Animation Tips and Tricks for Windows and Mac

This 3-D-animation guide is a good choice for aspiring animators who need help producing seamless, sophisticated work. The large-format book pays attention to a variety of software, hardware, and hands-on techniques. Full-color illustrations are featured along with discussion, step-by-step instruction, and tips that are both general and specific to software. The authors start off with a gallery of projects produced by various artists, along with explanations of the software and techniques the artists used. Next the authors explain the hardware and software concerns for both Windows and Macintosh users, such as RAM, sound boards, high-end and low-end animation tools, image editors, and file formats. They include a list of available software--3-D and 2-D animation programs, multimedia-creation tools, image editors, and utilities and plug-ins--along with the purpose of each program and its strengths, platforms, and who needs it.

By chapter 3, you're ready to delve into the book's plentiful tips and tricks, which show you how to create camera fly-throughs, 3-D still art for the Web, see-through x-ray effects, explosions, animated GIF files, precise texture maps, building façades, liquid and fog motion, human-face maps, 3-D forests, and more. The companion CD-ROM has textures, sound effects, models, and backgrounds for Macintosh and Windows users. --Kathleen Caster