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| Photoshop Secrets of the Pros Mark Clarkson with Various Artists 274 Pages $44.99 US/$67.95 CAN Sybex Publishing click on image to buy |
Along comes the first book I've seen that turns Photoshop into a sport. What this book represents is a series of one-on-one competitions featuring some of the most talented web, print, broadcast and 3D designers in the world. It's based upon a friendly competition called Photoshop Tennis. No, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi have not proficient Photoshop experts (Then again, maybe they are). And while you might play a Williams sister, I doubt she's anywhere near as tall as Serena or Venus.
Photoshop Tennis is kind of reminiscent of another type of competition I saw earlier this year called 'Iron Flash' which pits together a team of two Flash developers against one another in a 3 hour shootout to come up with the best Rich Internet Application using a 'theme ingredient' i.e. topic somewhere in the mix. In PS Tennis, two designers take on one another over the internet over a 10 round or 'volley' period. In each volley, the designer either creates a new theme (in the initial volley), or they take what has been sent to him or her and start playing off of what was previously created. The results can be amazing as each volley can result in drastically different appearance each time out.
In this book, there are 10 different competitions featuring a wide variety of designers. If you're a web designer, you'll recognize names like Eric Jordan and Manuel Clement. But this is no web design book. This book takes you into each of these 20 designers' minds and see how they adapt to different styles from their competitor. What do you think would happen when you pit one designer known for nice clean line-based styles and someone who believes in messing it up with tons of composites and layers? Well, that's the whole idea here. The best competitions are indeed when you get these strange bedfellows together and see what types of pieces result.
What's amazing to me is how these pieces were created. Programs ranging from Illustrator and Freehand to Flash to 3D Studio Max and Maya were all used in these competitions. However, you won't see too much use of Photoshop's own plugins in the process. At least not the special effect ones like from the Distort family. Instead you'll see lots of brushes, erasers, fills and use of various Levels commands to create this impressive artwork. Just the basics for the most part instead of a ton of shortcuts. And you'd really be amazed what you can accomplish just with a digital camera and a scanner and what can come out of it!
This book may be called 'Photoshop: Secrets of the Pros', but it's really the Photoshop Tennis book or something similar to that. While this book was certainly an intriguing read, I would love to see a video with highlights of a series of competitions ('Photoshop Open'?) that show everything done step by step while you follow at home and attempt to obtain similar results.
So if you're looking for a new Photoshop book and you think you've seen 'em all, check out this competition.
And please....no wagering.
Adam Bell is the Design Director, CEO, Videographer and sometimes janitor with dzign@datatv.com (http://datatv.com/) amazingly not getting plastered in the French Quarter of New Orleans, LA.
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Adam Bell is the Design Director, CEO, Videographer and sometimes janitor with dzign@datatv.com (http://datatv.com/) amazingly not getting plastered in the French Quarter of New Orleans, LA.
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