3ds Max Tm5 Bible [With CDROM]

This is a good book for a beginner/novice, If you are good with 3DS MAX and know your way around it pretty good, Then this book will not really teach you anything new. Most of the stuff in this book relys on the included CD-Rom, So if you order a copy without it, Be prepared to make up stuff as you go and do your best at copying what you see in the pictures. Overall I am glad that I bought it, I only paid $1.03 for my copy brand-new, So if you can get it cheap, I say go for it. And if you already know alot about 3DS MAX, Then please dont expect this book to teach you anything you dont already know, It is for beginners.

After reading some of the other listed reviews, I was a little skeptical of this book, but a friend of mine recommended it so I thought I'd check it out and I'm glad I did. I'm a beginner to 3DS Max and this book is awesome. I tried to get the program to work before this book, but kept running into trouble. The examples are all super simple to follow and very helpful. I especailly like the variety of the examples. In one chapter, the examples are fun cartoons and in another they are amusement rides. I found myself anxious to see what the next example would be. Chapter 1 had a space shuttle example that seemed to be in poor taste, but the rest were great. I've made it about 3/4 of the way through the book now and even though the features are getting tougher such as the Track View, this book still makes it easy to understand. Another thing I like about this book is that it covers everything, every feature no matter how small is covered. I'm constantly going back to the modifier chapter to see what the various modifiers do.