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Looking for a good magazine about 3D imaging.

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Can someone suggest a good magazine all about 3D imaging? I found I magazine called Layers at Barnes and Nobles, and was wondering if it is a good one.


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No. I am talking about creating 3D digital characters ( cgi doubles) and and animals ( like the wargs in the two towers) and structures such as buildings. Barnes and Nobles has a couple in their magazine section under art, but I don't know which is the best one. One of them explains how to build from the bones up. Showing you were muscles should be attached and how they should articulate. The magazine is monthly I think and costs $16.99 at Barnes and Nobles.


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You would do well to check out the siggraph libraries, there is a *ton* of stuff in there, and I'd check out medical anatomy books. I don't know of any specific magazines.

Back at animal we had a good selection of anatomy and movement books, understanding anatomy is indispensible for modeling truly realistic characters.
Also compiling a movement library can be a good idea, this consists of getting together video footage of different creatures moving. You take animal documentaries, movies etc. and edit all of them out into species and movement types.
You end up with (for example) a group of footage of cats running at full speed, another of gorillas walking, big cats leaping onto prey etc.
Then when you get to rigging and animating your characters you can pull out the relevant footage with ease and have a reference to how these animals move in reality, from different angles at different speeds under different lighting conditions and so on. By studying them you get to understand how they should be animated.

Also, before you pony up any cash, go to your nearest university and browse through their library, and see what you can find in the medical secction on anatomy and biomechanics/kinesiology, and look at the journals section of the university, there are an astounding amount of journals on the most esoteric of subjects and you might get lucky...
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Thanks for the advice, Laserman.


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On the same note that Laserman was hitting, I would start your motion library by having a good hard look at the Muybridge books if you can find them - those are the single most useful resource I've ever seen for studying realistic movment, balance, and the body in motion; I don't think they've been equalled yet. Each volume is fairly pricey, but if you're serious about animating, indespensible. I've never really seen much in the way of truly useful magazines. Most of the really interesting stuff I've ever learned has been through colleagues, or figure drawing and anatomy for the artist classes. The vast majority of mags I've seen cover kind of a general overview, and summary of how something was appraoched, but aren't terrifically helpful for teaching the specifics of anything. The siggraph stuff is very cool if you've already got a grounding in the field, and will defineitly give you some awesome ideas about how to approach a problem.
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We had a full collection, but I rarely found Muybridge all that useful for people, a lot of the movements are interesting but just didn't seem to turn out relevant for the sort of work I had to do, but it is handy as you get a huge variety of 'keyframes' of different people and animals all from the one spot, so they are worth having as a reference.

I absolutely agree that if you have had no formal art training, do an Anatomy for the artist course, and if you are going to be doing 3D texturing and lighting (not just modeling), then do a painting course, it will give you a really good understanding of light and texture which is indispensible.

You don't have to do an expensive course, even one of those cheap evening 'adult ed' courses would be just fine. The first thing we would do with any modeller was to put them through some short traditional art courses, it makes a *huge* difference.
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Laserman, all your advice is great. This gives me an idea of where to begin my studies. Thanks.


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Yar, a good good thing it be. Speaking as one of the great unwashed CG animation students who graduated in the late '90s from a school which DIDN'T particularly emphasize traditional skills, I can tell you how hard it was to get a job that way; techinical skill, but no formal grounding in design, drawing, or anatomy. If you don't get it at school, count on having to spend more time and money afterwards to aquire those skills, or you're pretty much toast. It's no fun to graduate AND THEN go back to school. Actaully, it's probably a good idea to find yourself some extra figure drawing groups outside of school anyways.
And to each their own inspiration, but I guess my love of the Muybridge stuff is not so much in how many keyframes and poses it gives you, but rather the overal demonstration of the body in motion, and the understanding that gave me of just how weight transfers and the body moves in and out of balance. You might never really need to animate a guy baling hay, but no matter how many times someone tells you the pelvis is generally up here at this point, and swaying left there at this point, for me I found that there was no substitute for SEEING it, and being able to step through the how and why of motion. Plus they're just plain gorgeous vintage photography