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mental ray for Maya, 3ds Max, and XSI: A 3D Artist's Guide to Rendering | 
 enlarge | Author: Boaz Livny
Publisher: Sybex
Category: Book
List Price: $59.99
Buy New: $37.79
You Save: $22.20 (37%)
New (31) Used (8) from $32.51
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 46343
Media: Paperback
Pages: 740
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 0470008547
Dewey Decimal Number: 006
EAN: 9780470008546
ASIN: 0470008547
Publication Date: February 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Turn 3D models into film-worthy digital animations by mastering mental ray rendering once and for all. This must-have guide is the only book on the market to focus exclusively on mental ray in Maya, 3ds Max, and XSI, and it's packed with techniques and insights you can't get anywhere else. Best of all, the book's advanced rendering concepts apply to other rendering software as well, including V-Ray, Brazil, Maxwell and RenderMan. Discover advanced lighting, camera, and workflow techniques that usually take professionals years to figure out.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 mental ray! democracy! at last! December 20, 2007
Aaron A. Kent (Brooklyn, New York)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
As an XSI user I normally approach all Sybex publications with a fair amount of trepidation. Sure it says XSI on the cover, but I'm about to have to sift through another maya-centric publication. My hat is off to you sir, I think this is one of the best manuals to come out in a long time (and I've bought my share). It's really great to see "the big three" programs all receiving equal attention, and for anybody who might be proficient in one package it's invaluable to have each aspect of Mental ray explained in triplicate, just in case you have to dive into somebody else's project in an unfamiliar app to tune up a render. Again, terrific job, this book is invaluable to any artist hoping to expand their render chops. I hope Sybex see's this as well (sales-wise and otherwise) and continues creating books of this caliber for maya, 3ds max AND XSI.
Cheers
Aaron Kent
The "Go To" Guide January 2, 2008
David Halbstein (New York, NY)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book gives a definitive methodology for using Mental Ray shaders, lighting effects and phenomena AND a clear explanation of how and why things work the way they do. Understanding the basic structure of the software is key to being able to make it work in different applications, and it is this understanding that Boaz provides in this book.
As a Maya instructor at the undergraduate and graduate university level, I am going to make this required reading for my classes, and recommend its inclusion in the department library.
This is gonna save Time,Money and a lot of Stress-Happy Rendering January 22, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
After reading a couple of books on mental ray and 3D rendering, I can say that this is a thorough and unique book that just provides an abundance of useful information. I can list some of the things that stand out when reading this book:
1. It helped me understand the complete working and optimization of subsurface scattering, global illumination, caustics, occlusion, and high dynamic range images (even though I thought I knew it all).
2. Shaders.. shaders and more shaders.. I can definitely say this is the only book which dissects all the commercially available mental ray shaders on a very extensive level.
3. Since the book explains the concepts and techniques on a broader scope it can be applied to any 3D package or renderer. It may sound surprising but I have applied a lot of concepts explained here on other packages like Houdini and Cinema 4D with great success.
The author has done a great job in striking a relationship between digital implementation to the natural phenomena of cameras, lights, shadows, materials etc. It definitely caters to users of all levels of experience. I should also mention that the book is insanely up to date; the architectural shader sections are a typical example.
Hats Off!!!
One of the Tech Editors for this book February 1, 2008
G. Martinez (San Francisco, CA United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was one of the tech-editors on this book. Boaz is the most knowledgeable author I've ever tech-edited. He truly knows mental ray. I learned so much just tech-editing this thing. I thought I knew/understood mental ray until I read this. mental ray is one of the major render engines. Once you understand the concepts you can take that to many render engines.
In depth mental ray December 10, 2007
Robert L. Appleton (NY, USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a really excellent book, that really gets under the hood of mental ray and how lighting works in 3D. If you have aspirations of becoming a lighting TD. If you want to have professional looking renders I highly recommend this book.
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