Deconstructing the Elements with 3ds Max, Second Edition: Create natural fire, earth, air and water without plug-ins

List Price: $49.95 Discount Price: $32.59

Customer Reviews:

#1 Max Particle Book on the Market [Posted on 2007-12-19]
If you want to know how to use 3ds Max's Particle Flow...this is the book you should buy. One word of caution...make sure you brush up on your PFlow basics before digging in. The book definitely assumes that you know what you're doing when wiring up PFlow's Operators and Tests. There's screen shots to help you along, start and completed scene files, and a real nice handful of cool effects covered. More for the Intermediate and Advanced user.

The best book on 3DSMax, Period. [Posted on 2008-01-02]
Pete Draper knows his stuff! The tutorials are in color and quite easy to follow, except for the complex materials, but Pete explains what each one does in detail.

The author makes use of the Particles Systems a lot which you will be very good at by the end of the book. I own a bunch of books on Max, and this is by far, hands down, bar none the best book currently available.

Be warned this book does not cover everything in Max(such as Mental Ray), but after you finish this book you will have an arsenal of things you can do.

I recommend this book to beginners and experts alike, both will walk away with a lot of new ideas and knowledge about 3DS Max.

Makes 3DS MAX Cheaper... [Posted on 2008-04-07]
There are a million expensive plugins out there, and each does only one thing. You can buy each of them, or you can invest in your ability to learn Max's subtleties. This guy has apparently been doing great work since before there was a big plugin market, so buy his book, and you'll save all kinds of money. Plus you'll have a FAR better understanding of the various methods that can be used to perform relatively complex and difficult tasks. It's an exciting read for the right kind of 3D geek. You will probably find yourself thinking "I didn't know you could do THAT with THIS!"

Great Book [Posted on 2008-09-24]
I've been using Max for 9 yrs and this book showed me ways of using procedural textures that I would have never thought of. I could get close, but this book takes it those few steps closer to realism that I was looking for.

Pretty Cool [Posted on 2008-11-02]
This book is really informative, loads of pictures and real fun. My only problem is the online content is not available...maybe it's just me but I cant find it. Does anyone else know where it is?

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