performing arts

I can highly recommend this book to every character animator. Jason's approach to facial animation is different, but very intuitive. And thanks to the CD that comes with it you can clearly see the high quality you can get out of his facial animation setup.
I love the book because I work with Maya, and if you are a Maya user you will get a lot of sweet things out of the book. But of course Jason's method is not about which button to use in what software. He simplified all the current approaches to facial animation and put his own twist to it, and that's the strength of the book. It's not different just to BE different and attract new readers, the way he works makes sense and the results are impressive.

A must buy!

This book is really well written - the author's humorous style is not too verbose and technical, but not patronising either! The methodologies for facial animation that the author presents in this book are really quite different from other practical guides to facial animation that I have seen. His methods are really effective (with some great practical exercises), and they've certainly given a "facelift" to the character that I am currently constructing. Although the book tends to be geared towards Maya users, the way that the author explains the rationale behind the paths he takes in the tutorials gives the student the ability to apply these instructions in their software of choice. Of course, if you ARE a Maya user, there's some really helpful instructions for facial modelling and for making some way-cool interfaces to animate your facial setup. I am SO glad I bought this book - it is just about welded to my hands at the moment!

As author of "Virtual Humans" I'm always looking for good books that bring a higher level to face animation. This is it. Jason writes in an accessable style, good humor and the kind of authority you want in a book. Frankly most other books that cover this subject are pretty boring and the faces are ugly. Jason is a very talented pro who privides you with everything you need to create the best, most realistic facial animation in remarkably easy ways. I recommend it highly to those of you who want to perfect your face animation techniques. His approach is different and better than any other that I've seen. I especially recommend this book to anyone who has purchased "Virtual Humans"

Peter Plantec