Digital Texturing & Painting

I bought this book, along with Digital Lighting and Rendering, and found these two volumes to contain an impressive body of knowledge. Aside from being beautiful books in themselves, well printed, good typography, etc., they discuss in detail their subjects from a theoretical, ARTISTIC point of view instead of mere button-pushing, something you don't see much when dealing with books covering 3D. But they don't stop there ... they illustrate and explain in well-written, lucid terms how to apply this theory to your 3D work. Once you understand the reasons behind a 3-light set-up, for example, you can adapt this scheme to your own work and won't need to be spoon-fed input values to position your lights correctly. On the texturing side, you are first encouraged to SEE and understand what you are seeing, to use the real world as a reference. Then and only then should you interpret your vision in your software. These books won't teach you the software, you pretty much have to know this already, or be in the process of learning it, but it does approach the various techniques by addressing their application among the major platforms. If you are serious about improving your 3D skills and want to feel a real sense of mastery, I would highly recommend these two books ... they are well-worth the investment. I plan on reading them both several times and keeping them handy for reference and inspiration.

This book gives you a whole new understanding on Texturing. It takes a different approach and starts from the beggining. All from new to old can benefit from this book. The art work is excellent. The color and easy reading make it a easy book to grasp on to. It starts with basics and then works forwad. Next you will find tutorials that prove to be very beneficial to all. This book is a must for all to have. I keep it by my computer for referance. If you are looking at this book to apply towards on specific software, DONT! It is a total approach that should be a must for all starts for the 3D World.

Some reviewers have underappreciated this book. I can understand why. The introduction is slow and wordy. It could have used a good edit to tighten it up. As for expectations, a lot of readers are looking for a magical formula to create good textures. But for most readers, that is putting the cart before the horse. You must first recognize what is a good texture. You must see it in artwork. You must see it in the real world. You must learn to see it in your own mind as you do your own modeling and artwork. That is the core concept that this book teaches you: how to see and appreciate textures. Once that is set forth, there are tutorial chapters at the end that demonstrate texture layering and mapping, placement of these, and so forth. Yes, I'll admit it. When I started this book, I was thinking of returning it. Now that I've read and digested most of it, I view it as a treasure to be revisited often. As a final comment, I recently attended a seminar on how to get into digital art. A number of people in the audience trumpeted the value of this book. Enough said.

What strikes me about this book, is the seriousness and devotion that Owen Demers has for this topic. I have seldomly seen such wonderful piece of work. My congratulations to the author and publisher for accomplishing such a thoroughly high quality release!This book is really what ALL artist should be forced to read at any point, but preferably the beginning, of their careers. It focuses on developing the art of seeing as the most important tool in your arsenal. Once you can SEE, then you can reconstruct any complicated or simple texture. This is of course a project so great that a lifetime is not enough, but nonetheless, I have never seen it handled better than in Digital Texturing & Painting. I love the idea that traditional artists will be able to find tons of insights in this book for digital artists. The new are teaching the old. But again even though the explicit theme of the book is textures for 3D purposes, the teaching is that this is just another tool, the underlying priciples are the same as in all visual art.This is one book you should run to get now. Simply because it will make you a better artist, in whatever field you are, now and for good.

I thought I knew a lot about CG surfacing, but "Texture & Painting" taught me otherwise, and I have worked on commercial, TV series, ride films, and feature films. It teacher the reader the most important thing about surfacing 3D models, the book emphasizes the artist need to -LOOK- before they sit in front of a computer. He accomplishes this, by explaining why surfaces look, and react to light, the way they do. This is very important, and I am happy to see an artist write a book about understanding the surface, and how to create that surface in a computer. Rather than a technical manual, which will outdate itself within a year. "Texture & Painting" approaches surfacing as an art form, and these ideals never get outdated. If you want to learn how to be a better texture "artist" checkout this book.