LightWave 3D 8 Cartoon Character Creation, Volume 1: Modeling & Texturing

LightWave 3D 8 Cartoon Character Creation, Volume 1: Modeling & Texturing Review

Character design, modeling, and texturing are the fundamental building blocks of character animation. LightWave 3D [8] Cartoon Character Creation Volume 1: Modeling & Texturing includes both general theory and comprehensive tutorials for every aspect of modeling and texturing 3D characters. Learn how, why, and when to use the most efficient techniques so you can have fun creating your own fantastic 3D characters. Find out how to configure LightWave 3D for character creation, and learn the necessary steps of the character concept, design, and planning stages. Discover multiple methods for modeling characters and clothing using subdivision patches. Understand the techniques for creating complex UV mapping. Learn about surface attributes and surfacing characters. Enhance the appearance of your characters through the use of gradients and procedural textures. Explore a variety of techniques for creating image maps and applying them to your characters.

3ds Max Modeling for Games, Second Edition: Insider's Guide to Game Character, Vehicle, and Environment Modeling: Volume I

3ds Max Modeling for Games, Second Edition: Insider's Guide to Game Character, Vehicle, and Environment Modeling: Volume I Review

The 2nd edition of Andy Gahan's 3ds Max Modeling for Games, covering the latest version of 3ds Max is here.  This book features the realistic style of art that the 1st edition covered, with six completely new chapters for the new version of the software. These newly added sections including: an Intro to 3ds Max, a new normal maps tutorial, expanded portfolio section, LOD's, a brand new environment and much more - as well as updates throughout covering latest version of Max.

The gallery will consist of a mix of inspirational concept art, and orthographics for the reader to build various models from. The book comes to us directly from successful game artists within commercial game development circles (Gahan + contributors) and consists of  tutorials that start with simpler models and gradually move up to more complex builds.  The strength of this book is that it teaches all of the important game modeling elements: character & environment modeling, mapping, texturing, basic animating of credible game characters and levels - using latest version of 3ds Max. As readers move from tutorial to tutorial, they build their own portfolio of high quality work.

Website (www.3d-for-games.com) is unique - an online forum where readers can post and answer questions about their work. In terms of developing a portfolio, online peer critiques are invaluable, and current readers have made use of this feature, in fact some have happily become the forum responders (along with Andy) to coach and develop new artists at work.  Also included: step-by-step project files for each chapter; all the relevant texture files and source photos; panoramic skies, small scene objects, bonus texture maps & models so that artists can create whole scenes very quickly without starting from scratch each time; countless examples of what's hot and what's not in 3D modeling and also enough support images and photos to keep the budding artist busy for months.  Unrivalled support in over 10,000 current posts - backing up the book with a lively forum and community of readers from all over the world, ready to help your work. 

* New, expanded tutorials (with the time they take indicated) lead readers through a character and environment from beginning to end and become more complex as the book progresses * Companion website features a robust and supportive forum where readers can get commentary on new work, develop their skills and network with games professionals--currently has over 10,000 posts * Companion website also offers all project files for tutorials and source images and photos to keep the budding artist busy for months

Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls

Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls Review

A unique, in-depth approach to creating realistic characters in Maya. Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls' author, Chris Maraffi, has expertise in the field and in the classroom that translates to the knowledge and solid teaching skills needed to make this book a "must-have"!

The current trend in computer graphics is greater organic realism. Many of the top-grossing movies today, such as Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park 3 , and Star Wars Episode 2, all feature realistic 3D characters. There is a major need in the 3D community for educational material that demonstrates detailed techniques for achieving this organic reality. Maya is one of the main packages used on such cutting-edge films, and has an established toolset for creating believable 3D characters. Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls is designed to take you through the process of designing, modeling, and setting up animation controls for complex 3D characters. The concepts, techniques, and Maya tools used for each step in the process are presented in each chapter, followed by many hands-on exercises. NURBS, polygon, and subdivision surface modeling techniques are shown for creating the character's skin, and skeleton-based animation controls are covered in detail. You will learn how a character's skin should deform when the skeletal joints and muscles move. Advanced MEL scripted animation controls are also covered extensively.