PUBLISHER:
Charles River Media
Publishers
Quote: Ken Brilliant (California) is an
award-winning artist, sculptor, 3D character modeler, animator and instructor.
He works in Hollywood in the film and television industry. His work can
be seen in a variety of movies and television series, including Jurassic
Park 2: The Lost World, X-Files: The Movie, Interview with a Vampire, Roughnecks:
The Starship Troopers Chronicles, and a variety of other films. To view
more of his work, visit www.Brilliant-Creations.com.
This book explores the design and creation of digital dinosaurs through
a step-by-step approach, and explains how to combine technical skill with
artistic talent seamlessly
Covers every detail of the process from researching the animals to model
construction, texturing, and final rendering
Techniques are written from a non-software specific approach, providing
a useful guide regardless of your software preferences
Explores the various subtleties and challenges of each dinosaur type, including
wrinkles, wings, scales, frills, etc.
ON THE CD-ROM
AUTHOR Ken Brilliant
ISBN 1-58450-209-6
PRICE $49.95
PUB DATE June 2002
FORMAT Book/CD 375pp
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
To perform the techniques discussed in the book you need the following:
Windows 95, ME, 2000, XP, NT or Mac OS based operation systems, QuickTime
4 or higher, and a 3D modeling program that has a strong polygonal tool
set. Some examples include: LightWave 3D, Maya, SoftImage XSI, Cinema 4D,
Amapi, trueSpace 5, and 3ds max. In addition, an image editing and painting
program that supports layers such as Adobe Photoshop or Procreate Painter
is required.
|
MODELING
DIGITAL DINOSAURS
BOOK REVIEW
| INTRODUCTION
|
|
|
| FIRST
IMPRESSIONS |
Being
new to Lightwave ( and having struggled with it for months)
I have been buying as many books as possible to lessen the learning
curve. The massive volume that is the Lightwave manual, whilst
having all the great features listed, does not help a new user
actually model very much. Enter Ken Brilliants new (and first)
book. A 370 page romp through his very own Jurassic Park.
|
|
|
| NO
SOFTWARE SPECIFIC |
|
The
book is not software specific and Ken gives a list of software that
can be used in conjunction with the tutorials and these include
Lightwave, Maya, C4D, Amapi, 3DSmax etc. Any software, if fact,
that has a polygon based set of tools. He even gives away a free
copy of Amapi version 1.5 on the CD so anyone with a computer can
join in with this one.
He covers modeling, UVmapping and texturing and manages to help
you create an Apatosauras, Dimetrodon, Pteranodon, Triceratops and
of course the ubiquitous T-Rex. The tutorials start with very basic
instructions and are written in a clear, logical manner. I found
that I learnt more about my software of choice in one afternoon
than I had done in the previous three weeks.
There
is no information about bones, IK or character rigging in any way
but Ken makes it clear from the start that he is teaching you to
model and texture only. He makes good reference to animation in
several place mainly because the model he builds will be boned later
and the geometry need to be ready for this.
|
| ABOUT
KEN |
|
Ken works in Hollywood in the film and television industry. His
work can be seen in a variety of movies and television series including
Jurassic Park 2: the lost World, X-Files the movie, Interview with
a Vampire, The Starship Troopers Chronicles and a variety of others.
With a list like that it gives you an idea of the quality that is
to be found in Modeling Digital Dinosaurs.
His
site (Brilliant Creations) is packed with a multitude of amazing
images from the real-world models he has made to the latest work
he is producing with ZBrush.
|
|
|
|
Images from
the book in full color
Textures and support files for the tutorials in the book,
A full-working version of Amapi 4.15, and demos of Amapi 6.1, and Carrara
Studio 1.1 from Eovia
Links to popular 2D and 3D software that offer free trial versions, including
LightWave, Maya, 3ds max, and Cinema 4D XL
|
