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3D Palace Training DVDs. Best in the World and Free Postage Too  | | 
02-05-2008, 04:44 AM
| | Senior Member Vertex juggler | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Tennessee
Posts: 536
| | | Has anyone used these books?
I want to get into Mental Ray and I've found two books that look pretty good, but I was wondering if anyone has seen them and know which is better.  Amazon.com: mental ray for Maya, 3ds Max, and... Amazon.com: Rendering with mental ray & 3ds Max:...
I found the first one at a Border's bookstore and looked through it. It looks like it's a more generic book on Mental Ray, but I haven't seen the second book anywhere. Is Mental Ray pretty much the same across software? If I learn it for one package, is it easy to adapt to another?
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02-05-2008, 04:59 AM
|  | Member Posts quite a lot | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: California U.S.A.
Posts: 87
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I have the 2nd book, "Rendering with Mental Ray & 3ds Max". I've only made it through the first couple of chapters, but it seems to be pretty good so far. I don't know anything about the first book.
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02-05-2008, 05:28 AM
| | Senior Member Vertex juggler | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Tennessee
Posts: 536
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I see. I might get it. I've been wanting to learn how to use Mental Ray and do better lighting.
Has anyone used any of the Maya books from Autodesk? Are they worth the $70?
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02-05-2008, 06:19 AM
|  | Pyro at work. Stand back. ARTIST | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Toronto
Posts: 2,103
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I have the second book as well, however I have not had a chance to open it yet. So, not much input I can give you on that.
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02-05-2008, 06:22 AM
|  | Artist in Training Finder of ye hidden forum | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Pine Grove, LA
Posts: 325
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I have the second book as well, but it's mainly geared towards a version of Max that's newer than R8...it shows some features that I don't have
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Geoffrey Noland Wolfden! |
02-05-2008, 07:26 AM
|  | Senior Member Polygon Fumbler | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Finland
Posts: 183
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I have the second also, I really don't remember much of it, is that good or bad is up to you. You could probobly learn somethings from it and I sometimes pick it up to check what a setting is for, but that I probobly could have used the help to do also...
I like books however and read alot, and forget alot...
/Macca
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02-05-2008, 12:52 PM
| | Senior Member Finder of ye hidden forum | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
Posts: 360
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I have the second one too  It's very good if you're starting with mr, but don't expect some super advanced stuff. It gives solid foundation, which is good. It works both as a straight read, and as a reference, since it explains all the options, and then gives an exercise.
Cons: it's about mr 3.5, which is the one from max 9. The current one is 3.6, and you need an update on the new stuff - mr photographic exp control, changes in the arch shaders, light portals, production shaders, raytype switchers etc.
Overall - strong recomend if you are a beginnger with mr.
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02-05-2008, 12:59 PM
|  | AWESUM ARTIST | | Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: UK
Posts: 7,340
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I just purchased the second book about 2 hours ago - you can never have too many 3ds Max books to be honest - essential toilet reading |
02-05-2008, 01:08 PM
| | AWESUM ARTIST | | Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: UK
Posts: 7,340
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edit : purchased the ebook whilst I wait on delivery too. Looking forward to reading this one later.
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02-05-2008, 02:14 PM
|  | Senior Member Vertex juggler | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Norway
Posts: 442
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I've been reading the second one for some time now. I don't know exactly how I feel about. Guess I was expecting it to go deeper into each subject than it does.
What I would like is one huge, fat bible (maybe preferably ebook because they're easier to search ) that I can use as reference and lookup when I need it.
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