does anybody have read these books?

[danyrey]

Gimme a week and i tell you what the first one is like. I luckily found a used copy for 35EUR.

[CarlosA]

INSPIRED 3D CHARACTER SET UP
my friend has this book, and as soon as i browsed the book,
i was blown away!! that is the most detailed rigging book i have ever seen.
i think you should buy it as soon as you can.

[pomru]

I bought both Inspired 3D Character Animation and Inspired 3D Character Setup, and now that I finally found a copy of Inspired 3D Modeling and Texturing at a local bookstore, I'll be getting it too as soon as I find a good discount ($60 US per book is rather expensive, especially if you get more than one book from this series! :argh: ).

I almost didn't buy Inspired 3D Character Animation because it has similar information found in George Maestri's [digital] Character Animation (http://www.rubberbug.com/books.htm) series, which I already had. What convinced me to get the book were the interviews with industry professionals about their work practices. Although you can find those kind of interviews on the web, here is a nice selection contained in a book, and they talked to people from different animation fields (film, commercial, and games) so you get to read about various approaches to the problem of bringing characters to life.

There are also rigging tutorials on the web, but Inspired 3D Character Setup is probably the most complete book on rigging to date. What I really like about this book is that it's geared toward the audience that needs this info the most: the technical director. Again, the included interviews with professional TDs are great.

Since the books cost $60 US, I really didn't want to order Inspired 3D Modeling and Texturing without flipping through the pages first. Luckily last weekend, I was finally able to find a copy at a local bookstore to browse through its contents. The modeling portion of the book looks very good, and it takes a different approach than most of the modeling tutorials I've found on the web. The author explains the 4 types of modeling you can do in Maya: polygons, NURBs, patches, and subdivisions; and then he goes further by discussing modeling strategies of each type. The texturing portion of the book seemed lightweight in comparison, but the information on UV mapping might come in handy.

And there you have it... A little bit too wordy, but hopefully helpful enough for your purchasing decision.

[MrWyatt]

O.K. convinced. It seems I really have to buy these books, so I´m on my way to rob a bank or some old ladys to get the money for them. Thanks guys.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.