Creating 3D Comix

With the advancements in 3D software, creating 3D comics is possible for any skilled artist, designer, animator, web designer or comic enthusiast. Whether you want to create a traditional comic, a 3D comic, an innovative ad campaign using comics, or put a weekly comic strip adventure on your Web site, all the tools and information your need are included in the instructions, and detailed tutorials.

For professional illustrators and designers wanting to make the leap from pen and ink to digital and for novices who wnat to try their hand at comic creation, every step of the process is covered from creatingg 3D Art & Effects, to Compositing, Text, Storyboarding, Scriptwriting, and marketing your comic!

As computers grow in power, and the learning curve for graphics and 3-D software applications eases up, artists and designers who are focused more on content and less on the latest computer trick will be able to use these tools to fashion compelling stories. Creating 3D Comix gives you an overview of the tools available today and how they can be used to create such content, primarily for pseudo-comic-book-style work.

The examples in the book are rudimentary, but they provide a good cross section of the capabilities of each tool. Poser, formerly from MetaCreations, is the most widely used application in the book. Poser is good for this type of work: it includes lots of models that are easy to work with and easily exported to other tools for finishing, like Photoshop. (There is a demo of Poser 4 on the CD-ROM.) Other tools, such as Amorphium, Organica, Nendo, Photoshop, Painter, and After Effects, also are covered.

This book contains 19 chapters on not only the development and creation of the stories and characters, but also how to combine the separate elements (text, background, and characters) in a tool like Adobe Photoshop. Addition of lighting and texture effects also is discussed.

The focus is on tools and their features, but there's nothing about comics basics: composition, design, line flow, leading the eye across the page, etc. So, while this might be an interesting book on creating comics-like images by using today's accessible computer tools, you'll have to go elsewhere to learn what makes good comics work. --Mike Caputo