Autodesk 3ds Max Essentials teaches the basics of modeling, texturing,
animating, and visual effects to familiarize readers with the program as a
whole and encourages them to find what aspects of the production pipeline
appeal to them. The expository text is reinforced with excellent tutorials, and
the companion website includes tutorial files so readers can learn by
completing hands-on projects in the book. The tutorials offer realistic, job-
related, professional challenges for those new to 3D, and to those coming from
another 3D application. Each chapter leads with an introduction to the topic
and explains methods, as well as why certain methods are used. Each chapter is
richly illustrated with workflow-based projects and examples to make following
the sometimes-difficult subject matter much easier and fun. The book evenly
covers all aspects a beginner should be familiar with for a solid foundation of
3ds Max. Each chapter features compelling full-color screenshots to illustrate
tutorial steps, and chapters conclude with a related and more open-ended
project to further reinforce the chapter´s lessons. Readers can download
starting and ending files for the exercises and additional learning tutorials
so that they can start anywhere in the book and compare their results with the
pros.
