Introducing Character Animation with Blender

So far out of the two blender books I have this is the best one.

I just received Introducing Character Animation with Blender. The book seems very well written and well illustrated. I have only made it through part of the first chapter, but if I don't learn character animation, it will be my fault, not the book's. Two amazing things: 1. The book had no CD. Nothing. 2. I fired off an email to Tony Mullen complaining about this fact. Within hours, I got a response, and an attachment containing the files I needed. You should definitely buy a book from an author who cares that much for his customers.

I bought this book because it has good reviews. I hope I can learn somethings from this book, but I had spend hours read this book until fall sleep and still don't get it. This book has no step by step instruction. This is the worst book I ever bought.

Tony Mullen takes the guess work out of long prosaic tutorials that sometimes can confuse a beginner. Anyone who has ever used other expensive animation programs will be amazed at the functional integration that Blender offers the beginner and more advanced user.

This book takes you from step by step toolbox explanations to jumpstarting a project - in an afternoon. All you need is a decent video card, enough hard drive space and this book!!!! For those advanced enough to go beyond the confines of this book, additional podcasts exist on iTunes and websites devoted to this niche.

Unleashing your imagination with Blender is an inexpensive way to explore the world of animation - This book is written for beginner and technical neophyte as long as you have some basic knowledge of Photoshop.

This is an awsome book for the beginning or intermediate Blenderhead. It might even be useful for the advanced user. I think it is the best book for someone who has worked with blender, learned some of the tools but needs to tie the concepts together. Yes you can probably learn the same concepts from online tutorials and the wiki but those tend to be somewhat disjointed. The book is clearly written and easy to follow. How complete it is probably depends on how advanced you are and what you are trying to do. If you are new to modeling it will keep you busy for a while.
What's wrong with this book? This book is defective. As stated by many others the included DVD is destroyed. The DVD has been incorporated into the binding of the book so not only is the DVD useless but removing the DVD may actually destroy the book binding. This book probably should be recalled by the publisher and rebound. The publisher is very good about sending a new DVD, a simple email and they send you a new one,free no questions. Is the DVD important? Maybe. The software is freely available on the net, however the files for the book are useful. Another problem with this book is the screen captures. Most blender books share this problem. The gray blender background does not reproduce well. There are times when the author indictates that vert placement is important but it is hard to tell from the picture where exactly the verts are. The DVD files may help with that.
So, this is a must have book for those trying to get their head around blender, one star off for poor production values.