Books for Prep | |
 - my opinionOverall, I think this is a very helpful book however it would have been better with color illustrations and the ones included are to small. Rating:  - Great stuffThe best general Lightwave v9 book around. Masterfully written, great tutorials and clear explanations. I agree that the pictures should have been color, but I don't think the book publisher has been able to make that a profitable venture, especially with the limited appeal of a book like this. Unfortunate, but they don't have the budget of Visual Quickstart and the like. I am glad they spent their budget on making the content kickass. Black and white pictures just make the diagrams that much clearer ;-) Rating: - Truly Essential ReadingThis is book contains some of the clearest explanations of Lightwave tools I have ever read. What makes this work as more than a reference (which it certainly will be for a good while) is that the tools or features are explained along with some genuine use cases for when you'd want to use such a capability. The example usages are well written and easily to visualize thanks to generous illustrations. Yes, they are small, but are well labeled. I much prefer the Essential series (also own Essential Lightwave 8) for its concise descriptions and get-to-the-point examples. The information density here is excellent. Little if any fluff. Unlike the previous version, this one is divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced sections which might help guide your reading. I found the section on projection mapping to be worth the purchase of the book alone. I've read the Lightwave PDFs, the Wordware Lightwave Texturing book as well as numerous help forums, and web sites and I've not once had UV mapping explained so well. The tutorial on how to build a UV map for a fighter jet goes through not only the unwrapping process but the types of maps you might want to try to make better textures. This type of pragmatic advice above and beyond the goals of the tutorial are some of the great hidden benefits to this book. Often tutorials will just go far enough to explain how to do something without much hinting as to why. Take the discussion on sub-patching as another example in the Advanced Modeling section. I've worked with sub-patch modeling for years and was always curious as to how pros decided when to use it or not. As it turns out my way of thinking was pretty close to the contents, but it always helps to read someone else's impressions. Basically this book made me go back to read some of the tools that I thought I already knew just to make sure I'm not missing something. One thing that I had issues with is that some of the tutorials depend on plug-ins. At least in one case, the plug-in used was not included on the DVD and the link to it in the appendices was not working. I managed to find it using search engines after a while, but I'm not sure why all the used plug-ins weren't included on the DVD. This problem was in reference to one of the video tutorials on the DVD (surfacing with weightmaps). If you own the previous version there is repeated content, but not so much as to invalidate buying this version. Its a good 33% thicker and there's much more to learn including a new section on stylized characters, character rigging, node editor, the aforementioned projections section, discussions of the new 9.x cameras, etc. I haven't made it through the whole book yet but it looks like some of the old tutorials and examples have been expanded as well. Finally, I like the fact that you can easily come back to a section describing some functionality and re-learn without having to read a whole chapter. Often I'm in the middle of a project and want to just remember how to use a tool. I can find that section and easily refresh my skills with this book. Bottom line: If you're anywhere near starting in on learning Lightwave you owe it to yourself to read this book. Do the examples. Watch the videos. Intermediate users can probably still benefit especially those coming back to Lightwave from an older version. I rank myself as an Advanced-Beginner (2 years Lightwave hobbiest). Rating: - Amazing Resouce - despite B/W printThis has to be the most detailed and informational book on Lightwave9 I have seen to date. Every aspect is discussed in great detail and practical usage notes are sprinkled in virtually every page. It's easy to tell, that the author(s) have a lot of working knowledge. In fact, the most useful information are the little tidbits on what works and what doesn't which saves a lot of time in trouble shooting. One caveat though dims the book. The screenshots are relatively small (compared to the print resolution) and all in black and white. This is less problematic when using the included disk with all screenshots (in color) and good training videos. However, it's a bit disruptive nevertheless. Another factor is the odd format of the book; stubby but thick, which makes it harder to flip through the book. The samll print helps packing a lot of information, but may be a problem for people with less than perfect eyesight. Rating: - If only.... ...if only I'd had this book 3 years ago! I bought LightWave8 a few years ago, and was unable to get past the text-only interface, and put it aside after about a month of frustration. In the last 3months I've tried at least 10 other 3D apps, including LW9 again. I would really like to be able to use it, but again, couldn't crack the gui. As a result, I settled on another 3D app (email me if you want to know which & why)...I'm very happy with the other program, but the point is, I may have stayed with LW9 if I only had the right learning tool to begin with. This book is phenomenal...well printed and well laid out as well. The first thing that struck me about this book (besides the striking cover and the thickness) is the attitude of the authors. Up front in the dedication they write with heart-felt empathy: "To all those who have yearned to create great works with LightWave yet found themselves facing a steep and seemingly insurmountable learning curve...we know exactly how you feel. This book was written for you. We hope that it causes you to grow in your skills and inspire others with your wonderful artistic visions." And you can tell they put their hearts & souls into it. The book is a chunk, no getting around it, but it is packed with well written and solid information. And when you add the video tutorials, it's an incredible learning tool. I'm committed to another app for now, but when time permits, I'll get back to LightWave....I feel a lot better about it now...I don't have the sense of forboding as I used to, now that I have Steve, Kevin & Timothy to show me the way. Thanks, guys!!! In association with Amazon.com | |