Inside LightWave 3D v10

Dan Ablan, a smart and very nice man, btw, who I've met over the years briefly at various Siggraph events. This is his latest in a series of Inside Lightwave books and is as instructional and useful as all those that came before. In fact, when asked by newcomers about the best way to get into Lightwave, and, yes, there are still newcomers :) to this popular and useful program, I point out Dan's books. But, I add, that they should come here, to amazon.com, and buy two three or more of the previous Inside LW books, inexpensively available, because collectively they are the best resource for learning LW available, and because Dan does not re-invent the wheel in each new book, but tends to move you forward. You can see that from just looking at the sizes of the books. Even with the newest edition of LW, the excellent tutorials of the earlier versions are, in my opinion, part and parcel of the whole computer graphics design learning process. My review therefore is an overarching review for Dan's whole series of books. I keep my fingers crossed that he will turn his fine mind toward the latest iteration, LightWave 11, and continues this outstanding effort.

This is a very solid overview of Lightwave 10. It does not go in depth in any one particular area, but it is a great companion to the pdf manual that comes with Lightwave. The exercises that go along with each item are valuable in that they walk you thru a practical exercise with many aspects. I would have liked to see a deeper dive in certain areas, but overall it is a fairly solid addition to Lightwave 10 learning lineup.

I've been a fan of Dan's training material since the early days of Lightwave. His books and video courseware are all you need to get a good grasp of doing everything you desire to do with LW. This version of the book is no exception. Don't let the page count fool you. Some of that is due to the fact that NewTek has made a lot of stuff simpler and easier to understand, therefore Dan doesn't need to spend as much time (or as many pages) covering how to do things. I highly recommend getting his video training as well. His instruction technique is very captivating and entertaining.

Book was useful purchased it first on my kindle, but I didn't like it that way so I purchased the book so I could put post its in the spots I needed to learn more about. Wish the book was more of a teaching guide rather than a reference. But it did help some to get me through my animation class.

The book comes with a cd full of helpful objects and scenes. The book is much smaller than other Inside Light Wave 3D books. It is less than half as thick as Inside Light Wave 3D 8 book. If you get Light Wave 10 then get this book. 10 has so many new powers for Light Wave 3D you really need a good book like Inside Light Wave 3D 10 to learn everything new. All of the Inside Light Wave 3D books I have gotten have been very useful. I am very glad I got this book and hope others will buy it use it and learn how to take advantage of the power of Light Wave 10.

I have this version in 8, 9 and now, 10. Version 8 is nearly 3 inches thick. Version 9 is 1.75 inches thick and version 10 is lucky to be 1.25 inches thick. The content has dwindled to almost nothing. The content continues to shrink while the price increases. I am disappointed with the overall content found in this book. The author assumes that everyone has experience with Lightwave and does not see the need to explain it. This book does not cover much of the items that has been added to Lightwave as an upgrade. (When you are running out of room, you can't say too much.) I have given Mr. Ablan the benefit of the doubt when I made this purchase. I will not purchase version 11 or 11.5 knowing that profits (and not valued content) is the only reason these series continue to exist. Besides, 75% of this content has been recycled from version 9. In other words, the effort to write this book didn't take long, and could have easily been rushed. (Sure reads that way.) Sorry Dan ... but this publication is nothing short of being sad!

I've owned every book in this series, and Dan has never disappointed me until now. This book focuses on the intricacies of LW10 Modeler and Layout, including chapters on texture creation, lighting, cameras, animation, particles, hard and soft-body dynamics, rigging, rendering, plug-ins, and of course, modeling a fruit bowl. If you were expecting a phone book, you might be pleasantly surprised by its pithy 386 pages, but it's safe to say the rest of us were expecting a bit more depth. Since CORE hasn't officially been released yet, I can't fault Dan for shortchanging us a couple of hundred pages... but at only 386 pages, less than a third of Inside LW7... are you kidding me??? Inside LW7 = 1166 pages, LW8 = 948 pages, LW9 = 722 pages, LW10 = 386 pages. Are you noticing a trend here? Is it possible that Lightwave has been dumbed down with each successive release? UPDATED: Ok, Dan thought my review was overly harsh, and he's probably right. My review was based on my initial reaction, and I was feeling somewhat cheated. It's true that the included DVD does add value and once CORE is released, Dan will post additional chapters online (hopefully to be included in a second printing). So I've added one star and changed lazy to PITHY. UPDATE #2: Dan seems like a nice enough guy and he mentioned that early reviews can really affect overall sales. Some things were beyond his control, such as publishing constraints and the state of flux that LW10 is in. Therefore, I've decided to add a second star to my initial two star review. After all, this is still the best LightWave 10 book currently available.

This is a very good book indeed for any entry level. Not only the author Dan is very knowledgeable about Lightwave, he's been using it for almost if not 20 years. The chapters are well organized and I actually prefer this version of the book if compared with the previous Lightwave book versions. You can skip chapters and dive right into the subject of your interest. This book doesn't go beyond the abis depths, but it certainly teach you the ins and outs of Lightwave. I'm new to Lightwave and I'm always keep going back to this book for any reference. I don't need a bible of 1000 pages unlike other reviewers, I need a well organized and straight to the point book and Inside Lightwave 10 does precisely the job. Strongly recommended for any beginner to Lightwave.