Rating: 
Summary: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Review: Ok, the editor of this book should have really gone through some of the tutorials. It seems a lot of the files that the author copied over still refer to her own drive. Beware- it is for version 3.0 This book touches on different types of techniques for character animation. It is a little bit advanced. If you are new to 3ds stay away! If you are comfortable with Max, then prepared to be confused with tutorials that don't have many diagrams. There is a lot of reading to do. I am a visual person; I need things drawn out for me. There is one cool tutorial on max scripting. There aren't very many of those around. There is a little bit about Character Studio. Not enough for it to be of any value.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing!
Review: Since I began work in MAX, modelling has always been second nature to me. However, my animation technique has never been up to par with my modelling; until I read this book! I must confess, I am a video game freak, and what originally drew me to this book was the fact that the author had created and animated many of my favorite characters. When Pro Animation came to my door, I was more won over by the fact that it covers all of the fine details of animation; from bones to Character Studio. The companion CD has many video examples of the projects that Angie Jones works through with you so that you can compare your work with her work and see where you need improvement. I can't say enough about how much this book has helped me, but I can say that if you need help in animation, it's not far away. Buy it...
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: Since I began work in MAX, modelling has always been second nature to me. However, my animation technique has never been up to par with my modelling; until I read this book! I must confess, I am a video game freak, and what originally drew me to this book was the fact that the author had created and animated many of my favorite characters. When Pro Animation came to my door, I was more won over by the fact that it covers all of the fine details of animation; from bones to Character Studio. The companion CD has many video examples of the projects that Angie Jones works through with you so that you can compare your work with her work and see where you need improvement. I can't say enough about how much this book has helped me, but I can say that if you need help in animation, it's not far away. Buy it...
Rating:
Summary: Cannonball of Information
Review: The entire book is a well-conceived construction of diverse and interesting approaches to the sometimes frustrating world of graphics animation. In particular, and most helpful to me, has been the film references. This has been an eye-opening development in my own thoughts on gaming. The mediums of film and gaming are so close and mirror one another in ways I hadn't considered before, for they are both cinematic, kinetic visual forces. The techniques described in the chapter on camera movements and lighting have been tremendously helpful. And the hand-drawn illustrations of film scenes by Mr. Bonney (in particular one of my all-time favorites, PLANET OF THE APES) are wonderful. It helps to have a book like this that makes it clear just what can be accomplished with imagination and the technical know-how to back it up.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so professional
Review: This book is detailed. It will talk you through a lot of the different techniques you can use to animate, but it's examples are terrible. I am not a professional animator, but even I could do better example material than this. The animation of a slug/worm type thing is terrible, both in terms of it's main movement and its secondary motion. The walk cycles are abysmal with no obvious signs of reference material being used. The Lion animation is laughable. The environment animations look extremely amateur. This book is NOT for professional animators. At best it is a fair resource for finding different techniques to animate. Why they'd release this book for any reason other than to make money is beyond me. It certainly doesn't show MAX up as being a good animation tool.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book but hard to read
Review: This is a truly awsome book for Max character animators. At last we can share some of the secret techniques of the profesionals. I was particularly impressed with the info on IK and how to get the best out of it, plus the chapters on Biped and Physique are very welcome. On a sour note, this book suffers from the same problem that a lot of New Riders books suffer from - poorly written tutorials, sometimes its very difficult to finish a task because the description is obscure or a stage is missed out. Sometimes I wonder if they actually test these tutorials on ordinary users. Overall, it's a great book with loads of essential information but the poorly written tuts loses it a star.
Rating:
Summary: Great book but hard to read
Review: This is a truly awsome book for Max character animators. At last we can share some of the secret techniques of the profesionals. I was particularly impressed with the info on IK and how to get the best out of it, plus the chapters on Biped and Physique are very welcome. On a sour note, this book suffers from the same problem that a lot of New Riders books suffer from - poorly written tutorials, sometimes its very difficult to finish a task because the description is obscure or a stage is missed out. Sometimes I wonder if they actually test these tutorials on ordinary users. Overall, it's a great book with loads of essential information but the poorly written tuts loses it a star.
Rating:
Summary: Great Character/Facial Animation Resource
Review: This is the first Max book I got that covers the finer points of character animation in detail. It gives you good background info, but doesn't skimp on the "how to" and gives plenty of examples. Great chapters on facial animation with morph and a jawbone, and informative character studio tutorials. Saiko da!
Rating:
Summary: Great Character/Facial Animation Resource
Review: This is the first Max book I got that covers the finer points of character animation in detail. It gives you good background info, but doesn't skimp on the "how to" and gives plenty of examples. Great chapters on facial animation with morph and a jawbone, and informative character studio tutorials. Saiko da!
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