Sybex Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Essentials

Item arrived as advertised. worked perfectly.

Needed this book for university and i couldnt believe how much cheaper and easier it was to get here instead

Now before I start you must know I'm not a complete beginner to 3D design having experience with the Inventor and Solidworks software. However I am a beginner with the type of interface and design outputs 3Ds Max lets you do, and when you compare them to the engineering styles in the other software you really can't take much from one to the other.Anyway...I worked through this book 1 chapter per day (a couple of hours) until I finished the book. I found that it made you repeat actions just enough to allow you to learn without finding it tedious. The book also has a nice gradual learning incline starting with modelling a basic chest of drawers to full character animation of a soldier.I will be highly recommending this book to my course mates and will buy another (more in depth) book from these authors again.As long as you have the time to learn, patience and determination you will succeed at mastering the basic techniques that will lead on to bigger and better things.

The main problem with this book is that the author skips some essential, vital things thus making the process of learning very, very hard. If you know 3 d max already, or may be some other programme of that kind - probably it will work. I tried to study 3 d max with this two times and there was almost no progress. Now, when I am almost through with "Autodesk 3ds Max 2012: A comprehensive guide" by Tickoo (I highly recommend this tutorial, by the way) I took this book again and I see that know I can work with it. Another problem with this book - they skip simple things and try to show more advanced things, and that doesnt work. Again, if you are beginner - dont start with this "Essentials" - you will get frustrated.

As a first impression this book looks good and seems to cover a wide range of topics within 3ds max. However, I picked it up as a complete newbie and found it very difficult. Its not written very well and the instructions are not described very well and if you have no experience of 3ds max you will struggle. The download support files are organised badly and after battling through the first chapter I put the book down and didn't pick it up again for 8 months.I have now been studying 3ds max for 8 months now and have returned back to the book and am getting on better with it now.I would recommend newbie's stay away from this book and get 'Learning Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010' as a beginners book. Its now 2 versions out of date but it doesn't matter and I found it concise, clear and with great practices and lab sessions to help the learning curve.For users with some Max knowledge I would recommend this book as a general overview of key areas within max but I would recommend a more specific book if you are looking to focus on a particular area such as polygon modelling or animation.Conclusion: Newbie's = No good Content = Good as an over view Rating = 3