This book is a result of many deliberate and accidental events, and there are many people to thank and acknowledge for their involvement in making these events happen. If it weren't for them, you wouldn't be reading this book. ▪ A very special and heartfelt thanks to my parents for their love, dedication, faith, and support over the years. Thanks to my dear soul mate, Erin, for her encouragement, understanding, and devotion while I worked on the book. Thank you to my dearest sons, William and Jacob, for letting me see life as I had never seen it before; I hope this book is the start of my being able to do the same for you. ▪ Another person pivotal to making this book possible is a dear friend and fellow trench mate, Eric Keller. As a classmate, he asked to include an image of one of my ZBrush digital sculptures in his book Introducing ZBrush (Sybex, 2009), and it started a friendship that continues to grow. ▪ This book would not have been possible without Mariann Barsolo, who asked me to take the leap and write it, and then rode shotgun throughout the process. I would also like to thank Mariann for putting together an excellent team to work with me. Thanks to Keith Reicher for serving as technical editor and providing information about the Mac-specific features of Mudbox, and to Lisa Bishop for being an excellent development editor. Thanks to Liz Britten for her magic touch as production editor, and for letting me see the content in book form rather than a Microsoft Word file and a bunch of images. Thanks to Ryan Sneed for his cover design. Thanks to Sharon Wilkey, copy editor, and all of the wonderful people at Sybex/Wiley who were involved in the production of this book. Finally, a special thanks to Neil Edde, publisher, and Pete Gaughan, editorial manager, for their involvement in the synchronicity of this book coinciding with the release of the 2011 version of Mudbox. ▪ I was elated and surprised when one of my favorite artists, and constant source of inspiration, Ashley Wood, responded to an email I sent asking to use his robot creation Bertie as the subject of the exercises in Chapters 1, 3, and 4. I would like to extend my extreme gratitude to him for allowing us to use it. To model Bertie in 3D was a very cool experience, and it is my hope that your work with Chapters 3 and 4 will create interesting variations as well. Please note, however, that Bertie is copyrighted, and the likeness and files on the DVD can be used only as the subject for the exercises and for personal education, noncommercial projects. ▪ Thanks to the artists Maik Donath, Marcia K. Moore, Kenichi Nishida, Andreja Vuckovic, Rudy Wijaya, and Pete Zoppi for contributing work to the Gallery. It is good to know that there are such amazing artists creating incredible art with Mudbox. Their work continues to inspire me. ▪ Thanks to the original creators of Mudbox, Andrew Camenisch, Dave Cardwell, and Tibor Madjar, and the Autodesk team that continues to develop and enhance the program. A huge thanks to Dave and Andrew for answering my questions. Also, thanks to Brittany Bonhomme, Jodi Anderson, and Elizabeth Garreau from Autodesk for their help and support. ▪ Very special thanks to Domi Pitturo and Mimi Tran at Icon Imaging for providing me with the 3D scan data and helping me with the content in Chapter 7. It is truly a pleasure and privilege to work with artists so integral to the development and implementation of 3D scanning technology. Please note that the scan data for the Chapter 7 is copyrighted, and the likeness and files on the DVD can be used only as the subject for the exercises and for personal education, noncommercial projects. ▪ Big thanks also to Dan Gustafson from NextEngine for his help with the NextEngine desktop scanner information and images in Chapter 7. ▪ Thanks to Phil Dench at Headus for making UVLayout, one of the most brilliant software applications I have ever used. ▪ Thanks to Thomas Teger at Luxion for assisting me with KeyShot in Chapter 9. ▪ Thanks to Ofer Alon for creating ZBrush and launching the world of digital sculpture. ▪ A huge debt of gratitude to Scott Spencer for being an incredible anatomy and advanced ZBrush teacher at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, and writing two indispensable books on digital character design and sculpting human anatomy. I feel extremely fortunate to have taken your class, and appreciate your feedback on the anatomy of the model in Chapters 7 and 8. ▪ I also want to acknowledge Kevin Hudson at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, and Rudy Wijaya, lead modeler at shadedbox, for teaching me everything I know about polygon modeling. ▪ I want to take this opportunity to thank all my instructors at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects: Jeremy Engleman, Ryan Kingslien, Loren Klein, and Ergin Kuke, for the excellent education I received in their areas of expertise, and want to extend that gratitude to Alex Alvarez for being the beacon of education in this field. ▪ A special thanks to Joey Jones from shadedbox for his excellent Maya animation class at the Art Center College of Design. ▪ Thanks to my friend Brian, who cured my cabin fever by dragging me out to see a movie or have a coffee break in between writing sessions.