10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Brilliant!!!!, 12 Jan 2004
This review is from: [digital] Lighting & Rendering (Paperback)
For any one new to 3D modelling, when you come to light and render your own scenes, you soon realise that it's a lot harder than you first thought. Just sticking a couple spot lights around your model or in a scene to light it, does not produce nice looking or realistic results.
For someone like me who never took art & design / photography or a related course at university this book is simply excellent!!!!
This book is written in a very clear and easy to understand style. The layout of the book is very simple with of lots pictures and examples to clearly illustrate all of the key concepts covered. This is one of the big +'s of the book as the author uses series of pictures to clearly show how certain lighting techniques and concepts can completely change the look, mood, feeling, focus or level of realism of a rendering.
This book is not specific to any one modelling package, or in fact to just computer rendering as many of the basic lighting concepts that are covered originate from photography and film.
By explaining the basics of lighting setup, the properties / qualities of light and the use of shadows and shading, the author gives you an understanding that enables you to make design decisions and improve the look, feeling and realism of your scenes.
I can not recommend this book more highly, after reading you will finally have an idea of how to approach the lighting of your scenes, and a firm grounding to build on. There are many 'golden nuggets' of info in this book and is a must read for any beginner or maybe even intermediate. One thing is for sure; by the end of this book you will have an even greater appreciation for the talent and skills of the pros :)
I Recommend:
Maya Fundamentals 4.5 - Excellent book for beginners to Maya, the video tutorials make learning Maya and 3D modelling 10 times easier, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
[Digital] - Lighting and Rendering, Jeremy Birn, New Riders, (this book).
[Digital] - Texturing and Painting, Owen Demers, New Riders.
[Digital] - Cinematography & Directing, Dan Ablan, New Riders. .
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A non-application specific treasure, 6 Jun 2003
This review is from: [digital] Lighting & Rendering (Paperback)
The book does exactly what it says on the cover: provide a comprehensive look at digital lighting and rendering.
In my own digital art, I'd got to the stage where it was taking me longer to set the lighting than to create the picture. The chapters on the principles of 3 point lighting and on shadows, were almost worth the cover price on their own.
With the help of this book (I have no art or film background at all), all has become clear. Or should I say, what I should be doing is clearer, doing it is a different matter.
A book that is worth reading all of the way through, and then dipping back into when necessary.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
gold, 30 Jan 2003
This review is from: [digital] Lighting & Rendering (Paperback)
This book is very heavy reading but worth it even if you hate reading like me. Well writen and platform independent he describes the tecniques he uses perfectly. This book should be bought buy anybody involved in 3d graphics at any level!
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