Modeling a Character in 3DS Max (Wordware Game Developer's Library) Paperback – January 24, 2005

in this book it goes over art principles in character design as well as graphic art, a lot of useful stuff is in this book, i like it alot

I'm an independent video game developer, and this book was my bible for character modeling for several years.At the same time, I can confidently say that some of my good techniques and MOST of my bad habits came from this book.Some of the techniques he teaches in this book are very good (like the cylinder technique for designing legs, and the spline cage trick for the torso), however beginning modelers need to be aware of certain pitfalls:1. Paul's divide and turn edges techniques can get you into TONS of trouble if you don't understand how to model with quads and create a good "flow" of polys within your mesh. Paul understands this but he doesn't teach it and the book led me to develop some horrible habits that it's taken me a while to correct. There's another book on Poly-Modeling with 3ds Max that I bought recently that really helps teach Poly modeling using better techniques that are more suited to both low and high poly models . It's called  Poly-Modeling with 3ds Max: Thinking Outside of the Box  and it teaches what Paul could have taught here.... many ways to build clean meshes that work.2. His head modeling method with the geosphere is probably one of the most difficult ways to model a head. This is subjective, but more solid poly modeling techniques , I've found, or even more traditional box modeling techniques seem to produce cleaner methods than the geoshpere approach. It's good for blocking out the mass of the head, but carving the details out of a geosphere while maintaining good form can be tricky.3. Paul got me hooked on Edit Mesh, which is fine, but Edit Poly is really the best way to go in Max in terms of modeling tools, and I think most experienced modelers on here would agree with that.4. The appraoches in this book are old. Much of what Paul is doing here was based on a time when the poly count of characters had to be much lower , and when Edit Mesh was the dominant modeler's tool in Max, so the book is somewhat dated. I'm totally for low poly methods; I think high polygon wasteful modeling is a sin. BUT low poly should not be done at the expense of making a clean mesh with nice edge flows. Again, Paul manages to make clean meshes but he doesn't teach YOU what the rules are to building a clean mesh. If you buy this book, also buy any other book that teaches clean poly modeling techniques to round out your approach and perspective.So, with all of that, 3 stars. Don't let this be the only modeling book you get. You may develop bad habits that will take some effort to "un-learn".

I've only skimmed through the first couple of chapters so far, but to me it seems like it's been pretty useful. I do caution anyone trying to use this book with a software other than 3ds Max, such as Blender. I'm using Blender myself and it's kind of tricky to follow along since they features that Blender can't do. For example they use an Octa Geosphere primitive, which Blender does not have. What I had to do was download Wings3D and create said Geosphere and then export it and reimport it into Blender. As far as the physical condition of the book, I bought it new, and to be honest it looks kind of gently used rather than new, there were some numbers written in pencil on the first page, and the spine looked a little used. But that's not that big of a deal to me, it might be to somebody else though.

It was just as advertised. The book goes through the creation of the model on the cover from concept to completion, including hair and clothes.

I purchased this book a couple of months ago. Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed with Steed's approach. I found his methods of modeling to be cumbersome to say the least. It seems as if the book has not been updated since the first edition to reflect the many changes now available in 3ds Max 6 or 7 (I don't mention 8 because the book was written BEFORE 8).When I initially dived into the modeling portion I thought everything was fine. Then -- and this is why I rated it so low -- Steed begins to divide/turn edges in Part II / Chapter 4 / Step 5, which is titled "Step 5: Add Vertices by Dividing Edges." I suppose this would not have been so bad if Steed had thought to include COLOR screen shots on the books CD-ROM, but since he neglected to do so it becomes frustrating -- to say the least -- to use Steed's method of refining one's mesh.Considering the fact that the CD-ROM is a whopping 19.5MB, it would have been prudent to include full color reference images. Let me give you some specifics on why I found this book such a bitter waste of TIME and MONEY:* Firstly, let me tell you friends -- it is most frustrating to try to refine one's mesh based on the author's direction when one can hardly see the edges/vertices that are being discussed.* Secondly, there are easier methods to refine a mesh than dividing or turning edges if you have 3ds 5 AT LEAST!* Thirdly, Steed falls flat on his face when explaining the reason for turning edges and which SPECIFIC edges to turn. Suffice it to say, grayscale pictures in a book DO NOT work!* Fourthly, if one cannot get the edge dividing/turning method down, then you'll get stuck because the rest of the modeling tutorials are so heavily based on this method. The only reason I was able to finish the model is because of my familiarity with 3ds Max, Lightwave, and on a more limited basis, Maya.* Fifthly, and lastly (I hope), when one is able to look at tutorials for Lightwave or Maya, as I have done, and model more quickly and effectively in 3ds Max than Steed's method, then the book leaves quite a lot to be desired...I think that's all I will say for now, but let me warn you all -- there are far, far better tutorials available online for free. Don't waste your money on this book unless you plan on using it as fuel for a fire.

This book is a must have for your collection. It emphasizes the basics in concept design (2d sketches) and walks you through character modeling step by step. In my opinion the book does more than get you started it gives you a solid foundation from which to build. It includes more than enough screenshots plus the CD contains the MAX files for each step.I highly suggest it!!!

does what it says. It was a good price and was a nice purchase. It is good for what I wanted it for.

I was expected more model of the book but the whole book only teached one model