Photoshop Illuminated: For Animators

Rating:
Summary: essential for animators
Review: A well-written, easy-to-follow guide for using Photoshop to its greatest potential in 3d work. A successful balance between explaining Photoshop tools and topics relating directly to animation is achieved, with several important notes along the way to keep in mind as you prepare images for use in 3d packages.

With that said, the book could have benefitted from more in-depth coverage of particular issues, such as bump and displacement mapping. I recently ran into trouble attempting to digitally photograph a hole in a wall for use in creating a displacement map to render one in 3d, and was disappointed that "Photoshop for Animators" offered me little in the way of solving this particular problem. How would I manipulate the photograph to create a realistic, jagged hole in 3d? More information and detailed coverage would have helped...

McCann, however, offers extremely helpful, more generalized advice (e.g. "don't waste time detailing areas that will be invisible on a TV screen") and touches on many key issues which animators face. This book is an important addition to the library of any animator who uses Photoshop in his or her work.