Character Animation with LightWave [6]: Challenge Your Creativity with the Artist's Choice for Character Animation

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this! It's NOT about Character Animation!
Review: I have many LW books, and too was excited to see this one available (I actually bought it a yr ago and wanted to write a review as I was here). However this book does absolutely *nothing* in terms of teaching the necessities of Character Animation. NOTHING essential - No Character Rigging or techniques on Modelling for rigging, No Layout Setups of Rigs - NOTHING! Just a self indulgent chapter or two on how cool the author is for getting his own head scanned. And I can't believe the completely LAME and stupid waste of pages this guys goes to when he shows how to make a "Monster Eye" color map by stitching together 10 digital photos of closeups of his eye looking different directions in Photoshop. With the 2 CDs that come with this book you'd think he'd get something right. This Author has too much time on his hands and not enough LW chops - either that or he just has No idea as to what's important for Char Anim...- only LW 5 techniques. Skip this book!!!

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this! It's NOT about Character Animation!
Review: I have many LW books, and too was excited to see this one available (I actually bought it a yr ago and wanted to write a review as I was here). However this book does absolutely *nothing* in terms of teaching the necessities of Character Animation. NOTHING essential - No Character Rigging or techniques on Modelling for rigging, No Layout Setups of Rigs - NOTHING! Just a self indulgent chapter or two on how cool the author is for getting his own head scanned. And I can't believe the completely LAME and stupid waste of pages this guys goes to when he shows how to make a "Monster Eye" color map by stitching together 10 digital photos of closeups of his eye looking different directions in Photoshop. With the 2 CDs that come with this book you'd think he'd get something right. This Author has too much time on his hands and not enough LW chops - either that or he just has No idea as to what's important for Char Anim...- only LW 5 techniques. Skip this book!!!

Rating:
Summary: Not very helpful
Review: I was excited when I saw this book, being fairly new to LW6 (although experience in other apps). I saw it as a chance to get good with the character animation toolset. However, the book is mostly general character animation theory, and has little to with Lightwave at all. Sure, it has valid info on designing and storyboarding characters in 3D, but I already know that -- I wanted detailed information on how to apply what I know to Lightwave 6. I'd advise on skipping this one. There's better info out on the web, for free.

Rating:
Summary: Not very helpful
Review: I was excited when I saw this book, being fairly new to LW6 (although experience in other apps). I saw it as a chance to get good with the character animation toolset. However, the book is mostly general character animation theory, and has little to with Lightwave at all. Sure, it has valid info on designing and storyboarding characters in 3D, but I already know that -- I wanted detailed information on how to apply what I know to Lightwave 6. I'd advise on skipping this one. There's better info out on the web, for free.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Resource
Review: It's not a bad book, but if you have Doug Kelly's first CA book, you will find Character Animation with LightWave [6] somewhat disappointing. Most of the information in this book is not LightWave [6] specific at all; the content is fairly generalized, and the same info can be found in a half dozen other animation books. I had hoped that this book would go more in-depth with the new character tools in LW 6.5 but, quite frankly, I'm finding the regular manuals to be far more informative.

I'm returning my copy immediately. If I can't get a refund, then it's hello, e-bay.

-drg

Rating:
Summary: Badly Named
Review: The first 5 chapters of this book cover story writing and storyboarding. The premise behind this is that you can't design a character without having a story. The next few chapters dealt primarily with how you would use very expensive digitizing equipment (think laser telemetry), and how to touch up data artifacts. The last few chapters deal with outputting your project. I saw nothing on modeling and animation using Lightwave as the primary tool. I'll give away the big secret of the book right here: Build a clay model and photograph it.

Rating:
Summary: Screenshots are LW[6] but techniques are LW5
Review: When I upgraded from Lightwave 5.6 to Lightwave 6.x, I did so fully understanding that there would be a learning curve. Consequently, I did so armed to the teeth with all the publications I could get ahold of. I had read Doug Kelly's earlier Lightwave 5 book and found it helpful, so I purchased it along with Dan Ablan's "Inside LW[6]" and "Lightwave 6.5 Magic".
Fortunately, I read Newtek's manual thoroughly and worked through Ablan's book before I even opened "Character Animation w/LightWave[6]" I find it difficult to believe that Mr. Kelly even upgraded to Lightwave[6] before writing the book. Most of the tutorials are a throwback to Version 5, in fact I'll wager that most of the CD-ROM material was generated on pre LW[6] software. Features like Skelegons, infinite Modeler layers, Surface and Graph Editors are hardly mentioned, if at all. New tools like point extenders, interactive smooth shifting and the band saw are ignored. These features alone represent a fundamental shift in the way animators think. Anyone interested in expanding their Lightwave skillset would find this book and its tutorials a pointless exercise.

Rating:
Summary: Screenshots are LW[6] but techniques are LW5
Review: When I upgraded from Lightwave 5.6 to Lightwave 6.x, I did so fully understanding that there would be a learning curve. Consequently, I did so armed to the teeth with all the publications I could get ahold of. I had read Doug Kelly's earlier Lightwave 5 book and found it helpful, so I purchased it along with Dan Ablan's "Inside LW[6]" and "Lightwave 6.5 Magic".
Fortunately, I read Newtek's manual thoroughly and worked through Ablan's book before I even opened "Character Animation w/LightWave[6]" I find it difficult to believe that Mr. Kelly even upgraded to Lightwave[6] before writing the book. Most of the tutorials are a throwback to Version 5, in fact I'll wager that most of the CD-ROM material was generated on pre LW[6] software. Features like Skelegons, infinite Modeler layers, Surface and Graph Editors are hardly mentioned, if at all. New tools like point extenders, interactive smooth shifting and the band saw are ignored. These features alone represent a fundamental shift in the way animators think. Anyone interested in expanding their Lightwave skillset would find this book and its tutorials a pointless exercise.