I'd suggest either posting a question at the Hash forum or just move on to another topic in the book and come back to the problem later. Sometimes when you take a break from a problem and come back to it a few days later it becomes easier to solve. People who study the learning process actually have a name for this phenomenon, but I don't remember it . . . hehehe ;)
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