3ds Max Modeling for Games: Insider's Guide to Game Character, Vehicle, and Environment Modeling: Amazon.co.uk: Andrew Gahan: Books

Review

"This book is a must-have resource for anyone wanting to learn how to make game art in 3ds Max. It has great support on the forums which is a testament to the author's enthusiasm for the subject. My students would be lost without it. If you want to understand how to really make 3d art for games then this is the book you need"

-David Wilson, programme leader, BA (Hons) Computer Games Modelling and Animation, University of Derby, UK

"This is a great book covering most aspects of modeling for games including the basics of 3D, Ambient Occlusion, Normal Maps, Character, Vehicle, Scene Creation and much, much more. It covers everything you need to get you started for your career in games"

-Andy Manns, lead artist, THQ

"An extremely comprehensive book covering all the basic theory and techniques with 3ds Max, currently used within the best game development studios in the industry"

-Alex Perkins, art director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

"For a beginner, getting to grip with 3ds Max is a daunting prospect, but this book picks on the relevant features and aims to get you producing usable 3D game art quickly and efficiently. It gives you a great understanding of what goes into make good 3D video-game art and will give you the vocabulary needed to talk with confidence about in-game models."

-Don Whiteford, creative director THQ Digital UK Ltd.

"This book is one of the most comprehensive, straight-forward, and easy to follow guides for modeling precise and efficient 3D game assets and environments. Andrew Gahan has heard everything every educator has said about what a textbook needs to do to meet the broad stroke of students' needs and abilities in learning how to master 3D modeling with 3ds Max. With simple understanding and imagination, this text can be used to transform modeling for games into modeling for animation or modeling for simulation."

-Tim Harrington, national assistant dean, Game and Simulation Programming, DeVry University

--David Wilson, programme leader, BA (Hons) Computer Games Modelling and Animation, University of Derby, UK --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

This book will provide insider tips, traps, and techniques on how to create 3d assets for use in computer games and simulation systems. The book will consist of a series of tutorials, starting with simpler models and moving up to more complex builds. As the book comes to us directly from successful game artists within commercial game development circles (Gahan and contributors) aspiring game artists will also find keen insights on how to get ahead in the game industry, i.e. how to prepare your personal portfolio to provide an edge in this extremely competitive world of game development. The strength of this book is that it teaches all of the important game modeling elements of 3ds Max: character modeling, environment modeling, mapping. The book covers how to model, texture and animate credible game characters and levels using 3ds max. As readers move from tutorial to tutorial, they will be building their own portfolio of high quality work. The DVD contains countless examples of what's hot and what's not in 3D modeling and also enough support images and photos to keep the budding artist busy for months. Features of this title include: step-by-step project files for each chapter; all the relevant texture files and source photos used to create the texture maps applied to the 3D projects; extras - panoramic skies, small scene objects and a many texture maps and models so that artists can create whole scenes very quickly without starting from scratch each time; royalty free stock photos that artists can use in their own texture maps, models and scenes; and, additional material on the book's bonus website. Author Andy Gahan is a seasoned professional and leading industry expert. Gahan is a key member of an award-winning game team recently scoring number 1 hits in Japan, Europe and America with the Playstation 3 smash hit MotorStorm. Game Modeling techniques offered in this book with artist's potential portfolio in mind. Find out what Art Directors and Managers are looking for. Essentials of 3D game modeling covered - Characters, Vehicles, Assets and Scenes - including lighting and rendering. Find additional tutorials and even contact the author on the book's website.

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Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Really Good 29 Jun 2011

By Amerz Hardy

Format:Paperback

It's a great book, lots of information on 3D modelling. Easy to understand and very well laid out. Tutorials have great examples. Great value and perfect for beginners.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Well worth the price 20 May 2010

By Thomas

Having only bought this book the other day I knew two things:

1. Firstly that I am only adequate with computers and not much better, having a basic knowledge of photoshop I can usually find my way into getting where I need by following instructions

2. That I knew absolutely NOTHING about 3DS max, having only downloaded the new student version for 2011 a few days beforehand.

It was with these two things in mind that I set out to find a book that would not only teach me how to help push artistic skills into the world of 3D modelling, but also familiarise me with a terrifyingly complex program.

This book has done (so far as I have not completed all the tutorials yet!) exactly what it promised. The tutorials are easy to follow and very rewarding for the amount of time that you need to assign to them (around 30 mins - 1 hour). For anyone who has so far commented that it is too difficult to work through for the 3Ds max novice, I would suggest working your way more slowly through the tutorials. I say this because small details can easily be ommitted which result in an unsatisfactory final result with no obvious explanation.

Overall a great buy and product and the CD which comes with it, along with the textures supplied for the tutorials constitute a very effective system of learning

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

A must-have for anyone interested in getting into the industry! 9 Oct 2008

By A. Burrows

Firstly let's have the summary first - this is a great book. I'd been looking for something to give me the specific practices and techniques that are the industry standard for some time and this is finally it!

This is a well rounded book from one of the top artists currently working within the cutting edge of the games industry. It covers a range of practical and likely game assets at both the entry and top skill levels and delivers it all from a technical and creative perspective.

There are plenty of gems of knowledge throughout the book that will continue to make it useful as a reference guide for anyone, and it is clear when it features opinion as well as fact. This is all very cool stuff.

The later chapters of the book build on the experience and knowledge given at the start and although they continue in a step by step guiding fashion it doesn't really `hand-hold' or patronise the reader through it.

Even non-game artists will find something of use here, everyone can get some good info from the wealth on display here.

AND! I've not even mentioned the superb DVD or the related website!