New book on character rigging and animation

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#1

Hey guys! :slight_smile:

I’m writing to shamelessly tell that I’ve just released my book on character rigging and animation with Blender 2.5: http://www.packtpub.com/blender-2-5-character-animation-cookbook/book

http://www.virgiliovasconcelos.com/cms/imagens/blog/galerias/380/0.jpg

It has 50 tutorials devoted to create all controls for your characters (from the ground work stuff to more advanced things like stretching, bending, space control, IK-FK blending…) and animate them convincingly (there are chapters dedicated to the Blender workflow and principles like body mechanics and acting).

I’ve created a small promo video about it here: http://vimeo.com/25286653

Along with the book there are more than 100 source files available for download at http://www.virgiliovasconcelos.com/blender-animation-cookbook/

To celebrate the release, the publisher will give free copies for 2 users picked randomly who Tweet the following until next Wednesday (July, the 6th, 11:59 PM GMT): “I want a free copy of Blender 2.5 Character Animation Cookbook http://bit.ly/b3dAnimBook #b3d”
The lucky ones will be picked randomly via http://www.random.org, and the results will be announced next Thursday on my Twitter account. Good luck! :smiley:

#2

Intro video looks very professional! I wish you good sales and global success with it!

#3

Looks great!

#4

Looks very nice, may have to purchase this at some point! :slight_smile:

#5

Awesome Virgilio

#6

I’ve had this e-book since the RAW version (Packt’s pre-realease chapters which is a nice way to get a little discount) and I have to say its awsome. The video, as good as it is, dosn’t actually do the book justice for the amount of indepth content it contains. Its very well written with very good, mostly, full colour (e-book) screenshots. The layout is consistent throughout with usefull “See Also” links to other chapters and “How it Works” call outs throughout.

I have a love/hate relationship with Packt. I love their copyright method (Name and address on every page of pdf). I love the fact that they seem to be creating quite a range of good quality Blender books. I love the fact that they have some pretty awsome deals available from time to time.
I would happily buy the e-book and the print version If they published the print books in colour.
Is the print version in colour?

#7

Ok, will check if this is available locally, I tend to prefer to “touch” a book before buying, surely am too much stuck in old school ways… :wink:

But certainly interested in the specific matter, already bought some, but would like to have more flavours…

#8

Hey guys! Thanks for your comments!

@lynchy67: I’m more than happy to know you liked the book. Thanks a lot! :slight_smile:

@Extrudeface: I know it’s not like touching a physical book, but you can read a sample chapter on Packt’s website: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/3203OS-Chapter-2-Rigging-the-Torso.pdf?utm_source=packtpub&utm_medium=free&utm_campaign=pdf

Cheers! :smiley:

#9

Just posted a review of this book on http://tube.freefac.org , full disclosure: Virgilio is an animator on our team. I thought the book was great, the best anim/rigging book for blender that I’ve read so far. I don’t think I’m too biased, since the reason we Virgilio is on our team is that he’s a good animator! so it makes sense the book is also good.

#10

hey! very nice! Will probably purchase it online :slight_smile:

And with nice I mean, that chapter looks very clear, to the point, very well edited, and …am finally understanding how to rig a spine(in Blender), hehe. Looks like clean and easy to get the concepts…

#11

Very interesting, thanks for the review Bassam, and I agree that it would be nice to see some kind of guide on how to set up sliders or buttons in the UI for rigs, not necessarily in this book, but in general. I’m curious about the face rig used in this book, what methods are covered?

#12

In chapter 4 there’s tutorials to make a hybrid setup for the face. Foundation starts with armature driven shapekeys, and then layers on top lattice and armature (for flexibility and for jaw/tongue)
It’s a nice methodical and teachable method (mine for instance, aren’t, I use the "too much stuff"™ technique for rigging the face (analogous to the "too many lights"™ method of lighting without GI)

#13

Just wow! Virgilio is an awesome animator, so, coming from him, must be a “must have” book!
Congrats, man!

#14

I am just about on the first few steps to rigging a character - so at least I know where to turn to if I get stuck.

#15

Purchased!

I have worked actually doing a little bit (for job reasons) of character animation and rigging in other packages (not Blender), but is pretty different and really need to get deeper into 2.5. Also, I am mostly a modeler and texturer (of that (and concept art, etc) have plenty of experience, but again not much in Blender), but was always interested in character animation.

My “world” is more another kind of animation: Game artwork, realistic models, etc. But I guess I’ll adapt these advanced techniques to whatever . For instance, shape keys, is probably not something you can apply to export to many game engines, but imho is really needed to have good knowledge of those. (already did a little (crappy) of that for a casual…)

Purchased the whole thing, ebook and the actual printed book. Really eager for the day it arrives here.:RocknRoll:

Thank you for doing these wonderful projects :slight_smile:

#16

Hey, guys! Thanks a lot! :smiley:

Bassam, I’m very happy you liked the book. Thank you for reviewing it! I would probably never write this book if it wasn’t for the tutorials and rigs made by talented people like you and Nathan Vegdahl. :slight_smile:

@meschoyez: muchas gracias! :smiley:

@Extrudeface: Thank you very much! I really hope this book help you with your projects. You can always drop me a line if you have any issues with it. :slight_smile:

#17

I purchased the RAW ebook and the hard copy. The hard copy is NOT in color unfortunately.
Like you, I love the content of PACKT books but the price is equal to books with color, or at least much better grey scale graphics. The book is great but PACKT is going to have to fix their graphics to stay competitive.

#18

Very nice demo video. Nice marketing strategy btw :eyebrowlift:

I am gonna get it.

#19

Yeah… unfortunately the hard copies are not in color. This is definitely a bad thing for most Packt books. In the case of this particular book, the lack of colors doesn’t compromise the learning process, since the subject doesn’t rely too much on it.

There are, though, some (few) points in the book where I needed colors to explain some concepts. Weight painting, for example, had to be translated to greyscale (which, in fact, was interesting because I have also talked about Blender’s custom gradient colors for that). The lack of colors on the printed version also affected some explanations on custom bone colors and keyframes on the DopeSheet, but that was all. :slight_smile:

#20

Virgilio,

I bought your book from the publisher and am impressed with the content of it. Your book will be a good one to go along with Tony Mullen’s book. The thing I like about your book is that you actually take us through the steps of building various animations while Tony Mullen’s book gives more of a general overview of Blender Animation. Keep up the good work! And remember, if Pixar hires you, tell them Blender is the way to go.

Both you and Tony Mullen should collaborate on a book :slight_smile: