Character Animation In 3D – New Book
Many animators who use the computer to create their 3D animations can end with a finished piece of work and not really understanding how it happened, whether it works or not. This is where Steven Roberts a professor at Central St. Martins Collage of Art and Design in London comes in.
Steve, first fell in love with animation at the age of seven when his mother took him to see Sleeping Beauty at the cinema. He has always considered animated film as something unique. At the age of ten he became obsessed with becoming an animator when he first saw a TV show called “The Do It Yourself Film Animation Show” presented by Bob Godfrey. Years later, with thanks to Bob for the extra encouragement, he has been involved with animation and is presently teaching the what techniques he has learnt over the years to up and coming 2D and 3D computer animators. After almost ten years of teaching the art of drawn animation he decided to write a book entitled ‘Character animation in 3D’ on the subject’.
This well-written, easy-to-follow book is a fascinating and comprehensive read, and guide into, the world of animation. ‘Character animation in 3D is jam packed full with superb illustrations and the animation exercises in this book are as simple as possible so that you are able to build a firm foundation of skills upon which to develop your own ideas. From traditional 2D animation techniques and skills through to learning and improving your 3d animation, the book guides and inspires even the most inexperienced animators to produce eye catching, original and professional looking animations.
Each book includes an associated CD ROM, with various models all fully rigged and ready to load on your pc, movies and software instructions. You will be able to browse through the movies on the CD to learn from best practice for the exercises in each chapter. ‘Character Animation in 3D will be relevant to whatever 3D package you use, 3D Studio Max 5, LightWave 7.5, Maya 4.5 and Softimage XSI 2 as information on how each software package differs is included in both the book and on the CD.
We would also like to note that software developers are always improving their products, so for up to date models and exercises have a look at www.d.com, the website that accompanies this book.