Building a Digital Human (Graphics Series) (Graphics Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ken Brilliant
Publisher: Charles River Media
Category: Book
List Price: $49.95
Buy New: $29.73
You Save: $20.22 (40%)
New (18) Used (13) from $15.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 709045
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 380
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.4 x 1
ISBN: 1584502851
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.69
EAN: 9781584502852
ASIN: 1584502851
Publication Date: April 30, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: T20080825064126P
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In the universe of 3D animation and graphics, the final frontier isn't the vast unknown depths of outer space but rather the intimately familiar human form. Replicating this body is by far the most challenging journey to undertake as a digital artist. Why? Because everyone knows what a human looks like. Digital humans are in our midst. They are stuntmen and background extras in movies such as Titanic. They are your favorite hero or heroine in video games like Tomb Raider. They are the main characters in Saturday morning children's shows such as Max Steel. And now, they have even taken center stage as full fledged, photorealistic actors in such feature films as Final Fantasy. It is clear that digital humans are here to stay; and that artists need to know how to create them. To help artists learn how to master today's powerful 3D tools and improve their skills, Building a Digital Human explores the entire modeling process from head to toe. Beginning with the fundamentals of assembling reference material (photos, anatomy books, etc.) through the details of texturing and refining the skin and hair, a complete human model is built. Once the model is complete, a female and fantasy troll are created to illustrate how easy it is to transform the basic model. Building A Digital Human teaches modelers and artists the texturing and modeling skills needed to create 3D digital humans. It also provides fundamental skills that can be used for a variety of other 3D projects. The models in the book were built using NewTek's LightWave 3D, however, the techniques can be applied to just about any 3D package on the market. The ideas covered utilize a relatively small toolset, so transferring the steps to your program of choice isn't difficult. To make the transition between programs as easy as possible, a quick list of corresponding tool names from Maya, 3ds max, and LightWave 3D is included.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Enthusiastic Recommendation May 7, 2007
This book is great for the self taught person with significant insignificant questions. In completing this book, all those questions answer themselves. None of that "cutsie" just great tutorial. Instruction is easily to understand and follow. I've gone through the book a couple of times and discovered something new each time. When I finished with this book, I knew what I was doing and why.
Money well spent on this book.
 No Muss, No Fuss February 9, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Straigh-forward writing with no pretension. Some knowledge of 3D graphics vocabulary is helpful but not necessary.
Book is one example from beginning to end; presumably the author. Starts with some pictures and, step-by-detailed-step, ends with an avatar.
The only fault I found is that he doesn't mention Poser in the list of 3D modeling programs for human figures.
Look no further for detailed and anatomically correct human modelling! Excellent book!! October 3, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you want to learn how to model a detailed digital human,this is THE book for you! You start out with totally empty viewports,and if you follow the book you'll end up having created a model with an incredible amount of detail.
The author explains in great detail the process of modelling every body part (head,neck,arms,hands,legs,feet and torso) with anatomical references where they're most important.
I wanted a book which I could use as a definitive guide to model a detailed and anatomically correct human body or body part,and I'll look no further when I have to do so. It's also got a clever chapter about modifying the same model to create very different ones, and a good chapter about texturing and UVW unwrapping. Finally, it refers to cloth and hair (somewhat briefly) and,no,it DOESN'T cover rigging. But it does cover, extremely well, human modelling, which is what mr.Brilliant had set out to do,I assume. Very very good!
Pretty Good. August 3, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I used this as a class textbook and it worked fairly well. This is not a single program book so this will work well with whatever program you model with. Although, depending on what you model with, depends on if you need to go out and find plug-ins that will do what he does. The book is really good going through step by step. Although there are some occasions where he leaps forwards ahead with really telling you what to do. Also, sometimes when he gives instructions, there aren't any images to go along with them, so you have to end up guessing what to do.
This is modeling for realism/cinematics and if you want to use this book to model in-game characters, you are out of luck. The was he teaches you to model is extremely high poly (especially in the head). The CD doesn't do much for you, it mainly just has naked pictures of the guy he models on it so you can copy exactly what he does. The book does give good information on the differences between modeling men and women, although it is fairly brief. He does go into UV mapping pretty good as well as modeling hair. The book doesn't, however, go into modeling clothing fairly well, just a short chapter. The book also doesn't even mention rigging, which I think is a crucial part in character modeling.
He thought of everything! September 30, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Given that you are already familiar with some type of modeling software, this book is the best resource you could have! The non-software specific approach of the book keeps it focused on the concepts of creating a good model rather than the user interface. Every detail of the body is covered with step-by-step diagrams, and a lot of it focuses on creating a topology that is animatable and will subdivide correctly (ie the mesh is mostly in quads). It also covers texturing, rigging, facial animation, both modeled and simulated hair, and simple clothing. The book discusses anatomy to the extent that it is needed to create a realistic model, and uses those concepts to demonstrate how the male model you create can be changed into a female, or into a fantasy character that looks completely different.
One thing that did make it a little difficult to use was that in the screenshots, the mesh was transparent and therefore you couldn't tell whether vertices were at the front or the back of the model. More screenshots with an opaque mesh would have made it easier to see the topology.
Overall, the explanations are concise and makes the task seem efficient, easy, and fun.
|
|
|
