3D Studio Max Design Guide, with CD-ROM

I purchased book on:14-Nov-2003, Listing ID:0922A885308. I received book on 12-3-03.The book was suppose to have the cd unopened.The cd was missing.Shipped by : [email protected] Harold Scogin 1783 cord 53 Wadley, Al 36276

I was kinda disappointed with the book. First of all, it's labelled "design guide", but is really just a bunch of tutorials. The introduction says "this book is not a tutorial on learning every button and menu of Max....its a fast-paced, project oriented guide on doing cool stuff with an awesome package". First off, project oriented = tutorials, so you would assume cool stuff making the tutorials-- but some of them don't work! The beginning of each chapter shows you a nice picture of the "completed project", only they show you how to get there 1/2 way! Its like 'here's a picture, do it yourself'. The tutorials also fail to tell you why things happen. They give you steps, like a recipe. Clik that button, set this value, press enter, click here, type 2.1, draw this, click Enter, done, thank you, have a nice day. That's the quality of the tutorials. But then again, its "fast-paced" book, so its assumed you spend time to do whatever steps are missing and fool around with the numbers to understand what they do.