Jeff Mottle Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 3ds Max 2008 Architectural Visualization - Beginner to Intermediate Now Shipping 3DATS is pleased to announce the shipping of the only 3ds Max 2008 book dedicated to architectural visualization: 3ds Max 2008 Architectural Visualization - Beginner to Intermediate. This 480 page, full-color, hard-cover bound book takes you through the challenge of learning one of the most complex computer programs ever created, by way of easy-to-follow tutorials and time tested production techniques. It specifically focuses on those parts of the program you need to know to be productive in the industry today. The intent is not to show you every possible way to accomplish a task, but rather some of the fastest and most efficient ways. 3ds Max is a large and complex application - but by learning just the features that apply to visualization, and specifically the ones that really work best, you'll be learning everything you need to know to get ahead in the industry in the shortest possible time. Included at the end of the book is a large gallery of 3D visualizations by some of the top artists in the field, along with their best advice for beginners trying to advance in the industry. Special discounts from leading industry vendors and valuable downloadable content is also available to readers. Support files are available in release 9 and 2008. For additional information regarding the two new 3ds Max books, visit the 3DATS products page at www.3dats.com/products.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansn Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Hi- I was looking at the "3ds Max 2008 Architectural Visualization Intermediate to Advanced"-book and have to state something: -The sample-chapter one is allowed to read online is "Understanding Architectural Drawings", therefore does not reveal any information of what quality the technical and theoretical information in the book is - or does it -Looking at the table of contents I see that out of 20 chapters ONE is about mental ray and the rendering progress. I really don't want to mock anything here, especially because I adore the mostly breathtaking images you can find in the gallery of cgarchitect.com and therefore am always hunting for information how to improve my own work. But I am not sure if a book that takes up more chapters to explain how to model a house (which is rather the 101 of modeling compared to vehicles or character-modeling) than to explain light, color, general approaches, etc. is really what aspiring viz-masters are looking for. I personally would rather have the opportunity to sit down for a coffee with most of the people posting in the gallery and having them tell me what's really interesting: What's the missing magic between a so-so rendering and a great one. What are common mistakes? What are secret tricks? A lot of people don't need another explanation of the modeling tools, the arch-and-design-shader or the mental-ray settings. They spent years to learn to understand and use the tools. They need help how to put their knowledge of a tool-set to better or great use. Maybe I am wrong because I only could read the table of contents and one chapter of that book. If anybody can confirm that I am wrong, I would be more than happy to buy that book. Until that happens all masters here at cgarchitect have my open invitation for a coffee Best, Hans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 - The sample-chapter one is allowed to read online is "Understanding Architectural Drawings", therefore does not reveal any information of what quality the technical and theoretical information in the book is - or does it If you want an idea of the technical nature or the quality of the tutorials, please see the 'Free Tutorials' section of our website. -Looking at the table of contents I see that out of 20 chapters ONE is about mental ray and the rendering progress. I don't know what table of contents you're referring to, because the one posted on our site shows 4 dedicated mental ray chapters, which are about 100 pages total. But I am not sure if a book that takes up more chapters to explain how to model a house (which is rather the 101 of modeling compared to vehicles or character-modeling) than to explain light, color, general approaches, etc. is really what aspiring viz-masters are looking for. This book does not teach you how to use a loft or a boolean or the edit poly modifier. The beginner book does that. It simply teaches techniques with which those features are best used. Techniques for modeling a building are one of the most requested, if not the most requested types of information asked on this site and asked by the students that we teach. Modeling is a very time consuming stage of a visualization project and if you do not put a building or a site together efficiently, then there is a lot more time to be saved in this stage than in the material, lighting or rendering stage. Modeling a building is no less an intermediate skill than any other phase. I personally would rather have the opportunity to sit down for a coffee with most of the people posting in the gallery and having them tell me what's really interesting: What's the missing magic between a so-so rendering and a great one. What are common mistakes? What are secret tricks? If you look at the table of contents again, you will see Appendix A - Top 30 Production Tips, Appendix D - Common 3D Mistakes, and so on. The entire book is filled with personal experiences and reflection on our past projects. A lot of people don't need another explanation of the modeling tools, the arch-and-design-shader or the mental-ray settings. They spent years to learn to understand and use the tools. They need help how to put their knowledge of a tool-set to better or great use. This book is not just an explanation of the tools...it's 100% practical application. Every part of the design process is covered from start to finish. You may not need help modeling a building or learning mental ray shaders, but a lot of people do. Maybe I am wrong because I only could read the table of contents and one chapter of that book. If anybody can confirm that I am wrong, I would be more than happy to buy that book. Until that happens all masters here at cgarchitect have my open invitation for a coffee This book is the work of myself and 7 other authors. We spent an ungodly amount of time discussing what should and shouldn't go in it. It has been reworked and reworked more times than I can recall. No book will ever meet everyone's perfect appetite but we tried to find the best material for the intermediate user to take them to the advanced level. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansn Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Thank you very much for your fast and detailed reply! I appreciate the additional information you gave me - I am looking forward to pick a copy up in March. Best, Hans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace1721 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Hi there! I am indeed amazed on your book, as i was read on the samples on a pdf file. I was wondering because i live in the Philippines and if ever i will place my order online how much is the shipping and handling?Does the price $59.95 includes shipping? Thank you very much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonneti Posted May 4, 2008 Share Posted May 4, 2008 really a great book, a "must have" one, it goes directly to the important/useful things in architectural visualization and in the use of the program in general congratulations Brian for the good job p.d.: sorry my bad english... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted May 4, 2008 Share Posted May 4, 2008 I've got the Beginner book and am eagerly looking forward to the next book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted May 4, 2008 Share Posted May 4, 2008 Is there a 2009 book on the way? I wonder what the effect of jumping ahead 6 months in the release schedule is on the 3DSMax book industry. Will there be more profit because of people buying 2009 books sooner, or less because people who own a 2008 book won't buy a 2009 book... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted May 4, 2008 Author Share Posted May 4, 2008 Is there a 2009 book on the way? I wonder what the effect of jumping ahead 6 months in the release schedule is on the 3DSMax book industry. Will there be more profit because of people buying 2009 books sooner, or less because people who own a 2008 book won't buy a 2009 book... I'm sure Brian will post here, but none of the book publishers in the industry were notified about the accelerated release of 2009. Even though at least some were part of the Developers Network. This has angered, inconvenienced and caused a loss of money for most book publishers who either now have released what seems to be "out of date" books, or required a huge delay and rewrite of the books they were about to release. Given how few books are written for max and how much work and little money these publishers actually make at the best of times, it boggles the mind that Autodesk dropped the ball like this. I bet you'll see a lot of the current publishers stop writing for Autodesk products altogether. I'll let Brian fill you in on his experience, but I can tell you it's been a nightmare for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 Wow, what a disaster. Do you know why they changed the schedule? It seemed to me like they were already going maybe a bit too fast - the mental ray updates have been nice but I didn't really think the update from 9 to 2008, for example, was any more significant than 7.0 to 7.5 was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 It's all marketing, which keeps AutoDesk in business but makes it a pain in the bum for us. So the advanced book will be 2009 with some extra chapters in there for 2009 specific stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 (edited) Wow, what a disaster. Do you know why they changed the schedule? It seemed to me like they were already going maybe a bit too fast - the mental ray updates have been nice but I didn't really think the update from 9 to 2008, for example, was any more significant than 7.0 to 7.5 was. I wish it was for more noble causes, but imho I can only assume it's for one thing...money. I guess if I were to speculate further, I might also throw out the possibility that the reason for the accelerated release is less because of what Autodesk has said publicly and more to help catch mental ray up with V-Ray before its too late or too expensive. If you consider that everyday a perhaps dozens of new users have to make a choice about whether to buy into V-Ray or to work with what comes for free, a 6 month delay in release of a major mental ray upgrade is going to cost an enormous amount of money. Unfortunately, as Jeff mentioned, it's now costing others a lot of money. I can only imagine that other authors and publishers had to be infuriated, as I was, that the release was pushed up 6 months. It's extremely hard to recover a book's enormous production cost even when there is a 12 month window (actually much less when you consider that we have to wait until software release before actually sending to print). It's pretty much impossible when that window is cut in half. I'd bet my car that not a single book publisher will see the black with a Max 2008 book...just no way. Hell, just a couple of months after our 2008 book was released it was technically obsolete.... and we beat nearly everyone to print. And unfortunately, it's not just your book publishers that are devastated by such a move. It's training centers and plugin developers. I can't remember who it was but I remember seeing one plugin developer put out a press release just 2 days before Max 2009 was announced saying how they were proud to announce support of Max 2008. I called the owner of Respower and was the one to break the news to him. Needless to say, he wasnt happy either. Time and resources that could be have been spent promoting the current software has to instead be directed towards developing updated software. Training centers also have to spend enormous time updating their software and curriculum. For myself, what was most infuriating is that despite being on the previous beta program, I was never invited to the 2009 beta and I didn't know any sooner than anyone else what was coming. The news broke soon enough to put a hold on the intermediate/advanced book, but it was too late for the beginner/intermediate book. But then again, Autodesk is a business and businesses are in operation to make money....and I may be way off in my thinking, but then again, there are only a few people really 'in the know', and I ain't one of them. Maybe it's a matter of national security. Edited May 5, 2008 by Brian Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizwhiz Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 (edited) The yearly 3dsmax update usually shipped around AU in Nov or Dec but They moved it forward To coincide more with The Cad softwares anal release, closer To april (+/-) 2nd hand hear say but That is what i was Told good point why is it People will pay $1,000 To get a good renderer when There is mr already available for FREE in The 3ds max package ???? must be a better option To hand over additional $ and go Thru The yearly upgrade scenarios with vray Edited May 5, 2008 by vizwhiz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted May 5, 2008 Author Share Posted May 5, 2008 Wow, what a disaster. Do you know why they changed the schedule? It seemed to me like they were already going maybe a bit too fast - the mental ray updates have been nice but I didn't really think the update from 9 to 2008, for example, was any more significant than 7.0 to 7.5 was. From what I understand it was done to bring the development and release cycles of all of the products in line with one another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron-cds Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 good point why is it People will pay $1,000 To get a good renderer when There is mr already available for FREE in The 3ds max package ???? must be a better option To hand over additional $ and go Thru The yearly upgrade scenarios with vray Because it's a super fast and a very stable rendering engine. Besides, there aren't yearly upgrades for vray. When they come out with new features and bug fixes it's released as a FREE service pack. Hell, even the new release for the ground breaking 1.5 was free for people using the previous version. So take it back you MR swine j/k, I'm not trying to start a vray vs. MR thread. I'm merely pointing out that Vray is an exemplary company that Autodesk could learn a lot from about how to treat their loyal customers. I'm not sure if MR is caught up yet with 2009, but it definately was not caught up in 2008. My question is why does Autodesk care so much about MR. Max is still the standard and Vray is a plugin for Max. It's not like everyone's jumping ship for modo or c4d. I can't understand why Autodesk would cause such an inconvienience to it's users just to get MR working better. Why couldn't that have been a service pack? I'm beginning to believe Autodesk rolls out new releases to keep its subscription users happy. As a subscription user myself, I'm feeling a bit ripped off. I paid $500 to use 2008 for six months that had a handful of unimpressive features. Now I've installed 2009 with another handful of unimpressive features, which I would be singing a different tune if I were a MR user. I'm seriously considering why I should have a subscription. Anyway, I think it's time for a class-action lawsuit. If any other company, that was more in the public eye, was pulling this crap, the lawyers would be having a feeding frenzy. This is getting ridiculous, yet we keep coming back for the next release. When does it end? When will someone fight back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron-cds Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 From what I understand it was done to bring the development and release cycles of all of the products in line with one another. It would have made far more sense to let 18 months pass. They might have had more time put more changes and improvements. Why was there pressure to come out with a new release after 6 months. That's insane. Has any other software company ever done that? It's pathetic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hunt Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 It must be a difficult balancing act to put a software specific book together, considering the rate at which software out-dates itself. On the other hand there are still plenty of people who dint upgrade religiously. If it wasnt for the updates to mr then I wouldn't be rushing out to upgrade to max2009, heck we haven't rolled it out into production yet, only a couple of projects are using it. I take my hat off to Brian and co for putting together such great books. jhv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizwhiz Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 so how many days Till June 16th? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 What's June 16? Release date for 3DS Max 2010? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizwhiz Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 hopefully Brians new max book or max2525 if man is still alive (whichever comes 1st) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron-cds Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 I've got the Max 9 Bible by Murdock and I was looking at the Max 2008 Bible. It was identical word for word except for the section that describes the new features. I guess they just have to come up with a new cover and type a few pages. Perhaps that's how the publishers and book writers deal with it. Writing a whole new book wouldn't make sense when there's a new release every year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 yeah, it would be completely impractical to rewrite a book when it's just not necessary. it would be like remodeling a project when a client comes back after a year asking for a nighttime version of the daytime rendering. it takes well over a year to produce a book so something has to give. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 All understandable, Brian. I'm looking forward to getting the new book. I'm feeling a bit crook today, so I read a few chapters of the Beginner to Intermediate book today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 3ds Max 2009 Architectural Visualization I GOT IT!!!! It actually arrived yesterday, which is less than a week to travel 12,000 miles! It was very well wrapped (just like the first book), the paper feels good to the touch, and the text is clear, clean & easy to read. Plenty of illustrations, and lots of files to download. (note: I've downloaded books 1 & 2, and burned a CD and stuck it inside the book, in case I ever am someplace without an internet connection). Well done, Sir! I intend to spend quite a few hours with Chapter 3! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted July 18, 2008 Author Share Posted July 18, 2008 3ds Max 2009 Architectural Visualization I GOT IT!!!! It actually arrived yesterday, which is less than a week to travel 12,000 miles! It was very well wrapped (just like the first book), the paper feels good to the touch, and the text is clear, clean & easy to read. Plenty of illustrations, and lots of files to download. (note: I've downloaded books 1 & 2, and burned a CD and stuck it inside the book, in case I ever am someplace without an internet connection). Well done, Sir! I intend to spend quite a few hours with Chapter 3! Out of curiosity where did you get a digital version of the other books. Please send me a PM or email to jmottle@cgarchitect.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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