Hi All,
I just thought I'd kick something off here and post about few books I grabbed the other day while in Borders, great reads and I reccomend them to anyone interested in the games industry.
Apologies if this has already been posted somewhere else [:P]
'Masters Of Doom' by David Kushner.
Its a fantastic read about the two Johns ( Romero & Carmack ) and their crazy hike to glory. From right back when they were young teenagers, to how they met and eventually built an empire.
'Game Design' by Chris Crawford.
I havent got too far into this one yet - but its a 450 page nitty gritty of game design to boggle the mind and so far Ive found it to be right on the button with many topics that other game design books dont even touch on - Conflict and even a chapter or 2 on looking at your business and making game design work with it better.
'Dynamic Figure Drawing' by Burne Hogarth
This book is fantastic - I think every 2D/3D artist should have a copy. It explains things in refreshing ways, and shows how to express the human body / muscle / form in such a way that once you have the hang of it - will enable you to bring out so much more in your concepts / designs.
Feel free to add to this post with other great reads etc ill be adding my thoughts to all the industry relevant books I purchase over the coming months [:)]
Here's a book that is proving to be immensely useful in learning to draw and improving existing drawing skills:
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards. Just look at some of her students before and after drawings (you can probably find info online), and you'll be amazed. I'm only half way through and already I can see a big improvement.
I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their drawing skills, especially people who could use some more artistic confidence.
The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
Dynamic Light and Shade (Any Burne Hogarth for that matter)
Anatomy for the Artist, it has great photos and descriptions
Any Frazetta Books, awesome for character concepts
Any Loomis Books, great anatomy books
Double Memory: Phil Hale and Rick Berry, some cool stuff
Goad: Phil Hale, haven't read but its phil hale
Progressions: The Art of John Foster
The Spectrum Series (1 to 12 i think), best of fantasy illustration
Alla Prima: Everything I Know, i haven't read it but it looks good
Octane: i use amazon, yet to have a problem and its fairly cheap
Anatomy Drawing school.
[human.animal.comparative anatomy]
by Andras Szunyoghy/Gyorgy Feher
Believe me, if you can find this book you'll hardly ever need another anatomy book again. My bible. [:)]
Any medical or autopsy journals, gross but invaluable. Boo haha
I second Animators Survival Guide. Must have.
Stop Staring has been floating around work for a few months and although its good I'm not overly sure it greatly helps anyone other than those just starting out in higher poly facial modelling etc.
It seems like pretty common knowledge if you understand edgeloops and muscle structures of the face, although there are some pretty cool things to do with Maya specifically. Worth a look.
Keep away from software specific Guides unless you're really just starting out, literally haven't touched the package. They run over so much but touch so briefly on anything that its just easier to open the softwares helpfiles and tutorials or do a few web based ones.
Brom: Darkwerks - this is the fucking shit.
Any of Burne Hogarths Dynamic books.. Maybe not the faces one, doesn't really establish difference between male and females.
Frezzato - Keepers of the Maser (i think) Amazing level of detail in these..
Frazetta - Much Respect
Anry http://www.anry.ru/eng/index.htm
Umm.. But yeah.. Make your own reference.. Buy a cheap digi camera or a scanner.. Go people watching.. Bad thing about most of the stuff in books, is that you'll find that all the bodies are pretty much stock standard cliche stuff, so yeah.. Don't be afraid to look outside the box.. Try the masters, the ninja turtles did some crazy stuff..
Head down to your local library and browse through some of the art books in there. Granted, you may need to wade through a lot of junk to find something useful, but shit.. You're getting some culture. Culture is good.
3am and i'm rambling.. blahh
Hey LiveWire. I actually have a copy of that book if you would like to borrow it. I wasnt that impressed really. It may be usefull to people absolutely starting out with games design but for anyone with minimal experience or even a serious game player with some brains the majority of it to me just seemed common sense. There are a couple of little nuggets in it but on the whole I found it to be outdated.
Actualy if anyone can recommend a good book that teachers creating emotion in games let me know. I believe thats the key to a good game.
I wouldn't mind having a look at that new maya book, "The Game Artist's Guide to Maya" that looks pretty interesting.To bad my local book store is pretty crappy when it comes to these types of books :([url]http://www.webreference.com/graphics/game/[/url]
Speaking of books were would i find a really good online book shop??
Prep in Au