eetu Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 There was discussion on irc about the essential books to read, let's gather a good collection into this thread! First, the Houdini ones of course; Houdini on the Spot A plentiful cookbook of tips and tricks Magic of Houdini For H8, but mostly still applicable as well as instructive Techy stuff; Texturing and Modeling: a Procedural Approach Primarily aimed at the shader writer, but very good info for every shader user as well. Production Rendering Primarily aimed at someone implementing a production renderer, but useful for those interested in the inner life of modern render engines. The chapter shading is written by Mark Elendt of SideFX. Advanced Renderman The Renderman Shading Language Guide Both are good primers on Renderman. I just started the second one so I can't yet comment on the differences. Probably pretty similar but both is better! Art and Science of Digital Compositing The compositing bible. High Dynamic Range Imaging Haven't read it but probably good The C Programming Language The classic. If you want to start programming Vex without any background in C, this is the source. The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants The book on Lsystems. Now also available free on the web. The Artier side of things; The Animator's Survival Kit A good book on the basics The Illusion of Life The Disney book of animation Painting with Light The fundamentals of lighting and composition from the b&w movie era. Please add your favourites as well as your comments on these! eetu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitallysane Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Digital Compositing for Film and Video: another compositing bible; I actually found it more useful than "Art & science..." Creating 3D Effects for film, video and games: good book on effects stuff, including studio organisation and setup and with lots of Houdini examples. A little bit old but full of good info Filming the fantastic: great book for VFX cinematography and optical effects Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eetu Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 Perhaps not directly applicable to our trade, but a couple of personal sources of inspiration; The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations, Beautiful Evidence Essentials of information design from Edward Tufte The Computational Beauty of Nature Chaos, complex systems, adaptation, fractals, cellular automata etc eetu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdg Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 A New Kind of Science Stephen Wolfram outlines a fundamental new way of modeling complex systems. [online: http://www.wolframscience.com/] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmuriel Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 (edited) My last purchase, The DV Rebel's Guide A comprehensive guidebook to planning, shooting, and finishing your own digital movie. ( http://rebelsguide.com ) Edited April 17, 2008 by vmuriel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pagefan Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Digital Modeling of Material Appearance http://www.elsevierdirect.com/product.jsp?...n=9780122211812 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamis Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 rendering for beginners, Image synthetics using renderman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegro Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Stopping Time Digital Lighting and Rendering Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist Walt Disney's Nine Old Men Oh, and lets not forget: The Essential Calvin and Hobbes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.