Foundations of 3ds Max 6

This is a great all around Max guide, and has the best tutorials I've read. They're easy to understand, while being thorough. It's perfect for learning the basics and has a lot of tips and tricks as well. Overall it's very straightforward and well organized to help you find exactly what you're looking for.

After trying to muddle through a few tutorials from other 3d modeling books, I really appreciate how well the tutorials of this book are written. In many of the tutorials, Aaron Ross will point out what will go wrong as you are working throught the tutorial and how to fix it! Although, I agree that the character model is not pretty, this does not detract from the tutorial itself. This book does provide an excellent foundation for using 3ds Max 6 and I recommend it for any beginner.

This book is a great way to get yourself started with 3d studio max 6. It is structured to teach you how to model and animate rather than just discussing the different functions of the program. The tutorials provided are very well written and stand out from other books on the subject because they explain not only what steps to take but also the reason behind each of the steps. 3d Studio Max is a very complicated piece of software but Aaron Ross has clearly mastered it. He tries to point out potential pitfalls so that you may avoid them before they occur.

Foundations of 3ds Max 6 is an excellent book for people like me who have never used 3D Studio Max. After reading most of the book (I didn't read the animation chapter), I was able to create my own 3D character, which turned out great. The tutorials in this book are very thorough with step by step instructions. One important aspect of this book that I found very helpful was that the instructions in the tutorials explained why to do the steps. I can't tell you how many tutorials I've read that go through several steps and I end up with a great looking final product but they never tell me why the steps are needed. It's very frustrating because I wouldn't be able to reproduce that great looking end product again, on the fly, without reading the tutorial again. With this book, every step is explained and with that knowledge and foundation, I can reproduce my model, scene, etc. without having to go back to the tutorial again. After reading this book, I feel I have a very strong foundation in 3D Studio Max. Now I can pick up other 3DS Max books that offer more advanced tips and tricks and know what they're talking about!