I like this book. I think it does what it sets out to do. I did not know what to expect when I recieved my review copy from the company. Honestly it has been a while since I read one of the books from this 3ds Max 'Bible' series. I found, what I feel, a very good text on this premier 3D program. Regardless of what the web site or the back of the book says, this is an good overview of what 3ds Max 2010 is, and what it is capable of doing. In other words, 'this is the name of the tool, and this is what it does." But it does even more than that in a very readable way. This `bible' starts by giving the novice a good tour of the interface and tool sets, then goes on to more advanced concepts. You may not become an expert with this book, but you will understand Max a whole lot better.

Let's face it Max 2010, like its predecessors, is a very flexible, very complicated, very deep program no matter how you look at it. Those of us who get hooked on it want to know how to use it to do our bidding. It is nice to have a book I can keep by my computer to turn to and look up some tool or technique.

So, how does a new user learn Max, and how can a current user keep up with all of these new functions and capabilities? They are being added at an incredible rate. There is a new Max release out before I get a chance to get comfortable with the last release. Don't get me wrong, I welcome great tools added to a familiar interface. Most of them are truly amazing. Some began life as a plug-in for Max and then became fully integrated features. Like I said - How does a user keep up with all of these functions and capabilities?

If you have been around long enough you learn a procedure in a program and continue to do things that way even when there is a new more efficient way to get the job done introduced in the new version. A person gets comfortable with the way they do things in a program, It's been like this since the dawn of time. I think for most of us we are just unaware how a new function or capability, once learned, can truly increase our productivity. While reading this book I definitely learned a few things, or I have been reminded of a few things that I can now put to use.

So who do I think this book is for? If you are completely new to Max and want a book that you can look up how to do something in Max this book should serve you well. It should not be your only source of training - you should be doing other reading and beginning exercises from other providers. I think of this book as a good place to find the answers to many questions that come up while learning a program like 3ds Max. If you consider yourself an intermediate user and have not read a Max book in a while, you may want to go through some of the topics. It does cover the new bells and whistles fairly well.

Kelly L. Murdock has been at this `Max bible' writing since 2000 when the 1,100 page 3d studio Max R3 Bible was published. He obviously knows Max very well. I happen to like the way the material is presented. More so than what I found in the earlier books on previous releases. The first part of the book is aimed at the beginner with all the basic information presented in a logical order. The other part of the book is for the more advanced tools in Max 2010. While reading the book I noticed that the legacy components of max were, for the most part, left out. I was going to call the author on that but found I missed something in the preface that addressed this. He had purposely left out the older legacy parts to conserve room for more important topics. I found the Note, Tip, Caution, New Feature, Cross-Ref, and On the DVD tag notes useful for the most part. It's like having someone looking over your shoulder while you are reading and telling you all the points that are important to understand now, or where they are covered elsewhere in the book or DVD. I like these especially the tips and cross references.

Speaking of the DVD - it's pretty impressive. I had no trouble opening up the files on the DVD. All the chapter files for the fifty-one plus chapters are on here. Two applications, a 3ds Max 2010 Trail 30 day version and Adobe Reader. There is a section with 3D models from both Viewpoint and Zygote. Zygote also provides a man and a woman model. There is an e-book on here also. The entire book in PDF format as stated on the e-book splash screen `All the text for the book is included on the DVD in PDF format along with Adobe Reader. Using the electronic version of the book, you can search the text. You'll also be able to see the book's figures in color.' We would have benefited with colored figures. For the most part, the B&Ws are fine and serve their purpose. Three bonus chapters are provided here as well. One on installing 3ds Max 2010, one with an extensive list of shortcuts broken down into categories, The third is `Working with NURBS'. The subject of NURBS does come up in the book a few times, mostly in Chapter 27 on modeling with patches and NURBS. It's nice to have more info on them.

If you are new to Max you will get a good idea of the power of a 3D software like Autodesk's 3ds Max. If your familiar with Max and used it for a while, there is something for you in this book. You will be reminded of some great features that you missed or forgot about. You will get aquainted with the new features of the latest release if you are a new user or a veteran.

this book is useful for letting you know what you can do with the program, but as far as learning how to do complicated task, the book doesn't explain in enough detail for a beginner to grasp.

Teaches you a little here and there, but the free tutorial pdfs at autodesk are just as good or better in some cases.
The example tutorials are hastily written, leaving out steps.
Some of the final files on the DVD are even done wrong.
(Like the bucket of the backhoe Lesson 41)
Looks like no one went through the tutorials to see if they would work as described.
Large swaths of material with no interactive tutorial which will show you how it works.

I am almost done reading through this entire tomb and doing the exercises. I feel this is a good book on 3ds Max if you want an overview of the program and what it can do. It is very general. 3ds Max is a very challenging program but I feel I can use it now after reading this book.

When you see the word 'bible' on a book like this, you expect it to meet expectations, and it does. Great for research or re-introducing yourself to 3ds Max in general, which is what I've been doing. Fast shipping, so glad I was able to track it! Fast shipping and a good price :) great job!

This book is very informative concise and to the point. It is like having a person there to help you!

This book gets zero stars. I have been chasing Wiley (the publisher) for the past month back and forth with major concerns with the PDF file on the CD. If you look on the front cover of the 3ds Max 2010 Bible, it claims the book has a "Color, searchable PDF of the book" on the disc. The PDF is in Black and White. The print quality of the book is already in crappy Black and White so the selling point is that the PDF is in color so that the screenshots and diagrams can be seen more clearly. I'm trying to learn 3ds Max for the first time the fact that the PDF is in Black and White is an extreme disappointment.

This is the response I got from Wiley, "We apologize for the confusion. The cover of the text is in color but the pages just as the printed book are exactly the same in black and white" and "that this was an error in text. The book itself is not 4 color with the exception of 16 pages of color, therefore the PDF should not be 4 color. We apologize for the inconvenience as this will be corrected in the next printing."

One page out of 1300 pages isn't really what I would define as "Searchable, full-color PDF of the book". That's less than 0.1% of the entire book. I bought this book from "Amazon" over a month ago and unfortunately, I have to use it for reference so I'm out of luck for a refund. I also notice the cover for the older 3ds Max 2009 Bible also advertises it comes with a PDF in color. I really wonder how many years the PDF's have been actually in black and white.

this would be a great E-BOOk if someone didn't have the bright idea of NOT including the REQUIRED DVD to do the exercises in the book.