This last SIGGRAPH, I managed to cram in a few hours of browsing in the well-stocked SIGGRAPH bookstore where I ended up buying an instructional DVD from Eat3D.com on the use of scripted sequences (Kismet) in the free Unreal Development Kit. Then I wandered down to the Focal Press booth, and after an hour of browsing, bought two books: one on 3ds Max and another on hybrid animation (a subject I've been intensely interested in for years).
The Focal Press How to Cheat in …. series is up to a dozen or so books now, covering programs like Motion, Adobe Flash, Maya and the book we are looking at today, How to Cheat in 3ds Max 2011. I was looking for something to help me with practical tips for Max 2011, as I've recently come under the spell of this great 3D program, but was turned off a bit by the title; do you really cheat in Max? Well, the author jumps to her definition of 'cheat' on the first page with it's original definition: passing an inheritance to someone other than one's heirs. And the definition certainly fits as the author, Michele Bousquet, is an acknowledged expert on 3ds Max, having used the program from it's first release and gone on to become a Certified Trainer with Autodesk. She certainly is passing on her learning and skills from authoring over 20 books on 3ds Max. Plus, she lives in New Orleans, one of the great cities of the world!
How to Cheat in 3ds Max is probably the easiest book to read of the two books being reviewed. The writing style is personal and direct. The author clearly knows 3ds Max backwards and forwards and shares personal methods (the cheats ) for creating instant results in modeling, mapping, lighting, rendering and many other subjects of interest to 3ds Max 2011 users.
