Comments on: Book Review: inspired 3D Short Film Production

By: Kernon

Kernon — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:29:46 +0000

@ai-yo
I have two other books in their series: 3D Modeling and Texture Mapping, and 3D Lighting and Compositing. Frankly, I wouldn't recommend them at all. The book reviewed in this post is on an entirely different level. BTW, each book in the series is written by different authors so, I'm sure that has a lot to do with the quality inconsistencies. There's something to be learned in the other books in their series but, I just felt like those subjects have been better covered by many tutorials that can be found in the Blender community. Plus, they seemed a bit outdated and they tend to be more application specific. I don't think they're worth the cost ($59.99) and, they don't have nearly the volume of content found in the book reviewed in this post.

Now, these are just my personal opinions AND, I'm only referring to the two that I mentioned having.

I'll see if they have others in the series. I just don't want to waste anyone's time presenting something that I'm not personally excited about.

The book reviewed in this post, to me, is worth every penny.

By: ai-yo

ai-yo — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:57:17 +0000

Refering to "the final question: what other books would you like to see reviewed?", it looks like there's a whole series of "Inspired…" books. Malcolm indicates that they have "variable quality". Reviews of that series would great, so we can get an idea of which are of higher quality than others.

By: FromTheDark

FromTheDark — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 03:43:36 +0000

Now this is what is needed! You are so right! It seems that all humans have a need to create and not just a want, the problem being this isn't a manuel to get you from idea to reality. And by the way… what is price when it gives freedom?

p.s. I had no idea that one could work the library system like that… good looking out!

By: Genbod

Genbod — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:49:56 +0000

I love reading book reviews about 3D animation especially from a Blender perspective! I would like to see reviews on any books about texturing, compositing, and rendering.

By: Kernon

Kernon — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 21:09:50 +0000

@Laughing Cheese
I would imagine that most of it could be applied to a full-length production. However, I'm sure there may be some differences. Check the Table of Contents link provided and see all that it covers.

By: Laughing Cheese

Laughing Cheese — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:58:29 +0000

Does this stuff apply to full length production movies too?

By: Kernon

Kernon — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:30:49 +0000

@Henrymop:
That's not foolish at all! In fact, the authors state that what they are presenting is a very common production pipeline but, for your projects you will certainly have to tweak things here and there. There are just too many variables involved.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:17:01 +0000

I love this book. I bought it about six months ago on an impulse and have never begrudged the price. It's extremely good. The "Inspired…" series are a bit variable in quality; this one is non-product-specific and full of general information, putting it above some of their other publications. The text provides a lot of the reasoning behind the various points they make and interviews with various people/projects who did things in different ways. There are no hard and fast rules prescribed and they are explicitly acknowledging that so many variables can affect your particular case that guidelines are the best you can hope for. A lot of the information will sound like something you have already heard or know, in retrospect, but that doens't mean it would be in your thoughts when you started thinking about your short film. Having a few hundred pages of things to remember and think about in one place, nicely classified is useful.

The format of the book is quite nicley done. It's a largish book, but stays open well and the binding hasn't cracked on mine, despite a lot of reading and carrying it around (it's the sort of book that's nice to dive into and cherry-pick sections to re-read now and again).

By: AniCator

AniCator — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 05:29:26 +0000

I like to rush myself when I have the energy. I'm commanding like a man of upstairs and then playing a highly motivated animator which first does his homework (I need to improve that part seriously!) and after that he starts working on his movie/short/whatever.
But sometimes I'm still watching out. Cause you can still not rush art.
First learn modelling, than learn animating, texturing, lightning, composing, rendering. Try to keep that order (which I didn't).

By: Henrymop

Henrymop — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 05:19:36 +0000

Looking good, this is great. This sounds foolish, but I'd like to make up my own "production pipeline", so it will be that much mroe fun. But this is great, as I can get some great dieas from this book.