I'd like to thank all the people who worked so hard on this project, most especially the editors Lisa Bishop, Gael McGill, Linda Recktenwald, and Dassi Zeidel. I'd also like to thank Mariann Barsolo and Pete Gaughan. I thank all the folks at Autodesk who provided excellent support throughout the writing of this book.

I'd like to thank Eric Allen for his help in writing the rigging chapter and Michael Comet for agreeing to be interviewed. Several of my good friends contributed artwork that is used in the book. Anthony Honn built the car model used in many of the example scenes, and Chris Sanchez provided the fantastic design used in the modeling chapters. I've worked with these artists at several studios; they are both examples of the best of the talent working in the design and entertainment industry today.

Special thanks go to Ara Kermankian, Mike Wahlberg, and Gael McGill, who provided some of the artwork in the color insert.

I'd like to thank the following artists, teachers, and authors for their inspiration over the years: Drew Berry, Boaz Livny, Lee Lanier, Dariush Derakhshani, Kevin Llewellyn, John Brown, Scott Spencer, Alex Alvarez, Duncan Brinsmead, Danny Yount, Nate Homan, Chris Vincola, Kamal Hatami, Adam Newman, Roy Cullen, Geordie Martinez, Hiroshi Endo, Bill Pietsch, Davey Thomas, Chris Vargas, Dennis Liu, Satoshi Amagai, Sean Wehrli, and all the great people at Imaginary Forces, Prologue, and Yu and Company.

Naturally, all the programmers and designers who work so hard to develop this software deserve special recognition for their hard work. They are the true artists who allow the rest of us to create such fantastic things.

Extra special thanks go to Daisy, Joe, and Blue, who all forced me to get away from the computer for some much-needed exercise.