Let me emphasize that what follows are my _impressions_ I got from looking through the book. By no means do I intent to dissuade anyone from purchasing this book But I think harkyman is the first to acknowledge the book - done under a tight deadline - has some issues.

My initial impression of came from the image on the cover, and it wasn't favorable. The characters on the cover of the book were certainly not the creation of a professional - they lacked style and appeal. To me, this implied - right or wrong - things about the author:

* They weren't a professional modeler
* They weren't likely to be a professional animator
* They weren't likely to have made more than one short animation
* They weren't likely to have knowledge of any package other than Blender

In other words, the level of knowledge that I could expect in the book would likely be shallow.

Again, I emphasize that these were simply impressions I got from looking at the cover. But paging through the book did nothing to dissuade that belief. In fact, I was left with the impression that the only reason the author attempted a short animation in the first place was to write this book. I ended up not spending a lot of time going through the book in detail. As a caveat: I'm not a frequent user of Blender.

Anyway, all these things present reasons a buyer might choose to put the book back on the shelf instead of purchasing it. I don't think it's helpful to attack people who point out issues with the book.

Congratulations on getting the book done!

having read the TOC this book is going to fit in so nicely with the other books that are available. and I would suggest that before anybody criticizes it, they should understand what it is and isn's meant to be.

From what iv seen short covered all the elements represented in the book beautifully.

keep up the good work!!!

Book page with topic breakdown here!

The book is a reasonable price. It compares well with other books in its class.

Book prices are set by publishers, not the author. If you ever publish a book, please let us know if you can suceed in changing the list price, as you will be the first I have ever heard of, who has sucessfully done so.

Regarding the book in question. I consider it in my opinion fairly priced and a reasonable book, which I will be purchasing.

Also Blender is free. When using other programs, several thousand euros is spent on initial purchase, followed by purchasing of several auxillary books, DVD training, DVDs of models, etc.

In Blender only purchase of books is paid for and some training DVDs if desired.

Blender is significantly better value for money.

If I was using max, viz, xsi, maya or my preferred program houdini, I would now have spent 5000 euros or more on various training, manuals, licence, plugins and various other stuff.

With Blender I have spent about 140 euros on various books and auxillary items.

That tells me everything I need to know about Blender.

It will be put to good use.

Can you define what is reasonable price? What maybe reasonable for you, might not be reasonable for somebody else, and while $44 might be reasonable for somebody (like me), it's not for you! Because it's about Blender it should be free or even reasonable?

Are you getting everything for free or for reasonable price in your life? I just think your comment is absurd.

Shame about internet forums, how you have to pile on the diplomacy in order to give honest criticism.

The book looks like it could be a useful resource, You can be a great animator and still not be able to complete a short film like this. The skills involved in planning and organising a project are not to be underestimated, as shown by the many half finished projects we've seen come and go over the years.

Nice one Roland!