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Rating: 
Summary: ...for the firing squad.
Review: I have looked thru several of Shamms 3d books and his name says it all..it is a "sham" !!!!!!
What happen to logical sequence?
What happen to explanation?
What happen to artistic ability?
What happen to my R-E-F-U-N-D?
I am sorry Mr. Mortier but please leave computers alone, especilly any form of graphic design software.
Enough Said !!!!!
MJ
Florida
Rating: 
Summary: Some decent ideas/tips, but frustrating in other ways
Review: I purchased this book after finding Bryce's own documentation skimpy and/or confusing on certain issues. I've been using Bryce 3D for quite a while and was hoping to furthur expand my knowledge of it. As this book was the only one on the market that I could find about Bryce 3D, I eagerly bought it. But...The book pays a lot of lip-service to the "Planatary Traveler" video and has a short, bland, rather vague forward written by its producer/director. Nothing wrong with that per se, but it ends with a blatent sales-pitch (complete w/phone number) that's completely inappropriate for this kind of book! This is followed on the next page by the author's gushing thanks to said person for writing this "beautiful forward" that he has printed out and hung on his wall...makes one wonder. Along with this kind of hokeyness, I found the book's overall poor grammar distracting and annoying, and the author's "I personally find this feature useless, so don't YOU even bother with it" attitude rather narrow-minded. Also, some of his techniques use over-complicated solutions that could've been dealt with more simply. As a matter of personal taste, I wasn't very impressed with the .MOV animation examples on the book's CD-ROM. Some nice ideas there, but rendered at WAY too low a resolution (grainy to the point of distracting, and I know from experience that you can do much better than that with Bryce. It comes off as laziness more than anything, even if it really wasn't). I also found the author's over-use of a wild quirky camera-movements annoying and gratuitous (just because you have the ability to do something doesn't mean you should all the time)...but then again, that's just my own opinion based on my personal tastes. Your mileage may vary. On the positive side: this book DOES have many good ideas and suggestions that could be used as solid starting-points rather than end-all solutions. It also does a good job of explaining some of the more esoteric functionality buried within Bryce 3D, which I have found quite useful. So, I'd suggest this book if you're looking for some Bryce starting points if you can deal with the poor wording/grammar and general narrow-mindedness on certain issues. Otherwise, you can find a wealth of tutorials and technical tips on the Web for free.
Rating:
Summary: Adequate but not stupendous
Review: It is my opinion that if you have not got any background with 3D rendering or Bryce that this book will help you understand the basic tool functions, but not necessarily the more complex feats this program can do. Recommend for a newbie but not for people who have worked with other 3D programs or Bryce 2...tad on the elementary side.
Rating:
Summary: a rough regurgitation of the manual
Review: Not very substantial. Looks like a quick rough paraphrasing of the manual. If you are looking for a thorough handbook you can't do better than the books Susan Kitchens has written---they will open your eyes to the subject like you can't believe.
Rating:
Summary: a rough regurgitation of the manual
Review: Not very substantial. Looks like a quick rough paraphrasing of the manual. If you are looking for a thorough handbook you can't do better than the books Susan Kitchens has written---they will open your eyes to the subject like you can't believe.
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