Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2005

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this book
Review: I bought this book thinking to improve my knowledge about VIZ, but that book is exacly the same 3D VIZ 3, with the same examples, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the money
Review: I must admit that it took me two months to decide wether to buy this one or not and it was worth the wait. I am no newbie in 3D modeling (I use Maya) but as I am currently learning MAX with architecture modeling as my goal , I decided to see if this book teaches me new tricks - It does. This book is 99% architecture related and has very usefull info for both newbies AND pros alike. It is written in an easy to understand language and is chock full with tips and tricks. The text is very dense and lots and lots of screen captures - mostly small ones so the book is not a images-only book. The authors took considerable time to update the information with regard to the new features of VIZ2005.
Two missing chapters, though: NURBS and Patch modeling (the latter mentioned in a tiny chapter in the appendix)

There is also a much needed chapter on VIZ and PhotoShop and many more issue that are usually missing in MAX/VIZ books.

One BIG problem with this book: Your competition may benefit from it , too....



Rating:
Summary: cook-book-ish
Review: It's Ok, but not all I (novice) had hoped for. It takes a lot of time to get through: tutorials are like tedious stories, every step is written down in a full sentence. This way it takes pages to do things that, looking back, aren't really that complex. And even then not every thing you're doing is explained. Also, not every story is told to the end!
I'd like to see a more clear layout with theory and tutorials separated. If the chapters started out with bit of theory (with catchwords in the margin, also mentioning functions you don't need for the specific, follwing exercise)and the tutorials had shorter, clearer instructions (perhaps in a more steno or even graphic way) you would not only learn quicker; the book would also be more valuable as a reference book.
Though: In the end you will master Viz. The writers do pay attention to explaining you why Viz 'does' things the way it does, the way Viz 'thinks'. That will turn out to be usefull.