Ray Dream 5 f/x: Advanced 3D Modeling, Rendering, and Post-Rendering Effects

Rating:
Summary: If you're an ABSOLUTE beginner this book MIGHT be for you.
Review: R. Shamms Mortier should reconsider his line of work. He has no business writing books that deal in computer graphics -a subject he obviously knows little to nothing about. His ideas are weak and his graphics are terrible. The average beginner can learn more from the Manuals included with RayDream Studio. I strongly reccomend the "Ray Dream Handbook" (available at amazon.com) it is far superior to any of the dribble that Mr. Mortier is spitting out.

Rating:
Summary: Pure Garbage
Review: This author is not much of a writer or a teacher, this is not just my opinion, it is a fairly universal fact. Mr. Mortier has a strong reputation for his great quantity and consistency low quality/high price computer books. Please understand, this isn't your ordinary computer book - this one has been written by Shamms Mortier.

Shamms idea of teaching is to point out the onscreen buttons, and make the reader crank the parameters to their maximum settings to see what they do. Rarely does he explain the underlying concepts of the program or show the reader how to combine concepts to make something useful. Not to mention that his 'art' is of extremely poor taste and quality. This book is BAD. I have a couple working theories as how a book of this low quality was written. First of, Shamms Moritier must have left it to the last minute, the weekend before it was due. I also believe that his monitor must have broken down this weekend, or maybe he doesn't have a monitor, either way he sat down to write this book without the convience of a visual representation of the text. After typing up as much stuff that he could think of off the top of his head, he emailed this text off to the publisher.

This is the only explanation that covers all the facts, unless Shamms Mortier is a con-artist.

Rating:
Summary: I love it!
Review: This book is great! It heled me a bunch, I showeed some of my work to my boss and i got a promotion! But i really am a comp freak if you arent you should never even consider this book.