[CoDeX]

i'm about to work with litewave and 3dmax and was wondering which books should i get to help me learn it. i will be working mostly with low poly models and animation. thanx

[Danny]

The manuals...


Danny



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[email protected]

Trust in Trance

[laps]

Well, teh Inside 3d studio max series has been good. I don't have the one for R3, but the ones for R2 was alright. And also 3D studio max design & F/X I think that's what its called.
but, the Inside books are nice..they cover just about everything...from lowpoly to animations. Basic to intermediate I'd say..

[random]

I also have only the same R2 book but I did check the inside series for R3 and it was good...IMHO..

[tsunami124]

you should learn how to spell lightwave before you start using the program

[coolmanhey]

I'm with tsunami.. lol

hehe..

I found a great book listing of Lightwave and 3D Studio Max books at 3D Source.net.
Link : http://www.3dsource.net

They have a new Lightwave[6] book.. if that is what you have it may be usefull.

[yoszi]

tsunami: maybe he hasn't seen LW 6 yet ??

[This message has been edited by yoszi (edited July 01, 2000).]

[Trance-R]

Booooks?!!! Did you say books?!
Pharke books. I use online resources! It's free . Here is a nice site with tons of resources and links to tutorial sites. http://www.flay.com

The Newtek website also has some basic tutorials to help you get started with Lightwave. http://newtek.com

Oh yeah. Those are for Lightwave only. No 3DsMax.

[Manik Monkei]

Lightwave I've been learning on my own, but as far as 3DSMax goes, I would highly recommend this book:

3D Studio Max R3 in Depth by Rob Polevoi

It's a very good book for learning Max. I had the pleasure of having the author as my 3d modelling instructor, so maybe I'm a little biased You can grab it off Amazon.com or pretty much any book chain.

Good luck!

[Snake Grunger]

Hahahaha Good one, Danny!

[tsunami124]

Manik Monkei: do you have that book? i got it and i think its pretty good. i just wish that there were more tutorials, that give you a final result. not like the tutorial on the car.

[kaje]

dont worry about books, just use the manuals.. and also internet tutorials from 3dcafe etc.. im all self taught..

karl

[chalker]

For low poly models, you'll have to use nendo and import them into 3dsmax.

for nendo , go to http://www.nichimen.com
and choose nendomania erupts.

go to the gallery to see some work made with nendo, and if you downloaded nendo, try to use the ->help->howto section to see how models are made.

truly an amazing fast little program

[Worthy]

Lightwave? Pshaw. Horrible modeler. Good renderer. Thats really about it. For Max? As someone suggested above..the Inside MAX series are generally pretty good..theres one specifically on modeling and texturing..

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3D Sculptor
Viewpoint Digital

[tsunami124]

Worthy: horrible modeler??? i get things done twice as fast in LW 6 than in 3d studio max. i really hate the 3dsMax interface.

but again, its just my opinion

[This message has been edited by tsunami124 (edited July 03, 2000).]

[yoszi]

LW - excellent modeler, very good renderer.
If you ask me, v6 has better modeling than Mirai. Box modeling Nichimen advocates is not the best/fastest way to model. Lw offers more manageable sub-d surfaces with point weighting and spline tools for rapid surface creation.

blah,


blah,

[amnesia]

I agree so much with Yoszi and Tsunami that it is like I'm am one with them.

That is to say:
Lightwave Modeller = good
3DSMax Interface = f'ing annoying and slow
But Max does have a lot of good features. I havn't tried LW6 yet, only 5.6.

and about books, Inside Lightwave by Dan Ablan was pretty good, but I think something else might be better suited to low-poly modelling and animation

I just got Professional Animation for 3DSmax R3 and it's shapeing up to be an excellant book.

and the manuels for 3DSMax would be pretty shit if you were trying to learn soley from them. They're more for just looking things up than teaching. The included tutorial section dosen't go very far at all.

So I don't suggest learning from manuels. More from playing around yourself and from the internet, then when you know your way around the program fairly well and you find you know most the stuff the internet has to offer, then go for a more advanced sorta book that is specific to your needs (i.e Animation).
Animation is a lot more in depth a subject than low-poly modelling.
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,.-="`AmnesiA`"=-.,

[This message has been edited by amnesia (edited July 04, 2000).]

[Doc Holliday]

I guess its what your used too. I learned a little Max at school so i'm somewhat familiar with it. I got interested in lightwave cause I believe it has a beautiful renderer, but modeling sure is weird on that thing. Lightwave has the strangest interface I've ever seen, you need to remember alot of shortcuts in order to get any work done, cause most of the tools are seperated in such a way where selecting them becomes very tedious. The Layout module (where the animation part is done) lags seriously behind Max. Only one viewport at a time, and the same problems as modeler. Also the texturing module is pretty bad, most of the time you have to go luck, cause it doesnt have the instant feedback MAx does. This makes lightwave sound bad, but what makes it such and attractive package is the fact that its cheaper than MAX and has a MUCH better renderer. So if your willing to put with the interface go for it

PS the Versions Im talking about are Max 2.5 and Lightwave 5.6, things may be different on the newer versions. I hear Max3 has a new renderer, and Lightwave 6 was built from scratch with new tools.

[This message has been edited by Doc Holliday (edited July 05, 2000).]