Adobe Photoshop for VFX Artists [Paperback]

Lopsie Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592004873 | ISBN-13: 978-1592004874 | Publication Date: December 30, 2004 | Edition: 1

Adobe Photoshop for VFX Artists is a unique, in-depth guide to using Photoshop to achieve a specific goal. It is not meant to serve as a general bible or litany of functions. By incorporating a straight-forward, visual approach to Adobe's best selling software, this book provides readers with everything they need to use Photoshop within their own specific context. Although there are many Photoshop books on the market, there are very few that are targeted specifically to the 3D artist, and even fewer that are written by a movie industry professional. Having the knowledge of Photoshop to create specific images puts 3D artists at a great advantage. Any 3D artist has to use textures because on any render there are textures on a model. Understanding how to create textures and background paintings will allow any 3D artist to create better visuals. This book adheres to the high standards of the VFX world, but is still clearly understandable to the intermediate hobbyist. Adding even more value to readers, the companion Web site includes many downloadable images used in exercises and tutorials throughout the book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lopsie Schwartz has worked in the VFX industry as a freelancer and has worked on high-profile movies such as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Hollow Man. She is currently working at Rhythm and Hues Studios as the Departmental Texture Lead.

Product Details

• Paperback: 315 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (December 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592004873
• ISBN-13: 978-1592004874
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,066 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the first and only Photoshop book for vfx artists, June 15, 2005

By 

Igor - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adobe Photoshop for VFX Artists (Paperback)

there are hundreds of books on Photoshop but none that have been made specifically for VFX Artists. Except this one.
VFX Artists means those that create the materials and do the mapping for 3D objects as well as Matte Painters.
Although targeted for the intermediate to advanced user you don't have to know much about photoshop to read this book. Lopsie invests the first 92 pages to explain all the basics and make sure that everybody will be able to follow the following chapters.

Part two is all about textures. She introduces her own version of a UV-testing checkerboard which is (as her example clearly shows) better suited for checking the correct alignment of all UVs than the standard black-and-white checkerboard often used for mapping-tests.
She also explains how to create your own tileable textures from any photo, even when the tiles on the photo have been shot in a non-orthographic angle.
She shows how to create custum brushes for dirt maps, create actions and lots more.

Part three is about matte paintings. Having read that Lopsie Schwartz has been doing work for "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", and "Hollow Man" i thought that this chapter would be filled with inspiring examples of fantastic matte paintings, fantasy landscapes and so on. Well, it's not. But that's okay. If i just wanted inspiration and examples i could have ordered "the invisible art" by by Mark Cotta Vaz and Craig Barron. What she does instead might be less stunning but more valuable: she shows how to handle common tasks and problems. Such as removing unwanted elements in a photo, how to sharpen images using the highpass filter, reduce the noise, extract portions of an image, change the color of objects and scenes, merge two photos into one, change a daylight scene into a night scene (pictures on the front cover show before and after) and the list goes on ...

Lopsie Schwartz has a very nice way of writing and explaining things. She also has humour. Reading the book is a joy.

The book is all in color. Pictures for the exercises can be downloaded from the publisher's website.

Summary:
Adobe Photoshop for VFX Artist is a great book and covers a topic that has been left out so far, even though there are already so many books on Photoshop. It might not cover everything you need to know but i believe it's the best way for you to get started.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Starting to show its age, January 28, 2006

By 

Michael Seymour "[e-mail]" (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adobe Photoshop for VFX Artists (Paperback)

As of the copy I bought this book is no longer really up to date with the latest techniques and the latest version of PS - CS2.
As a senior Vfx artists there was some stuff of interest but it would be much better for a student than a practicing VFX artist.

It is not a waste of time but it would be nice to see more on newer things like Smart objects, HDR, layer groups and alike. It would be worth checking out if there is a new edition.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good, and useful, September 22, 2005

By 

erik turchin (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adobe Photoshop for VFX Artists (Paperback)

You will make nothing cool in this book as far as examples, tutorials go, but what it will do is concentrate on solid methods you can use to get the most out of photoshop. Most content is geared toward small tweaks, processes you can use to add quality to your work. For example, most people use the unsharp mask or sharpen tools to crispen images, in addition to this, she will show you some lesser-known features such as high-pass, which may give better sharpening results in many situations. This whole book is based on stuff like that. So if you are interested in exploring lesser-known ways of going about things, then you should get it. My guess is that intermediate artists would benefit the most from this. Even beginners will get something out of it. All in all this is a good title.