Creating Striking Graphics with Maya and Photoshop - my latest!
If you create digital artwork--or want to create your own cutting edge digital artwork--have I got a book for you. Creating Striking Graphics with Maya and Photoshop is my very latest and (according to my wife) greatest book. "This is the most #$%&@! beautiful book you've ever done!" said my wife when she first laid her eyes on it. Creating Striking Graphics with Maya and Photoshop is all about creative possibilities and the end of boundaries ...
The reason why Creating Striking Graphics with Maya and Photoshop is "the most #$%&@! beautiful book (I've) ever done" is because I didn't create most of the artwork. Incredibly talented Maya and Photoshop artists did.
If you've never looked into the high-end 3D world of Maya, this book is a great place to start.
I spent a year working with some of the greatest artists and studios in the business. The intent of the book is not to overwhelm you with technical details, but to help ease you into the world of Maya through exciting designs and real-world stories. You'll see the innovative techniques that artists are using to expand their capabilities, win new clients, and create an entirely new genre of art.
Here's a rundown (from the book's intro) of the incredible artists and studios that are profiled in the book:
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A Maya Master, Meats Meier enjoys a fine reputation in the world of 3D art. Meats' printed work has graced the pages and covers of many a magazine. In this chapter, you'll learn how Meats uses Maya and Photoshop together to create his striking series of Mother Nature images.
guru studios has a mission to bring the time-honored art and principles of traditional cartoon animation into the world of 3D. Their work hearkens back to the classic age of Warner Brothers cartoons, propelling their pieces into a fabulously funny realm. In this chapter, you'll see how guru studios created a marvelous series of bumper animations for the Canadian TELETOON network.
Damon Riesberg's day job as an animator with PDI/Dreamworks has him working on feature films like Shreck 2. At night, he produces his own comic strip, Syntax Errors. Rest assured, Syntax Errors isn't a normal comic strip … it's produced entirely in Maya and Photoshop. In this chapter, you'll learn how the process of posing and rendering replaces the age-old technique of drawing and redrawing, with Damon's streamlined comic strip production pipeline. If the great Charles Schultz were alive today, he'd be reading this chapter.
Meteor Studios specializes in breathing life into a wide range of animated subjects for the Discovery Channel and other media outlets. This chapter documents some of the painstaking work done to create their Visual Effects Society Award Nominated feature, Dinosaur Planet. You'll learn how Meteor imparts such amazing realism to their prehistoric creatures, through a thorough dissection of the North American Orodromeus.
IBM's e-business Innovation Center in Atlanta, Georgia uses Maya and Photoshop to recreate Egyptian architecture and artifacts in a complex interactive installation for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. Media Director Colin Freeman's 3D team literally built cities from the ground up, showing a progression over time to offer an experience unrivaled in its interactive nature. Museum and Web visitors get to walk through and fly by the ancient worlds, as never before.
Acclaimed fine artist and photo-illustrator Michael Elins uses a combination of Photoshop and Maya to produce editorial artwork for a range of publications including The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Time, Newsweek, and Vanity Fair. While Michael is an expert Photoshop user, he has chosen not to use Maya himself, preferring to partner with Maya-experts as he creates a whole new genre of art that honors the classic techniques while embracing the new technology.
Meshwerks has the automotive enthusiasts dream job: they get to digitize the world's newest and coolest cars, creating high-end 3D models that are used in motion pictures, video games, and advertising. In this chapter, you'll see how Meshwerks digitized the very first Ford GT supercar off the assembly line and learn the details of how Meshwerks turned a mundane SUV into the ultra-cool chopped and lowered Honda EleMENTAL Woodie. Get out your torches and reciprocating saws … this chapter's cooler than an episode of Monster Garage!
From his New York City-based studio, Mirko Ilic has spent the last decade producing an amazing array of 3D artwork. This chapter consists of a gallery that showcases some of Mirko's most brilliant pieces. The studio's collaborative workflow ensures total creative freedom while meeting a torrid pace of deadlines in the world of editorial art and graphic design.
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All in all, this is one insanely cool book. With full-color printing throughout, it's the most coffee table-ish book I've ever done.
Check it out. :)
Posted by geekbooks at July 12, 2004 09:25 AM
