CompuServe Messages

Mei-Tien, You should be able to find the book at most large bookstores, better multimedia dealers (such as Pyros Partnership), or you can order direct from NRP by calling 800-541-6789. In regards to tweening, a lot depends upon your definition of the term. In general the term refers to "in-betweening" which means the creation of a series of intermediate frames/positions/shapes based upon the definition of start and end frames/positions/shapes. Morphing for 3D objects in 3D Studio is analogous to the Tween Panel for 2D shapes in Animator Pro. The Keyframer employs positional tweening for animation; and the Lofter uses cross-sectional tweening for modeling. So you can see that the concept of tweening is spread through out 3D Studio. Finally, there have been many threads on the forum comparing 3D Studio to other products, what they mostly boil down to is that 3D Studio is a full-featured, professional quality modeling, rendering, and animation program that is hard to beat for overall quality and performance. Sure, there may be other programs that do better at implementing a specific feature or serving a niche market (Playmation supposedly excels at spline based chacter animation for example) but 3D Studio comes out on top when you consider the performance and value of the entire package. Of course I'm not the least bit biased! <BG> Animator Pro, OTH, is an excellent 2D paint and animation program that also nicely compliments 3D Studio. In our book we look at Animator Pro as a tool for creating material maps, and as a post processor and presentation tool for flics created with 3D Studio. Steven