11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Treasure Trove of Tips and Techniques, March 2, 2002
This review is from: Illustration in ArchiCAD (Paperback)
I found myself changed by this lavishly illustrated book. It is that powerful.
Atkinson summarizes well in his Introduction: "This book is about making better visual communication with ArchiCAD. It will teach you how to make exciting artistic images, develop artistic judgement and optimize your effort creatively."
The author teaches readily usable architectural rendering and illustration techniques in a graphic and engaging way. But, more than that, he will change forever the way that you see the real world. In so doing, your renderings and other illustrations - and possibly even your designs - will take on new life.
In spite of the title, the book is not just about Graphisoft's ArchiCAD. It is secondarily about Adobe Photoshop and how one can achieve remarkable results by working with both tools. There is sufficient "meat" in this text to benefit someone having no intention of owning Photoshop - or even someone who uses another CAD program.
The ArchiCAD techniques and tips are suitable for every level reader. Atkinson covers modeling, appropriate entourage, illumination, custom materials, and providing an artist's eye to assembly, cropping and camera angles. External rendering packages as well as ArchiCAD add-ons are discussed.
Manipulating images in Adobe Photoshop pushes your illustrations to the next level. The Photoshop techniques and tips are aimed for the intermediate Photoshop user. (The screen-shots are based on version 6.0 of Photoshop, and make sense for someone with 7.0.) Other image editing programs have many of the features used here and may be adequate.
My only criticism of the book goes to the publisher, Graphisoft, whose layout makes the hundreds of color images so small that it is often difficult to see what is being demonstrated. I would have happily paid twice as much for a book with images twice as large.
This is a must-have book for every ArchiCAD user, and I highly recommend it to those using other CAD programs as well.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Absolute "Must-Have" for ArchiCAD users!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, February 12, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Illustration in ArchiCAD (Paperback)
This joyful romp of a book by Canada's funniest architect will help any ArchiCAD user get fantastic imagery from their basic renderings. Covering the entire gamut of illustration issues, the reader will learn about appropriate image resolution, sharpening and ambient color control. Customized material textures are examined in depth, including a lengthy study in assigning light reflecting behaviors for maximum visual effect. Using photo manipulation techniques, the reader learns to manage multi-layer photo editing tricks for believably interleaving rendered model images within context photography. Over 400 color illustrations make this modest book a tremendous value to users at any skill level. If you want better ArchiCAD images, don't miss this splendid creation!
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Single Best Book On this Subject!!!!, March 4, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Illustration in ArchiCAD (Paperback)
This book is great! It is the single most interesting book I have seen regarding this topic.
In fact I feel it is so useful that I am going to buy a copy and donate it to the University of Arizona College of Architecture.
I can't say enough, whitty, technically advanced and artistic!
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