[Kent McQuilkin]Cinema 4D : The Artist's Project Sourcebook(Third Edition)(pdf){Zzzzz}

Make the creative leap to 3D. Realize your artistic vision with this treasure chest of instructional, practical projects. Get the essential concepts and techniques without drowning in the technical complexities.

Publisher: Focal Press; 3 edition (June 29, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0240814509
ISBN-13: 978-0240814506

Editorial Reviews
Review

"The book is very well written and the content is well paced, so you are up and running quickly, as intended. Between the book and the DVD, there is tons to learn from, but you never feel overwhelmed. As I stated previously, the help system within CINEMA 4D is excellent itself, but this book makes it easier to get into the heart of C4D quickly, without getting into the technical stuff. That you can do later. If you are new to CINEMA 4D and you really want to get into learning and mastering the concepts of it, then this is the book you should look for first. I highly recommend it."--Renderosity.com

From the Back Cover

Make the creative leap to 3D! Get the essential concepts and techniques without drowning in the technical complexities. In this latest edition, not only will you learn the basics of 3D modeling, texturing, lighting, layout, and rendering, but you'll find out real industry secrets and workflows for all of the major disciplines 3D is found in today. You'll also discover how to take CINEMA 4D to the next level by taking advantage of its tight integration with industry standard software such as: Photoshop, AfterEffects, Illustrator, Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Motion, ZBrush, e-on's Vue and more. Whether you are a motion graphics artist, character designer, or an architectural visualizing expert, this is the one stop book for starting you on the path to creating the highest level of imagery using one of the most prolific software applications available.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Very good step-by-step C4D book for beginners; horrible horrible book design
This is a very good book for those getting started with Cinema 4D. We used this program at MTV a lot for animations (especially with text), along with other tools like Photoshop and After Effects. If you are an advanced or intermediate user, this book is not for you. It's for beginners and takes the reader through all the major concepts in 3D modeling and animation, including the use of primitives, texturing, NURBS, shaders, lighting, text, deformers, etc. All the steps are very finely detailed and illustrated along the way with a screenshot. Almost every single page has a full color screenshot or multiple screenshots. The included DVD-ROM is filled to the brim with goodies, the best of which is the over 3 hours of additional video tutorials as QuickTime mov files. They're not crappy little videos either. These are hi-def at 1440x822. Most are under 10 mins, and there are some that are 15-20. These are a great help because videos speak louder than words and photos. The narration is easy to follow and it's fun to watch the steps take place. All the support files are on the disc as well (models, textures, etc) and 100 high resolution JPGs of urban outdoor textures and street photography. I think all modeling books should come with a DVD like this. And if you don't have Cinema 4D, the DVD has a link to download it off Maxon's site (a 42 day trial).

The downside, however, is the awful visual layout of the book. Stylistically, it looks like it was laid out in Microsoft Word by someone with little or no typography/book design training, like an intern or perhaps a blind person... Remember college where your professor passed out study guide that he put together by himself and had printed at the town copy place, well, this book looks like that