Spinning penny? It lay flat and calm, till someone picks it up and gives it a twirl. Around and around it spins, crazy. But once that hand lets it go, notice how it regains itself and it's position of flat and calm. My pc has been twirling me.. I'm gonna have withdrawals from here for a few days. Gotta reformat and everything that goes along with it! :) Big Sigh..actually I LOVE doing stuff like this too! (Guess I sound like a girl who just wants to have fun! ;) I'll be starting this eve. Before then tho, would anyone know of a book on what I like to call the DNA of understanding 3D? I gotta go to work, but will check back later before I do my thing with my pc. Thank You!!

The name Bill Fleming comes to mind. I hope I got that right. He has quite a few books on the subject. -JH.

Not to disaparage the man's talent, which is considerable, but how many of you got taken by his selling memberships to his pay only 3d Creatures Workshop, and his 3d University sites? All told, the two different memberships came to close to 100.00, to cover a years membership. He ditched both sites after only 2 months, leaving the members hanging high and dry. Now he has packaged the tutorials he was supposed to put up on those sites where members paid to gain access, and sells them in his books. No amount of asking for refunds has worked, he sends out some of the longest winded crying letters I have ever had the displeasure to read, making excuse after excuse on how he did more for the 3d community than anyone ever has, supported us when no one would etc. Short of getting an attorney and suing for the lost 100.00, there is little that any of the thousands who did make the mistake of paying him can do. The attorneys fees would eat that up, so it is just lost money in another internet scam. Now though, I make sure to never buy ANYTHING he has contributed to at all. He defraued a large community of trusting 3d artists, who were talented than saavy.

Thank you Jeff for the name! I will check out his books in case they are what I'm looking for. Bast Thank you for the info about the on-line courses and their history. I prefer to have the lessons in hand to learn from, than on the internet. I have had such experiences too. The internet is still a very chancy place, so quickly changing huh, kinda like the hand that spins the penny. I will remember what you have told me though!

If you will "remember what she told you"... why would you start your post with the message that you are going to look for Bill Fleming's books? If he's a scumbag who has ripped off artists.. don't give him more money! Are you mindless?

If you will list what programs you have, I will help you find good books to learn from that do NOT have anything to do with Bill Fleming. He is truly beyond contempt. I should dig out a few of his crying whining letters to show why I say that. And he makes promise after promise, none of which he keeps. His first issue of his online tutorials magazine went live around march of last year. It was supposed to be 12 issues a year. Then inside a month he reduced it to bimonthly. By May he managed to get another issue up, but little of it was usuable, the subject he tried to cover was too broad. Then not another issue came out. He kept writing excuses, new baby on the way, having to write books to support his wife and child, etc. Then saying the site would go back to live by Nov. Then he pushed that to Feb. Never giving any refunds. No matter how many refunds were requested. Then since Feb all we get out of him are letters offering us a chance to buy this, that or the other at a "discount" that he has arranged for his VAST mailing list he now has and sells. Of couse, since there is a cute code to use to claim the discount, he is making a percentage or commission off those sales too. I never buy. EVER. I would rather pay full price than see him get even 1.00. Those artists were alot like these. Niave. Trusting. All striving to do as well as he clearly could do even with his eyes closed. And he is a charlatan who saw a way to create an internet community and make a fast buck off their needs, then leave them hanging high and dry, since he also knows starving hobbyist level artists cannot afford to sue.

Moltingangel.. If you're just getting into 3D.. you might just wanna play with Poser for a while and see what happens. You can ask questions when you run into problems and there's always someone who can help. Once you figure out what you want to try and accomplish.. people can steer you to the proper tutorials or literature. (I hope her 'reformatting' went well?)

He has screwed over people over and over. It is amazing how many times he manages to get away with reselling the same slobber in new packaging too. I do have one of his books here, that I bought before I realized who I was dealing with. In it he writes a nice long diatribe on realistic texturing. Dirt. That is the key. Well hell, I know that. I did not need a 25,000 word article to tell me. Then that dirt article he has repackaged and sold over and over and over. The only person I can think of who does the exact same thing and gets away with it just as much, is in fact one of his 3d University Site/Creature Site co-horts, and it is a shame, since she is very good in her own way. Eni Oken. She too was involved in the scam, and seems to be a major contributor to his books, and if one looks at her products for sale one will find every few months she takes the same slobber and polishes it off and resells it. To a different mag, or a different book, etc. Most of the supposed book authors are in fact not that good. I CAN recommend three EXCELLENT books, aimed at Max users. Wonderful books. Not enough to be said for them. 3d Studio Max 3.0 Workshop by Duane Loose 3d Studio Max 3 Media Animation by John P. Chismar 3d Studio Max Professional Animation by Angie Jones. Now there is a third series, those put out by Bell. He also tends to repackaging a bit, but not as badly as the others, and the man has real talent and teaches things every 3d artist needs to know. He does the 3d Studio Max FX series. I also like the 3d Studio Max Effects Magic series too. When buying these books, go down to your bookstore, and sit a while. Open them up. Read a bit. Find one you can understand. Do NOT buy them based on the pretty color renderings in the center, cause chances are that is not the project you will be taught to make. Go by what they are really teaching. There are also tons of excellent tutorials on the net, it just takes hunting them down. Sometimes time costs us less than money, sometimes not. I like to read myself to sleep studying how to do better Boolean's, so a book comforts my hands in bed ;P Computers do not feel so great when held in the hand whilst prone ;P

Hey Bast I know exactly what you mean about Flemming. I also got done by his 3D university, and than got screwed by the graphics resource club on my 3 month membership. Living in Australia the membership cost me $180, That's a lot of money for Jack SHIT! Every time I see an article on him or by him I want to puke. If I did that stuff to my customers first I would be fired, then imprisoned!

His supposed forced on us membership to the new place, Graphics Resource Club, instead of an honest refund was possibly the worst insult of all. They never even sent the free book they claimed they were going to send. I did not want books. I have more books than I can shake a stick at anyway. I also did not want a 3 month trial membership to a club that I had no interest in. I believe that all here should be aware of the sort of person Bill Flemming is, and that if he is supported in any way at all, it is in fact supporting the man who defrauded a large community of trusting artists and were literally robbed of hard earned cash. I think I shall write up a large fat warning about him, dig out the old emails, etc, and do it up right into News and Announcements.

What is everyone's opinions on the books by R. Shamms Mortier? Is he a scuzzbucket, or a legit guy, or what? Thanks! SH

Shamms isn't to bad. Sometimes you get a good little book and othertimes it's a bit on the waste side. Overall I've had a decent experience with him. His work is easy to understand and he tries to cover topics in a complete manner. Some of his stuff has opened my eyes to the simplicity I overlook at times.

Shamms is decent as far as all that stuff goes. Not a con artist. Hrm... but then, not an artist either? ;P His techinical stuff, "this is how you do this" is great. My only problem with his one book I had is his sense of aesthetics. It got hard to read it after a while with my eyes closed :) But then, I hear that dorky ugly style of composition and renderings is his trademark look ;p

I got burnt also i paid for the yr and got 2 months worth of tutorials and OH BOY a book which was already at least 2 yrs old and what about thoses wonderfull CD that i paid for in my Subscripton. hmmm I do respect Bill for his talent he is a very good Modeler BUT!! i do think the 3d creater site was a total bust for anyone who got it.

Thanks everybody for all the references to authors, and the history lesson. 3d is very new to me. A year ago I saw Bryce4 and stood in the isle at Best Buy gasping for it. I became Bill Murray as Bob "I need, I need". A year later I was able to get it, and then found out about Poser4. What a fantastic combination!! I'm on the well known 'tight budget' due to serious medical bills. But my hubby knows how I love drawing, etc. and respectfully never says a word as the kid in me gets to indulge once in a far while! So finding the book that pretains to, as close to, as what I want is important. Again Thanks for the directions!

I only got 1 month out of Bill Flemings fraud of a site.