Great Strength and Weakness
From the outset it is clear that the author intends his readers to use the software programs 3ds Max and Character Studio. This leads to the book's greatest strength…and biggest weakness. If you are indeed prepared to use these programs, the book does an excellent job of guiding you in a step-by-step approach for each chapter. It is laid out in a "push button X to achieve result Y" sort of way. Each step of the process is described in painstaking detail. As I said, if you are using 3ds Max, this can help you achieve you goal. If you are not using that program then a large portion of the book becomes meaningless. All of the tutorial work does not translate easily to other programs such as Maya and SoftImage. Maya is known for its intuitive animation abilities and is used extensively in game animation today. The exclusion of information on this package is a glaring one and makes the book seem a bit outdated.

Since this book is so exclusive to one program it would have been helpful to have quite a bit of general knowledge given to the reader as well. Starting with the first chapter, “Built To Move,” which covers everything from character concepts to building your model, there was not enough information on why something was done, just how something was done. This carried throughout the entire volume with point-by-point explanations of how and the occasional stop for why. This is especially evident in the animation chapters. If you do not have a working knowledge of the principles of animation (weight, timing, use of arcs, slow-ins, slow-outs, overlap, follow through) this book won’t do much to help you. Those subjects are touched on but not given the gravity they deserve.

The book also comes with an enclosed CD that should run on most PCs. Again, if you are using 3ds Max, this resource is invaluable. It contains the actual files used in the lessons from the book. It allows the reader to examine the entire process for him or herself first hand and to interact with the lessons in a unique way. If you are not using Max, these files are of no use whatsoever.

The CD also contains full color files of all the reference images from the book that are especially helpful when looking at the character reference and texture files. Finally, it contains a demo of the game Betty Bad (on which most of the lessons in the book are based). It is interesting to see how all of these things add up to the final product, even though the game itself also seems a bit outdated.

In summary, this is a well-crafted and deep “how-to” book on creating an animated video game character from scratch. Those with little or no understanding of the 3D process and with access to 3ds Max will find it an invaluable resource. Those who have some understanding of the 3D process and a working knowledge of animation would do better to look elsewhere.

Animating Real-Time Game Characters by Paul Steed. Hingham, MA: Charles River Media, Inc., 2003. 392 pages with CD-ROM. ISBN: 1-58450-270-3. (US$49.95)

Oliver Wade is the animation director for Insomniac Games whose titles include the Spyro the Dragon series and Ratchet and Clank. He has been in the animation industry for 15 years and has been making video games for the past 10 including stints at Electronic Arts and Disney Interactive.