Phil Gross has written a new book: Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio 3D - Training from the Source. This new book is co-authored by Mike Gross. It is published by Macromedia Press and is already available at many bookstores. It retails for $44.99. It's ISBN number is: 0-201-74164-4.

Before deciding to review this book, I looked at the two or three others that were available at my local Barnes and Noble and Borders book stores. This was the only one that impressed me. In many ways, this book by Phil and Mike Gross pick up where Phil Gross's Director 8 and Lingo Authorized left off. This book is a training course which will guide the reader into the major areas of 3D programming. While this might sound daunting, it isn't because the lessons are step by step guides. The authors state in their introduction that the first four chapters are intended for 3D designers who want to bring their 3D creations to the web while the remainder of the chapters are for seasoned Director users who want to take advantage of the 3D features of Director 8.5. This book does not teach a basic course in Director. That is not its intent. For that, the earlier book by Phil Gross, referred to above, is an excellent source of knowledge. See my review on it.

Each of the lessons gives the reader an outline of what they will learn, the files from the CD that they will need and the approximate time of the lesson. Of course, this will vary on one's level of knowledge of basic 3D concepts and/or Macromedia Director.

While I have used Director to create regular movies, I have not used it with 3D elements in a finished format. I did work through examples and play with parts of it when I wrote my review on Director 8.5. I did not, however, do any in depth work with the 3D aspect of the program. Thus, I decided to start with the beginning lesson of the book and work my way forward.

The book is very clearly written. Many small points are added that help tremendously in learning and manipulating the program. I like the way the authors have designated "additional" information as Tips and Notes.

Previously, I described how the book was organized. The first few chapters are extremely good recaps of working with the basics of Director 8 and the introductory essential 3D elements of Director 8.5. However, they are not just recaps but add information that I wasn't previously aware of or had forgotten since I had not worked with Director 8.5 recently.

As I am sure most users know, it is very easy to forget elements of a program when you have not used it for a while. We all have programs we use continuously. I use Photoshop many hours daily. Thus, since I hadn't created a movie recently, I had to refamiliarize myself with the basics of creating a movie using Director. If one only bought this book for that reason, it would be a good investment. Looking over these first few chapters and reexamining areas I had forgotten, got me quickly up to speed. Even if I did not intend to use the properties of Director 8.5's 3D module extensively, these first lessons would get me started in an orderly and logical fashion because they highlight the basic information necessary to build upon should I desire to go further while giving me clear instruction on how to use basic 3D in a Director movie.

Chapter 5 starts the initial look into the 3D world of Director 8.5. This chapter also delineates what else is new to this version of Director. See my review of the Macromedia program Director 8.5. This chapter also acts as a glossary explaining what terms like MRM (multi-resolution mesh) and LOD (level of detail mesh) mean. The chapter goes on to explain shaders, vertices, etc. If one is knowledgeable in 3D terminology, he or she can just skip this section. Below is a compilation screen shot of the completed project of creating spinning sphere.

While most users of Director 8.5 will bring in primitives and other 3D models, very simple primitives can be created. The authors explain how to do this in chapter 6 as well as include some primitives on the accompanying CD-Rom. If you have never done this before, the authors lead you step by step in creating a few simple primitives. In actuality, what is taught in this chapter and others is useful, especially for the novice, in understanding the world of 3D.

I always urge readers of reviews on both software and books to try to look at the programs to insure that they meet their needs. I have seen this book at both Borders and Barnes and Noble. If one, however, is not able to peruse the book, some of the chapters covered are:

• Chapter 7 Improving your 3D Scene - This chapter discusses using basic shaders, adding texture, etc.
• Parent-Child Relationships
• Vector Math Functions
• Shaders and Textures - This chapter goes into more depth use of shaders and textures, including discussing texture mapping.
• 3D Text Using Lingo
• Cloning
• 3D Animation Basics
• More on Bones Animation
• Meshes and Picking
• Optimization - Some elements covered in this section include Determining Monitor VRAM, Streaming Playback in Shockwave, etc.

As stated earlier, this book comes with a CD-ROM The contents of the CD include, lessons, 3D models, a 30 day trial of Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio, third party extras, and more.

This book is well written and logically moves the reader forward step by step. Whether the reader is advanced in the 3D world or a novice, this book describes using 3D tools in Director 8.5. The book shows how one can get heavily involved in the Lingo language and create complex 3D animations or just use basic techniques and create simpler ones.