The Oxford Guide to English Usage

I have been perusing all the 3ds max books that come through the local Barns & Nobles for years and have purchased several. I must say the majority of them have been a big disappointment. I picked up "Advanced 3ds max 5 Modeling & Animating" on a whim and what a pleasant surprise. I liked this book so much I ordered B. Kulagin's (the author) other max book "3ds max 4 from Objects to Animations". It is also an excellent book and it covers features that are not covered in his max 5 book (the max 5 book actually builds on the max 4 book). These books are with out comparison the best max books I have ever run across. The project base lessons reveal the hidden power of max and are easy to follow and understand. B. Kulagin is a master instructor of max.

This is one of the first books I've bought for MAX. I was impressed that it is essentially a book of 5 long tutorials (projects) that lead the reader from start to finish. This is helpful to us users that want to "get our hands dirty" doing something rather than just reading a reference book that shows all the nifty gizmos but not how to really use them.As a new user to MAX I found that this book is a perfect way to see how the tools are actually used to create a scene. A couple other books I've purchased had either short tutorials that just showed a tool's application or just an explanation of the various MAX 4 functions.The projects themselves are fairly detailed and although at a glance the book looks simplistic, it is extreme in depth for a novice. The pictures are sometimes hard to see what's going on. The text sometimes can be a little confusing but with persistance I've been able to figure out most of it. Some steps are missing in areas that to a beginner seem crucial but the fact that just about every step is explained in a simple to follow manner makes this still one of the best learning tools I've found.I do recommend this book (along with a "reference" type book when you need a bit more explanation about a tool or function) as a way to learn step by step through hands-on for the non-experienced user.