Character Modeling 2 is an art book at heart with an in depth look at the 3D production process of 3 different artists. It's part of the d'artiste series where artists are featured with their tutorials.
The featured artists in this issue are Kevin Lanning, Timur "Taron" Baysal and Zack Petroc. Each of them comes with a short biography on their life and career in computer graphics.
This is not strictly a tutorial book even though it might look that way. It's a "making of" book that provides multiple screenshots of work in progress. The accompanying captions describes the workflow and techniques used. Different 3D software packages are used, such as Lightwave, 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush, Mudbox, etc. The workflow and techniques presented are universal and can be applied easily to other software, even if the controls are different. That being said, the book provides very useful information and look into different workflows of professional 3D artists.
These guys have been in the computer graphics industry for a long time. Each artist has a gallery included, which showcase the 3D models and projects they have worked on. Each artwork is captioned. It's nothing less than impressive.
Here's the list of "tutorials": High-poly workflow Low-poly workflow Rip and process workflow Box modeling ZBrush and texturing Character creation Workarounds
This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.