Product Description

Animated short films are a unique form of storytelling that allows you to bring your characters and ideas to life. If you’ve ever considered telling your own visual story but haven’t been sure of how to get started, you’ve come to the right place. Written by experienced animators and producers, this book provides practical and insightful ideas into how to use Autodesk® 3ds Max® for your own short fi lm productions. It is about using the tools in 3ds Max to create short films that are on par with feature films. It teaches 3ds Max users everything about animated fi lm creation from coming up with a story, storyboards, character rigging, and animation to lighting, lip syncing, facial animation, and editing. The book provides a unique look at film production through the use of an actual film, Vacant Planet: A Curious Bit of Scrap as a case study. This case study is evaluated through a series of tutorials in you will create using methods similar scenes to those found in Vacant Planet. Using the insights and techniques highlighted in the case study, along with the files on the companion DVD-ROM, you will work through the entire process and be ready to turn your own stories into animated tales. The book does assume prior 3ds Max knowledge and is written for users who want to turn their skills toward creating short films. This is a must-have book for 3ds max users, film artists, and character animators who want to use Max’s animation power to the fullest!

KEY FEATURES: * Details the entire process of creating a short fi lm from story inception to using 3ds Max to produce the film * Provides the only complete guide to detailed animated film production with 3ds Max * Uses a real film series, Vacant Planet, to instruct through tutorials and case studies * Includes color inserts illustrating the techniques covered * Includes a DVD-ROM with the entire short Vacant Planet: A Curious Bit of Scrap, and the sample animations from the book. It also includes all of the tutorial files, a fully set up character that readers can animate with right away, and clips of original dialogue to animate to

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Windows 2000 or Windows XP 256 MB of RAM and an Intel P4 1.4 (or equivalent AMD processor) or better.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1079183 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 372 pages

About the Author
Although he keeps getting roped into TD work he is primarily a character animator. Over the years he has worked on television shows and cinematics for popular games. In the past three years his expertise in 3ds Max has been crucial to the completion of every project he’s been on. He is currently trying to bring Vacant Planet to your living room. JOSH BOOK (Burbank, CA) is an animator who has worked as a character animator, FX animator, director, and lead artist for over 10 years in almost every visual entertainment medium, including feature films, television, commercials, and games. Known equally for his ideas and visualization as well as his animation abilities, he has been brought in early on pilots for MTV and HBO, and for development work on several feature films.

Customer Reviews

Good, Inspirational Book!
I would suggest this book wether you are just starting out in 3D or getting ready to animate..I found it a good source of inspiration, Even tho I still have no time for my own projects! :-)

Well worth the $$

Had a lot of potential but fell short of the mark
I would have like to give this book a 5 stars like the other guys but like I said I think the book had a lot of promise potential but miss the mark. so to me I could only give it 2 and a half star because it seem like only half of the information was there which was alot of good information but at the same time some subjects were left out or wasn't covered enough or just skimmed over that should have been covered through tutorials and exercises like almost the end of the book on the subject like rendering,compositing and post-production work etc. maybe he could have used combuston or adobe after effects, there were no exercises or tutorial covering any of that.

The book started great with the concepts of characters and story boarding etc. but did not end with a real finished "professional short film". as the title leads you to believe.

In some case no explanations on the how and why. like you do a little of rigging, skinning and animation then you get to facial animation but there is no real talk about morph targets explanation about them how to set them up for animation. its like you are just thrown into facial animation with no explanation of morph targets or how that is set them up, then there are file(s) missing from the cd which is supposed to go along and follow with the book and some type o's .

I e-mailed the authors which sometimes it seem to take sometime getting a response back from them on issues and questions about the book.and even then answers semmed kind of vague or I didn't really feel like he answer my question(s) that was asked. I would think if I was going to put out an book I would have and or make the time to respond back to those who may have questions about the book. which brings me to another thing. I have gotten other books in the past dealing with 3d, and I have never had to write the author because something didn't make sense. well, maybe once because of a type-o. usually the book explained it well enough.

so there was no question as to what that the author(s) were trying to say or the point they were trying to get across. I said that to say just because you know something and do it well, does not mean you can teach it well because one of the reviews here talk about how the authors had all of the experience working in the 3d field. and that is probably true. but knowing something and teaching something is totally different.

"Professional short films" the title itself is a big range to cover. and the book does not do that well covering it. I know that because having went through the book I still have questions which makes me want to go back through the book but I know the answers are not there.

The book probably should have been called "Animation 101". don't get me wrong, I did walk away from the book feeling like I did learn alot and the book was somewhat inspirational. but at the same time I have more question about things that weren't answered that should have been answered along with the other information I did learn.

When I think of the word film(s) or movie. I don't know about you but I I think of a finished film or movie it's like if you went to see a movie. you wouldn't go spend money to watch a half finished film or movie, would you? it would be like watching a 3d animated film and part way through the film everything goes dark or the character(s) stop moving and animating or their mouths are moving but there is no sound. the projects in this book should have lead up to a finished product but they didn't nor did the book itself lead up to a finished products.

It was like the book left you hanging. which is where I also feel the book fell short of its mark. I did walk away knowing more than I did before I read this book and feeling more confident about what I was doing but at the same time I walked away a not as confident and uneasy about areas I still have questions that I didn't really think were covered or answered. I gave it a 2 and a half stars but I'm going to change it to a 3 stars. (if I could).

From devising a story and storyboards to rigging characters and animation
Chris Neuhahn and Josh Book's Professional Short Films With Autodesk 3DS Max teaches how to use the tools in 3ds Max to create short films, from devising a story and storyboards to rigging characters and animation, using different techniques in the process, and editing to produce a polished product. An actual film, Vacant Planet: a Curious Bit of Scrap, is used as a case study and files on the accompanying DVD-ROM help users develop their own stories for an animated tale. You have to have prior 3ds Max basics down to benefit: this is for the user who wants to move on to more professional pursuits in the short film format.