Digital Fantasy Painting: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Visionary Art On Your Computer - Softcover

Burns, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0823015742 ISBN 13: 9780823015740

Publisher: Watson-Guptill, 2002

Synopsis

There’s a powerful fascination in creating fantasy characters and their bewitching environs on the computer screen. Written for anyone who works—or plays—in 3D graphics, Digital Fantasy Painting supplies a treasury of tested techniques that can be applied to any illustration software package.

This extraordinary resource is packed with dozens of step-by-step exercises for designing photo-realistic 3D creatures and their strange worlds. Readers will see how to produce simple human skin and bone textures, as well as an entire host of ethereal creatures such as ghosts, spirits, robots, and cyborgs. They’ll discover how to design realistic atmospheric effects as well as capture the surreal world of nightmares, futurescapes, and planetscapes. Computer artists will also find tested techniques for modeling, surfacing, staging, and lighting as well as creating water, glass, and other true-to-life motion effects.

Digital Fantasy Painting features a dazzling showcase of the very best fantasy artwork, complete with dozens of tips, examples, and shortcuts that help put the creative process on the fast track. Plus, a special section outlines the myriad software illustration packages available on the market today.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Burns is a writer and journalist who has worked on many leading graphic and digital magazines. He was editor-in-chief of Computercreative, editor of CGI magazine, and is a regular contributor to CreateOnLine, Macworld, and Computer Arts. He lives in North London, UK.

From School Library Journal:

Adult/High School-Lavishly illustrated, this volume begins with a survey of available software programs, such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter, and then discusses how to render skin, hair, landscapes, etc. Printed on high-quality, glossy paper, the book offers a host of spreads that show how various effects were created, often taking readers from initial sketch to final artwork, with the techniques of a variety of professional artists presented. The computer is not held up as a substitute for drawing ability or hard work honing artistic skills, but the information given will be useful to a wide range of skill levels. The author showcases a remarkable variety of programs, many of which are quite expensive, but most of the examples are easily translatable to cheaper and more widely available software. The full-color art is beautiful and inspiring, and even those who don't aspire to create computer art may find the book worthwhile for its display of fantasy and science-fiction art. The glossary has complete definitions, and links are provided to software publishers and other places of interest to fantasy artists.
Paul Brink, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Watson-Guptill
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0823015742
• ISBN 13: 9780823015740
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160