3D Studio MAX 3(r) Professional Animation - Softcover

The book assumes the reader has some experience with Max, and it does not pause to measure your skills. Budding animators still honing their model-making skills will find Max project files (including the models used in the book) on the accompanying CD-ROM. The human skeleton shown in the chapter on "Basic Character and Creature Set-up" is a finely built character and worth having in any model library.

The lion's share of the book covers techniques for character animation, starting with Max's basic deformation tools in chapter 1, "Animating with Multiple Modifiers," to more advanced tools like Maxscript, sliders, adjusting spring-back values for joints, and creating constraints to control bone movement. Wonderful examples demonstrate rigging characters for movement, controlling and constraining movement, and working around such problems as gimbal lock.

Skeletal animation can only take you so far: chapter 5, "Facial Animation," deftly describes not only Max morphing techniques for animating things like lips, eyes, and cheeks but also explains the principles of and reasons for such movement (though you could probably do without the Latin names of facial muscles). A key section in this chapter, with a discussion and short tutorial on importing and reading a dialog track, may only occupy a few pages, but its information should not be taken lightly. Learning to read tracks and converting what you hear into movement is a fundamental skill in character animation. Kudos to the authors for writing about it, but it would have been preferable to see this earlier.

The last third of the book, "Animating the Environment," concentrates on other types of noncharacter animation. This includes controlling the camera, animating lights, and adding animation effects such as particle systems to create smoke and dust.

When practicing professionals in a given field take the time to share their experience, it is a generous gesture that benefits everyone in that field. 3D Studio Max 3 Professional Animation, concisely written and clearly illustrated by several experienced animators, is a good example of such benevolent generosity. --Mike Caputo

Angie Jones is a 3D animator with over six years' experience with 3D Studio MAX and specializing in character animation. She is currently an animator at Oddworld Inhabitants (http://www.oddworld.com), creators of the Sony PlayStation games Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus and currently producing Munch's Oddysee. Prior to joining Oddworld Inhabitants in May of 1998, she was a Senior 3D Animator at The Lightspan Partnership Inc. At Lightspan, Angie worked on over 25 of the 60+ character driven educational software products released for the PC and Sony PlayStation. In 1995, Jones also worked on the children's educational TV show Reality Check for Mindflex, Inc., New Line Home Video, and Conduit Communications. This production aired on both NBC and CBS affiliates in the Summer and Fall of 1995. She also worked as a successful freelance and animator in Atlanta, Georgia after graduating from the Atlanta College of Art in 1994.

Other credits to her freelance career include: Coca-Cola USA, McDonald's Worldwide, and Majority Stock Presentations; AT&T True Experience On-line Interface; Castleway Entertainment Film Trailer; and the "Cyberdillo" 3DO Game by Panasonic. Finally, Angie was introduced to the field of technical writing by George Maestri with whom she co-authored another New Riders book, Inside 3D Studio Max R2 Volume III Animation. In addition, Angie was Artist and Tech Editor for George Maestri's Digital Character Animation 2: Essential Techniques.

Her freelance work and her drive to help others learn about computer animation continues under the identity of Spicy Cricket Animation at http://www.spicycricket.com who you see on the cover of this book.

Seán Bonney is a 3D animator, fine artist, and designer who lives in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia. His effects career began at age 10 with the careful construction, pyrotechnic rigging, and fiery destruction of a model B-17 bomber.

After considering the vast influence George Lucas holds in the computer graphics industry, Seán has refused to reveal the final fate of his Star Wars action figures. Seán graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, in 1991, with a B.F.A. in Illustration and Design. He has been employed as Graphic Designer for the Central Rappahannock Regional Library system for eight years. He has worked for Rainbow Studios in Phoenix, AZ, on a variety of game and broadcast projects. Sean is currently the principal of Anvil Studios, and specializes in freelance animation and game design. For more information about Seán Bonney or Anvil Studio, visit the website at anvil-studio.com or email sbonney@anvil-studio.com.

Brandon Davis is an effects animator at visual effects studio Computer Café on the California central coast. Though his background covers many facets of 3D animation, including AEC, design visualization, and game development, he specializes in procedural animation, particle and volumetric effects for broadcast, cinematics, and film. He has made a name for himself in the 3D industry by consistently annoying people and telling bad jokes about his former days as a paratrooper.

Sean Miller, who has a background in fine arts, theater, and computer graphics, is a character animator at Oddworld Inhabitants. The head of the real-time animation team for the 3D adventure game Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, he has also worked on the in-game character animations and the award-winning cinematics for the game Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus.

Shane Olsen is an artist with the gaming company Saffire, which creates games for Nintendo, Electronic Arts, G.T. Interactive, and Midway. Recently he worked on several characters for Titus's new Xena Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate game for Nintendo 64.