Sybex Blender character animation book available for pre-order

[Nichod]

Its a very great deal for the book. At 430+ pages with a DVD @ $26.39. I'd expect it to be more like $50.

[UrbanFuturistic]

Less than £20 in the UK. This may be very useful at some stage, but first I've got to learn how to model my characters. Not any lack of understanding of the software on that part, I just have no talent :D

[orion119net]

Great, yet another choice on which book to buy next...



:bounce:

[fahr]

Any estimate on when it will actually come out? Looks like a good book. I've never used Blender, but I've been hearing a lot of good things about it's new character animation tools lately, so i may try it out. Does Blender work in a node-based way similar to Maya, where any channel can be connected to or drive any other channel?

[TonyMullen]

Hi,

Thanks for the responses! Actually the page count I think will wind up more around 460-something pages, and the price currently listed on Amazon is a special for pre-orders, so some of this information will change a little bit once the book comes out. The list price is $39.99. The slated release date on Amazon is February 27, which if I understand correctly means that the publisher will have the book out slightly before that, although I don't know exactly when. There's been some talk about moving it up a bit, because things have been going a little ahead of schedule. It was originally slated for mid-March.

Blender has a new node system which is currently used for compositing and for materials and shaders, but there are plans to expand the use of nodes. In the book I touch only briefly on the use of material and composite nodes, since they are mainly necessary for more sophisticated effects than I really get into, with the focus on character creation and animation. But I do mention the nodes and show how to get started with using them.

Blender allows interpolation (Ipo) curves to act as drivers for other curves, so yes, channels can drive each other, although this is not done with nodes. It's also possible to use Python functions to drive channels, but this is not something I touch on in the book. I do get into basic Ipo drivers, for example driving shape keys with bone movements. I also show how to use existing Python scripts, but I don't get into any details about actual scripting. Blender uses Python in a similar way to how Maya uses MEL.

Hope this was helpful!

T

[VirgilioVasconcelos]

Hi, TonyMullen!

Well, I´m writing this to congratulate you for this effort.

Blender is a great piece of software, very comparable to industry standards like Maya, Max, C4D or XSI. Maybe one of the major weaknesses of it is just the lack of good bibliography and tutorials for the user base, and you´re helping to fix that! =D

The Blender Foundation is also working on that, funding the Summer of Documentation project, to bring the community stronger documents. Your book surely will help to bring a lot of new users, both newcomers to CG and professionals who want to try the power of this great app.

Congrats, man! I wish you a lot of success on this.

Virgílio

[TonyMullen]

Hi Virgilio,

Thanks very much for the encouraging comments. I agree with you that one of Blender's weak spots has been the lack of well-organized learning material available for it, which was obviously one of the main motivators for me to write this book. All CG software packages have steep learning curves---there are a lot of different skills and processes to master, and each software package has its own way of approaching the tasks, so it can be especially challenging to shift from one mindset to another. But hopefully this book and others like it will help to make Blender a little more accessible. It really isn't that hard to learn, in itself.

It's definitely true that the Blender Foundation is trying to promote the creation of good documentation, like the Summer of Documentation (http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Blender_Summer_of_Documentation) project you mentioned.

People who are interested in my book may also want to get started having a look at Ryan Dale's excellent introduction to character animation tutorial which was part of that project. That can be found here:

http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation

It's also available in a pdf offline version.

Tony

[Trojan123]

Not only do I congratulate you for the book, but I also commend you for not only your efforts, but your service to the rest of the Blender community as well.


A Truespace user, I decided to go with Blender for a number of reasons. Aside from lack of time (thanks to the recent second job), a majoe hurdle keeping me from the big plunge is knowlege. I KNOW Truespace... but the future is with Blender. Especially with scarce spare time, the knowlege I have with TS sometimes trumps the future that BL promises.

There are so many tuts and downloadable references, books, manuals out there... but when someone like myself tries to find (1) documentation to learn from and pair that with the proper software release, it becomes incredibly frustrating. Just because Blender 2.4X was ready for DL didn't mean that the online free manual was anything past 2.3. And try to ask for help from forums without other Blenderheads treating you like an idiot. Or I can go to Amazon and order the 2.3 manual that comes with the CD. Only problem with that is that it's older.

I sincerely hope that your book offers the much needed standardized educational resource for those who are trying to more easily and hassle-free advance their understanding and skills. It does sound good.

Chris

[TonyMullen]

Trojan123,

Thanks for the encouragement. You're definitely right, one of the big challenges in documenting Blender is how fast development proceeds. Already there are some really significant new features available in the CVS repository (the development version, which of course is available to the public also) which I haven't documented in my book.

Once a person gets a handle on what they're doing with Blender, believe me, these fast advances become very welcome. But up until that point it can be pretty confusing. Especially since the last published book on Blender was on 2.3, which is a major version back.

Right now is a good time to dive into Blender, because the online documentation is pretty much caught up to the 2.4* versions (the links I posted above are all totally up to date) and the next version up will be 2.43, (scheduled for probably around January) which will have a lot of new features, but won't make anything you learn with 2.42 obsolete. My book will come packaged with 2.42 and will be geared towards that version, with a few words on what to expect with 2.43. I'd recommend people use the book with the version it comes with, and then forge ahead onto newer versions once they've got a grip on that one.

I'm sorry to hear you haven't had good experiences with forums so far. I post regularly at http://www.blenderartists.org/forum and I especially try to track down and answer questions by new users trying to get their bearings, as I know a lot of other experienced users also do. I've always found that to be a very helpful resource.

T

[Mazer]

Can I see some examples of your work ? I supose you must have a strong experience in character animation if you write a book about-it.

[TonyMullen]

Hi Mazer,

By all means, please take a look at the images in my CGSociety portfolio, which you should be able to find clicking the button under my name (at least, that's how it shows up to me). There are a few stills there from some various animations I have done or am in the process of doing.

My professional experience is pretty varied. I worked for several years as a newspaper cartoonist, and have since worked as a computer science researcher, a programmer, an illustrator (both in traditional and digital media) and a teacher. I'm currently a college lecturer in computer science in Tokyo where my taught courses include classes in Blender modeling and animation and in Python (among others). I'm also an independent filmmaker, and have just finished a 25 minute 16 mm live action/stop motion animation film called Gustav Braustache and the Auto-Debilitator which is currently in submission at several festivals. I've done CG animation work for several other independent filmmakers and for some educational projects here in Japan. I also write a regular monthly magazine tutorial on CG animation with Blender in MacPeople magazine, one of Japan's most widely read Mac-oriented magazines.

Of course, what kind of work a reader of my book will be able to do will depend on that person's own talents and dedication.

Tony

[VirgilioVasconcelos]

Hi TonyMullen and Mazer. =D

Well... I think it´s good to know how deep is the knowledge of who´s teaching. But that´s not all.

I don´t know TonyMullen, but I believe the fact that he is a teacher is so (if not most) important than his animation portfolio. I say this because that fact may lead you to wonder how good he is to PASS knowledge to other people, how didatic would be his book. Maybe his major strenght is to collect information from distinct sources and rearrange them to make it more understandable.

I know a lot of good professionals that are awfull teachers and not-so-good professionals that are superb in the art of helping other people to learn.

*edit: I wrote that just to make a point, making generalizations. I didn´t use any judgements on his professional work, as I´m not qualified for that. =D

Cheers

[TonyMullen]

I believe the fact that he is a teacher is so (if not most) important than his animation portfolio.

I tend to agree. It is a fact that the skills and talents required to create animations are quite different from the ability to explain how to do it, and to pass on the technical information required.

I am constantly striving to improve my own animation work in all respects. The efforts I put into the book were aimed at making it as informative and clear as I possibly could, and focusing on important areas in Blender that can be confusing or obscure.

Once the book is released and has garnered some reviews I will be in a better position to know how well I've succeeded in that. I should also mention that to the extent that the book is helpful, it is largely due to the efforts of the editors who worked with me on it, in particular the technical editors Roland Hess, one of the developers of Blender and an animator himself, and Bassam Kurdali, the director of Elephants Dream, who both gave really terrific feedback.

T

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