About the Author

Les Pardew was born and grew up in Idaho. His home town was a small farming community where he learned the benefits of hard work. His graduating high school class only numbered 33 individuals. From this small beginning Les has grown to become a recognized leader in interactive entertainment.

Les Pardew is a video game and entertainment industry veteran with over 20 years of industry experience. His artwork includes film and video production, magazine and book illustration and more than 100 video game titles. He is the author or co-author of eight books.

Game Art for Teens

Beginning Illustration and Storyboarding

Game Design for Teens

Mastering Digital Art

The Animation Reference Book

Basic Drawing for Games

Game Art for Teens 2nd Edition

Beginning Game Art in 3ds max

Everyone Should Draw

Game Character Animation All In One

Figure Drawing With Virtual Models

Maya 3ds Max Side-by-Side

Les started his career in video games doing animation for Magic Johnson Fast Break Basketball for the Commodore 64, He went on to help create several major games including Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Star Wars, Wrestle Mania, NCAA Basketball, Stanley Cup Hockey, Jack Nicholas Golf , Where in the World/USA is Carman Sandiego, Starcraft Broodwars, Rainbow six and Cyber Tiger Woods Golf to name a few.

Les is an accomplished teacher having taught numerous art and business courses including teaching as an adjunct faculty member at Brigham Young University¿s Marriott School of Management.

Mike has been enthralled with 3D since before it was available on consumer machines. Some of his first real experiences with 3D were in 1995 when he helped to develop the use of 3D at a company called Saffire. It was for a video game called Wayne Gretzky And The NHLPA Allstars for Super Nintendo. Mike built some of the first 3D characters used in the games industry in a program called Playmation which later became Animation Master. Shortly after that he stumbled upon a much more complicated and exciting application called 3D Studio for DOS. Becoming proficient in Max as a hobbyist he was able to help Saffire make the switch from Animation Master when the time came, and continued to provide support from 1999-2004. Mike recently left Saffire after 11 years and is currently employed at DAZ Productions, functioning as a Project Manager for Bryce and DAZ / Studio. Bryce is a well known 3D landscape/environment rendering package and DAZ / Studio is an original 3D program from DAZ that is very similar to E-Frontier's Poser. DAZ Productions is a leader in the 3D content industry.

If you have ever struggled to transfer from one 3D program to another as you complete the intricate details of your digital masterpiece, then you know how frustrating it can be to keep track of the tools within each program. Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max Side-by-Side offers a unique, hands-on look at the steps that are taken to create the same piece of art within each of these popular 3D programs. Each chapter breaks down the steps to create a project in Maya, and then details the corresponding steps to create the same project in 3ds Max. Along the way, you'll learn how to use various polygon modeling tools, shaders, NURBS, subdivision surfaces, textures, and animation controls. Trial versions of Corel Painter IX 5, Maya 7, and 3ds Max 8 are included on the CD-ROM.