Useful Books for increasing the workflow in 3D modeling?

MediumSolid

Hi, people of polycount, I have a question for you! What would from your experience be the most comprehensive books about philosophy and technicality of 3D modeling, its nomenclature and topology that have effectively improved your understanding of everything 3D related and thus speed your modeling pre-planing and improved by large margin the end-product quality? It wold be nice if the books knowledge would be applicable in both organic, hard-surface and hybrid modeling categories. However, It's important to note that I'm not talking about books that deal specifically with generic 3D modeling process and tools in one specific software, those are pretty bland and not usefull for an experienced such as myself. I'm actually talking about books that have touched various serious subjects such as math, theory of shapes, polygonal geometry and topology flow as well as other 3D related technicalities. It's probably hard to understand what I really want and it's more than likely that one single book can't contain all of this, but surely there has to be a book of 800 pages written in volumes that pretty much covers everything that I have mentioned so far, no?

I guess it would be important to say that I have more or less grasped the entirety of 3D modeling tools and process in software that I use, which would be Blender, and also that I have a reasonably well established 3D modeling skills. Yet, I still can't help to feel that there is more knowledge to attain somewhere out there(internet) for advancement of my 3D modeling skills and understanding shapes in general. So I hope some of you industry and independent professionals could help me in search for those "magical" books that expand knowledge of a 3D modeler and sculptor.

 I don't blame you one bit If this rambling was all too confusing for some of you and not coherent enough, this personally wouldn't surprise me given how I have difficulties in expressing myself with words and even having trouble in knowing what I really want.

JordanN

The last time I opened a book was in 2016, and it was Drawing with Andrew Loomis.

I don't think 3D modeling is all that complicated that you have to study every single facet to understand it. It's mostly about just having the patience to put polygons together and maintain accuracy with the reference/concept image.

If I ever wanted to know more or improve my workflow, I just checked out the How The F*#% Do I Model This thread.

http://polycount.com/discussion/56014/how-the-f-do-i-model-this-reply-for-help-with-specific-shapes-post-attempt-before-asking/p1

I actually use to have this thread bookmarked on my phone and would read it every time I was on the bus, but eventually you just learn to memorize modeling. 

ExcessiveZero

Plenty of great art books and I can recommend a bunch of those, but CG moves too fast that it is outdated as soon as it is printed, there is no 3D book out there that can compare to the quality of content people like Arrimus3d or warren Marshal are putting out on youtube for free.

Even just watching live streams (tor fricks are pretty awesome) you will likely pickup more then you would from any print media.

RyanB

Learn about shape grammars.

Kwramm

For shapes and volumes I would stick to traditional art training material, which deals with topics like shapes, volumes, shading, silhouette, perspective, composition and color theory.

For sculpting Scott Spencer's ZBrush books are good for someone who wants to get into ZBrush.

For hard-surface modeling there is excellent info right here on Polycount: http://polycount.com/discussion/56014/how-the-f-do-i-model-this-reply-for-help-with-specific-shapes-post-attempt-before-asking

MediumSolid

Thank you all for submitting your answers to me, but it seems that I haven't found what I was looking for. Although, those shape grammars look pretty interesting to me.

Alex_J

The internet is a book. It's the biggest and best book. 

It has all the secrets. Youtube is an excellent chapter full of magical secrets. And so is the wiki on this site. And then there are some chapters you have to pay to get, but if you want a lot of consistently good material to learn from, spending a little bit of money is probably well worth it.