This book is extremely comprehensive and detailed on some, not all procedures. I wish there was coverage on everything, but I guess as with any program it's all trial and error.

This book is terrible. Badly written from a grammer standpoint.
Not comprehensive and lacks a direction. Explains by steps but leaves out many steps. You have to figure out those yourself. But more than that, just doesnt cover rendering with 3d in architecture. You are far better off buying a book like "Master Visually Max d3 8", an introduction book. I have purchased alot of books and this has to be one of the worst ever. Its way overpriced!!! Laughable how they charge this price for this crappy book!! DONT BUY THIS BOOK !!!!!!

For people venturing into architectural visualization, this book is not for you. Not enough content for 3d modelling(building) and other architecture related stuff. I quite agree with the other guy that the title should be changed to 'Basic 3ds Max'. However, even this title is not appropriate since the author had not covered many important features of 3ds max. The exercises are so simple and won't help you very much in building up your confidence on 3ds max even after you finished reading this book. The book is expensive and lacks quality. I won't buy a book from 'friends of ed' publications anymore.

The author lacks creativity in presenting effective tutorials for the reader. A simple house and a bunch of exercises on teapots, spheres and other built-in 3ds max objects. While I understand that the aim of these simple exercises is to showcase 3ds max features, he should have at least provided more challenging exercises (geared towards the architectural visualization industry) either at the end of each chapter or at the appendix section of the book. There were no tutorials on how to render an building structure using night-time settings, interior structure using both daytime and night-time settings, somehow the reader would have to figure-out the settings for himself/herself. There were no guidelines on a lot of topics that would be very helpful for people working in the architecture industry for instance there were no examples on how to superimpose a 3ds max building into a photograph (an important feature to showcase the proportion of a proposed building to adjacent existing structures) no examples on how to create lights using manufaturer's specs. and no examples on how to use third party plug-ins such as RPC from archvision to provide vegetation, trees, people, cars in your 3d building model. -Again these topics, you have to learn it on your own. The author has also a habit of applauding a particular 3ds max feature in architectural visualization but fails to provide exercises/tutorials on the other hand (eg. panorama exporter, hair & fur effect for 3d grass). If your local bookstore carries this product, find time browsing it before buying this book. Bottomline, this book is not a good reference for the architectural visualization industry and for people planning to study 3ds max 8.

If you are starting out in 3ds max, this is a good reference book or school text book for you. I say reference because it covers the basics and has a lot of detail about basic things in Max. The author also shares some gems of wisdom on how to get the best out of the application. One of the book's dissabpointments is that it doesn't have many examples of how to model or map buildings. It talks about lighting, basic modeling, and cameras but leaves a lot to be desired by a more experienced user. If I were the author, I would change the title from "Visualization" to Basic 3ds Max. Also be warned that the author does not cover the character animzation features or advanced lighting capabilities in Max. I guess that is ok considering it is about "Visualization".

The book is only for beginners, if you know your basics in max this isn't the book for you.
Instead should look at the lighting and rendering books for max if you want your renders to shine.

If you are the beginner in 3D architectural visualization and you are looking for jumpstart in this branch of 3D business, this book is definately for you.
It tells you how to organize production process from beginning to completion. Gives you illustrated advices with explanation what and how.
Book is very easy to understand even if english isn't your primary language. Everything written clean and understandable.

This book is succinctly written and specific to the Architecture profession. The author thoroughly covers all pertinent aspects archtectural visualization-- written in such a way that is clear and easily understood.

The author explains the best methods of performing actions and emphasizes shortcuts. The only complaint I have is that the book is black and white and sometimes difficult to see what he is referring to in the a few of the images. Although conceptually his explanations make up for this deficiency. Overall, this book is heads and shoulders above all over books on 3dmax if you're specifically looking for Architectural visualization.

To my knowledge, this is the first text written specifically for architectural visualization using 3D studio max. This book is very well written and provides an excellent foundation for beginners and an indispensable reference for the more experienced 3D artist. As an architect, 3D artist, and educator, I would highly recommended this book for use in both the classroom and the office.