A good character design, modeling, rigging, animating book around?

[UberInuka]

Yes im in search of one that will help be get over that slump of character/organic modeling, maybe one aiming more toward cinematic quality of models and textueres, along with animation tips. maybe even a book on level design

[glynnsmith]

You haven't specified what kind/branding of software you want to go with. I'm thinking that if you're asking for a book that covers all of your desired subjects, you're just starting out with game art

Gnomon are fantastic for all of the different parts of game art you're looking to learn. I'm unsure as to whether they sell books, but they do sell DVD's full of screengrabbed movies, which IMO are quicker to learn off, because you can just follow what they're doing onscreen.

Trying to find a book with all of your needs might prove tricky. I don't think I've ever read a single book that covers all of your topics, and if one ever did, it'd either be massively big, or really shallow with it's content. You'd be much better off learning each part of the creative pipeline as you go, and buy books that suit each.

That said, books are an invaluable source of reference - Technical manuals for your chosen applications should always be referred to save time asking questions later on (a VERY important part of being an artist is being able to find your own answers).

Anatomy / visual reference books are great to keep around so you have strong and readily available reference material, should you ever need it for the projects you may undertake.

Hope some of this helps. If not, try and be a bit more specific with your questions and I'll try and offer more answers.

[hamadubai]

I have a book that specifically delves into character design with I love called "Creating Characters with personality" by Tom Bancroft.
from the cover art it may seem like a cheap book that doesn't know what its talking about, but it's a VERY good book.

edit: oh and I recently bought a book on character modeling; it's from the d'artiste series from '/ballistic/' called 'character modeling 2' it's got a picture of a gears of war character on the cover, which goes into how they developed the low poly mesh and high poly mesh in pretty good detail. good book, nice read.

edit edit: and I just looked through my bookshelves and I found a book on modeling, rigging and animating, but it only goes into simple cartoony detail called "[digital] Character Animation 3" by George Maestri. it's not too bad for a beginner like me, but it's not all that great either.

[AthleteUK]

Richard Williams the Animators Survival Kit. One of the best an most comprehensive animation books you will find. it is based around 2D animation but it beats the crap out of 3D animation books for the sheer fact it covers the very fundamentals of movement very very well. Besides they're both the same discaplin anyway. One takes place on paper and one takes place on a file on your computer. That's the only difference.

*not sure how hit the T :P

[glynnsmith]

*Richard Williams.

I have this book, too. It's awesome for poses and general, cartoon-like animation.

[hamadubai]

Originally Posted by AthleteUK

Richard Williams the Animators Survival Kit.

such a beautiful book! I hug it to sleep

[UberInuka]

sorry i wasnt specific enough, anyway i use 3ds max 9, and just wanted to complete an organic character, from modeling all the way to animating it in some for of cinematic animation

edit:
If you have to list more than one book on different aspects then please do, i want to go from the modeling basics to a finished cinematic (or game) quality model, (3ds max9, Mudbox/Zbrush)

i just dont want to end up with a crappy book wasting my money

[glynnsmith]

Tbh, Max's help and reference files will be able to show you how to do most of that. I can't reccomment enough that you give them a browse and try some of the examples. It might feel like you're not learning anything, or it isn't exciting, but that's what they're there for They do help.

If not, The Character Modelling Gnomon disc I have is incredibly good for character creation. Ian Joyner, the artist behind said DVD, uses Max and ZBrush, and the result is pretty damn nice. I'm not sure what kind of skill level you are, so that might be over-extending a bit.

[benclark]

if you are looking for detailed tutorials for something like character modeling I find books infuriating. They are fine until you get to the stage where they say 'delete these 65 edges and insert these 32 edges here instead' or something like that.

its like trying to explain how to piant by using text alone. Its expensive but I would go for dvds. By seeing someone work you can instantly see what they are doing every step of the way. Plus everyone has little quirks in their workflow that you can steal

like Glynn said you cant really go wrong with Gnomon

[UberInuka]

i watched a sample for gnomon's character modeling in max, he seems to go a bit fast, unless he starts it off slow in the beginning, only reason is though because i dont want to buy a $90 tutorial and be subjected to watching something that moves a bit too fast, but i might get it