Customer Reviews

Digital Sci-Fi Art: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Stunning, Futuristic Images

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Considering how disappointed I was with the book, I should only give it 2 stars, but since I should have researched the book in general, I raised it by one star.

My interest in digital art is mostly concerned with photoshop and 3D modelling packages that offer extensive manipulation of vertexes and polys.
This book deals with the subject of art in a world where you use prefabs in the making of each and every image. Dodge and Burn are used instead of real, painterly values.

This isn't a book on creating art with applications where you must think of every outcome and every pixel, but with applications that give you ready made imagery you can spruce up. Nothing wrong with it in itself, and I understand that some people use that to meet deadlines(or reference), which is acceptable in the capitalistic world we live in, but for people who want to learn the true creation from the first dab of color, it is severely wanting.

In short, this book is for those who want to see how you make imagery with the tools of technology that acts as shortcuts. If you want to make art using bryce and poser, there are worse books you could spend money on. If you want to learn to paint digitally, this book isn't for you in any way. For that I'd rather recommend Don Seegmiller's book.

$25 may be just a little steep for what I view as a moderately useful book (Amazon sells it for less I understand). Students and other experienced computer animators will here me on this one: it's very Poser/Bryce-oriented. There is not one thing wrong with that in and of itself, but prefab packages only offer that, prefabs. It's like going to a craft store and purchasing a statue and paint. You go home, paint it nice and pretty and show it off. Sure it looks nice but did you make it? Not really. This book shines with it's ideas for post work, but the tutorials are very brief, so really it only offers ideas. Buy it for that, decent ideas for futuristic designs.

I recently took courses in 3DMax, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects. Ok, so now what? This is where Mike's books come in. His books are not step by step technical instructions on how to create computer graphics art but more about stimulating the artistic side of your brain and imagination as to the kinds of art that can be created using computer graphics tools. This book is not about CG technology, it's about CG art. If your background is purely technical I would recommend this book in conjunction with a couple of art courses. Great computer art is not created by CG technicians but by CG artist. Mike gives you guidelines as to what you can do as a skilled CG artist. He does not show you in detail how to create the art shown in the book. I guess he assumes that if you know the CG tool well enough then you should be able to figure out the details. Again this is a book about computer art, it is not about technology.

Even if you don't want to read the book, the images are well worth the look. Stirs the imagination of anyone who loves science fiction.

But the book also has a "serious" aspect. You can get useful tips on how to start making such art. The book describes the main software packages used by professional artists. Photoshop is the dominant package. But what is neat in the book is how artists often use several packages. Typically, they might be making a three dimensional construct, and then rendering a two dimensional image. Photoshop does not have 3d modelling. So you have to use other packages like Maya. But then, when rendering, Photoshop can be applied to touch up the 2d image. Since often, the 3d packages can indeed to very sophisticated operations like ray tracing, that make photorealistic images.

Paradoxically, an artist might then want Photoshop, in order to enhance that image into something unearthly.

Most computer graphics books that deal with commercial packages are usually dedicated to only one package. With scarcely a mention of any alternatives. This book can be used for operational integration. And also for its evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of the packages.

It is no more than this. It has some fair techniques on how to achieve several effects, but someone cannot expect to learn how to make digital sci-fi art.
Also, it seems a little outdated now, even though the copyright says 2004.

My opinion is do not waste money on some collection of outdated artwork and look for something else.

First of all let me qualify myself. I'm not a professional artist. By day I am a computer specialist who programs business applications. I've been following the evolution of digital art for years, and have been toying with it and computer game development as a hobby for almost 20 years. I own about 75% of the software listed in this book, and have stumbled my way through trial and error alot of what is presented in this book. In short, the book is awesome. The book affirms much of what I had to painstakingly discover on my own in terms of production flow between applications. It also fills in the gaps in areas that I kind of gave up on. The artwork is truly inspirational, and wonderful. It is awesome to know that there are artist out there who use the same tools that I have, and have managed to create incredible works. It's also inspiring to note that many of the tools that were chosen for development, aren't the most expensive tools available, but still get the job done. One of the more noted tools is Bryce 5.0, and many of the tutorials are about its use. Poser also is mentioned a lot in this book. Both are awesome tools, but that said, realize that you can't apply much in this book to what you do if you don't at least own those two pieces of software. You can probably get away with open source tools like Gimp (replaces Photoshop) and Blender or Milkshape (stand in for your 3D modeler). All in all, an inspiring read, that has given me a new hope for my weekend and midnight projects. -D-

Step-by-Step is somewhat of a misnomer. It's more like a summary of techniques with a general guideline for how it's done in various commonly used graphics software packages. Once you get into the details, there's a lot missing unless you already know how to use the software. But the pictures are exquisite and worth the money just for inspiration alone.

"A step-by-step guide to creating stunning, futuristic images" is on the front cover of the book. Yet none of the examples have more than ten steps. For images this detailed, there are about a thousand steps the "author" omitted. The artwork is excellent, but the tutorials are an absolute joke. Do yourself a favor and type in "sci-fi art" in google images, and save your money.

This book is really more of a book full of images that inspired me to do more sci fi art work. it has a cpl of pseudo tutorials that are good. If you are doing this for the first time i would suggest something else. But as a person who needs inspiration for actually sitting down and doing something I would suggest this book. It has a whole range of really well done artwork that u can get tons and tons of ideas from.

I'm going to add this to my Student's "Must Read" list. A very up to date and comprehensive book covering the basics of digital illustration. I was pleased to see a lot of guys in the field i know in here. Shows that they're talking to guys who really know the business of illustration.

A lot of nice step by step documentation in here - lot of color photos - a quality book.

If you're not sure about this book - nab it anyway - its worth it.