Book Recommendations?

von19

Would anyone be so kind as to recommend a book they think would be helpful to someone new to modeling, animation, etc? I'm currently using Maya and following online tutorials from Youtube but I would like something a little more substantial and thorough. Any thoughts?

Eric Chadwick

Books are generally out of date by the time they get to print.

Maybe you're watching the wrong tutorials. How have you found the ones you've been watching?

We have some good resources here.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Tutorials


Edit... beware though, tutorials are only as good as the experience level of the instructor. The vast majority of free video tutorials are done by new artists, who don't know much, so there are a lot of newbie errors. If you want quality instruction, be prepared to pay a little for it.

Kurt Russell Fan Club

Conceptual books can be really good, rather than tools books. So don't grab a book on "Animating in Maya 2015" - grab books on learning animation principles like weight and overlap etc. Traditional hand-drawn still translates conceptually.

For modelling, books on design and anatomy from a drawing or sculpting angle can help you get better at breaking down forms and understanding mechanics.

RN

If you have US$ 59 per month you can invest in a subscription to Gnomon Workshop. Then you have access to their entire library of tutorials (which are streamable versions of their DVDs):
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/subscription/

You'll have access to material such as this:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/277/Character-Animation-for-Games

iadagraca

Yeah i think the new thing is videos, if you want to spend money on books you're better off spending money on videos.

Mary_Marinez

Since you mentioned you're currently using Maya, this one called 3D Animation with Maya 7 written by Patricia Beckmann and Phil Young may come in really useful. This one gives you step by step tutorials and goes through all the major tools needed to animate in Maya - graph editor, the dope sheet, walk cycles. Apart from this, there's this book called The Animator's Survival Kit (by Richard Williams) - the name describes it completely. It is popularly known as the 'animator's bible' and rightly so. The basics of spacing, timing, walks, runs, weight, anticipation, overlapping action, takes, stagger, dialogue, animal animation or anything else - this one has all that you could possibly want to know or need, especially from a beginner's point of view.