3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using Photoshop 3rd Edition

(This review is for the 1st edition only, however I can't imagine the 2nd edition being improved enough to make this at all recommendable)As others have already stated, this book starts out with some relatively decent advice on texture gathering from photos, explaining Photoshop layer modes (which I did find particularly useful), and some game-engine related information on how textures work, however any useful information in this book stops as soon as you get to the actual texture creation tutorials, which is the whole point people purchased this book.I bought this book in the hopes that I'd glean some new techniques or workflows to improve my skills. I should have thumbed through it at a book store first. A few other reviewers have experienced the same situation I did when I first went through this book: none of the textures come out the same as the author's end result (because the author clearly doesn't follow his own steps exactly to get these results). I'm a current game artist and seasoned user of Photoshop as well. I even reset to default settings and removed user profiles to be sure I was starting from a blank slate to try to get these right. Didn't help one bit. It's mind-boggling. Not only do none of the tutorials produce accurate results (compare your results with the same completed images on the companion cd...you'll be quite surprised), but most disturbing of all is every single texture is made solely via Photoshop filters. That's it. Filters.This is NOT how current modern game textures are created. These may be semi-useful for low-poly, mobile/hand-held 3D games, but for todays nex-gen games? Not at all. The average nex-gen game asset today starts with building a high-poly model, then LOD'ing it (making a low-poly version, that is), unwrapping your low-poly model for a good UV layout, then creating the AO and normal map (using the 3D package or a program like xNormal), then creating a diffuse map (with AO, or Ambient Occlusion, applied) in Photoshop, and from there other necessary maps (like reflection, glossy, specular, etc.) are created. And these are often hand-painted or heavily photo-manipulated as well, or a mix of both. You'll barely see any filters used, but rather tonal and color adjustments. Using filters to put in shadows is not a common technique at all either, like we see in most of the tutorials in this book, but rather is handled via game engine light baking, and AO maps help that illusion as well. Even some current work I'm doing involving low-poly assets uses unwrapping and AO baking for the models, and it's a web-based game!These techniques may have been useful years ago before modern technologies, but they're no longer valid unless a game specifically calls for this style of texturing (which is probably pretty rare by now anyway) or for mobile or hand-held games. To be fair, each game and studio uses different techniques and styles, depending on the game. Having worked on or seen the techniques used for some of today's most popular games, like Dragon Age for instance, I can safely say that you should avoid this book at all costs if you wish to do texturing of that caliber. This book won't teach you that. And learning to do textures via a mass of filters is also something you should avoid as well.I understand you can't write a book teaching people how to be artists or how to use the tools available to them to produce the best results they can via lots of specific, personal techniques, but using loads of filters? This is just teaching someone how to become dependent on using filters to create convincing textures, which they are anything but in the end. It makes you look like a hack, not an artist. The best resources to learn texturing today can be found by simply searching the net (like on game-artist.net or cg.tutsplus.com for instance) or by using training DVD's through the excellent Gnomon Workshop or Eat3D. Even those may not teach you everything, but they'll get you on the right track, instead of derail you like this book will.

First the good.The book does a good job of giving you a backround of the texture history and progression. It also gives you a lot of tips and tricks, explained plainly. It also provides step by step instructions on how to do many things that professionals rely on. Overall, it is a well thought out with lots of good information on a professional level.The bad.Since this is a third edition it makes use of the previous 2 editions and some of the material. Unfortunately it requires use of files that were on a disk from previous editions. There is no CD with this book so several of the exercises and files cannot be followed. There are worthwhile excercises you can do without the files, but it does diminish the value of the book significantly. Until the publisher puts these files online for the users, I can't recommend this version of the book. Very disappointing.Edit:I contacted the publisher and they said that a CD does not come with it. Even though the book makes numerous mentions and has tutorials to follow. They also said I should send them all the page numbers with references to a CD so they can delete them. (I thought that is what an editor is supposed to do.)Do yourself a favor and purchase a different edition so you can get the files or try and and an alternative means of getting the files.Edit:Author has since moved downloads to website so you can now access file. In this case it is certainly a worthwhile purchase.

This comment is for those who have seen the first edition and is planning to buy the second edition. TAKE NOTE:-- The chapter on Fantasy Scene (Chapter 7 in first edition IS IN THE DVD OF 2nd edition. Yes, it's not on paper print anymore and No, I'm not complaining. I just want all who expect to see the Fantasy Scene Chapter knows where to find it in the 2nd edition.Honestly, I almost breakdown and cry when I couldn't find that chapter in the new edition, wondering why the author took it out from the book. I almost want to launch a complain to Amazon.com until I flip the book again and again and again and... er... until I saw the print saying, "the Fantasy Scene chapter in in the DVD..."Oh boy! I stopped whining immediately. :pOver all, it's a good book for anyone who WANTS TO LEARN PHOTOSHOP and TEXTURING. For those who thinks they know something, or in fact know it all, then you can don't bother to look at it. Go write your own book! Period.Five Stars for the book! Amen! ^_^Y

I have been scouring the Internet for texturing tutorials for over a year, now, after reading this awesome book, I think I just saved myself hours and hours of wasted time looking for tips and tricks.It answered many questions I had, as well as revealing basic fundamentals that I had missed before, which was why I was struggling. Already my texturing has advanced 200% in 1 week!I am actually using GIMP Paint-studio 2.8, which I know quite well, so that also is a good recommendation that I can use different software and get the same or similar result.Truly, this is where you should start if you want to learn texture creation for games!(Although I should point out if you use Gimp or other software than Photoshop, the filters are not named exactly the same, but all the techniques are gone over pretty extensively, so you can figure out how to do it, and you will need to develop your own technique to get the same end result. But it is a good way to learn Texturing.)

This book spends the first 100 pages or so delivering an excellent primer on the basics of colour, our perception of objects including light/shadows, texture and form. This section is a few pages long and as someone who is clueless about art, it was nice to gain some insight from someone who is clearly in the know about artistic observation and analysis. All the relevant language is introduced rapidly and you'll be able to communicate your thoughts and understand those of others very precisely. This particular part is over with quickly, and we move on from traditional art topics and language to the technological context. Computer colour theory is succinctly explained and again, with all the essential terms clarified so you can communicate meaningfully on the subject. You're introduced to the various kinds of images you'll need to produce as a texture artist; diffuse maps, illumination maps, opacity maps, specularity maps, cube maps, and normal maps. The illustrations that accompany these concepts, which can be difficult to grasp for people who aren't well versed in their knowledge of game technology, are incredible. You'll quickly understand what purposes the various kind of texture maps serve as they are demonstrated individually, and as part of a completely textured object.The writing is waffle free and everything mentioned is worth understanding. Once you understand the critical technical knowledge of texture art, you'll realise that the job of a game artist is much more than using photoshop to draw nice surfaces that will be wrapped around walls and other models in game. You'll also feel very pleased you understood it all perfectly the first time, because as someone who personally knows a lot of budding game artists, I found they were generally unable to articulate to me exactly what a "normal map" was, and what purpose it serves.Once the technical stuff is over entirely, you're plunged straight into the texturing tutorials; if you're used to following photoshop tutorials on websites you will feel right at home. You will follow set recipes as means to a certain end effect, and be encouraged to experiment on your own to broaden your skills. If you're the kind of person who says "why would I buy a book just to follow strict tutorials when I can do that on the internet?" Well for one thing, these tutorials are advanced and incredibly well written, and because the effects are explained and you're given direction as to how you can improve on your own. It's all a part of teaching you the fundaments that you can then toy around with yourself.One last note, this book is NOT for people who are new to photoshop. Although I am no artist (I can't draw or paint or anything like that), I am a seasoned photoshop user with years of experience and I can guarantee you, if you do not have strong photoshop skills you will find it very difficult to follow this book because no time is wasted teaching the readers its functions - this is a book for people who have a working knowledge of photoshop.To any artists who want to become game artists, I warn you now that there is a lot of technical stuff to understand, so if you don't like the sound of studying how shaders work (programs that combine lots of texture images together for certain effects) then I suggest you give up on games. This is something I will write in every review I write on a game technology career - there is NO career in the game industry that you can do without technical knowledge. Accept you need to understand some complicated technological theory, and you will be fine. As said before, this book makes everything incredibly clear and you will call me an idiot for even suggesting the material is difficult. That said, for serious buyers I wish you fun times with this book, it's great.

This book is pretty good. It seems to be one of the few books that focuses only on textures, and if you don't really know where to begin with making textures, it is definitely going to be useful. Half the book is a general overview which introduces a lot of basic stuff about colour and shaders. Although a lot of this I already knew, some I didn't and it certainly didn't hurt to have it all in one place.The tutorials are quite good, very useful to give you some idea how you can go about building up your own textures from layers. Occasionally steps are skipped and you have to fill in the blanks. Sometimes the results you get will be different to the ones shown, so they could be better written. If you like to do things exactly as instructed and get the same results as the book, you might find this annoying. If you are happy to experiment and adjust the parameters from those shown, then it isn't going to be too much of an issue. The point is to learn some general workflows, and on this front the book delivers. It will remove a lot of fog for the novice about how things are done, which is very satisfying.At points the book feels maybe a bit too 'old school'. The textures sometimes look a bit like the ones you saw in the grey/brown 3d video games of the 90s (you know the ones), and for all the talk of colour at the beginning, there are actually some fairly horrid colour combinations in a few of the examples given. Also I don't know how relevant some of the direct x stuff mentioned still is: it would have been nice to have had some basic information about other approaches to texturing models directly, which I understand is now possible with tools like zbrush and might be preferable.However, overall this is a good book to get if like me you wouldn't have a clue where to begin making your own textures in photoshop. And while it might be 'old school' at points, I think it's fair to say that many of the techniques and theory covered are going to be still relevant in games for a long time to come. I'd definitely recommend it for budding texture artists or anyone needing to know the basics.

I have been interested in game development for a while now, mainly within the level design, creating new maps etc. I am learning and using the Unreal engine at present. I spent many months learning how to create levels and getting the hang of the level editor, UnrealEd. However, I wanted to start creating new content, never before seen, so somebody playing on the level will not recognise any already used assets such as models and textures. So I then started learning how to create models to include in my levels.This being all very well, but I desperately needed new textures to use on my models and within the level its self. Im not very good artistically and thought I would never be able to create good textures even using Photoshop, which I used to open, try to use, fail and quit again!I could do a bit of everything else, so thought I may as well get a book and see if that can help.....even if it helps me create the most basic looking textures!This book had good reviews and looked like what I wanted to learn to be able to texture my levels my self.So once this book came I worked through all the tutorials right to the end. They were easy to follow, informative and quite fun. I even then imported them into UnrealEd to use them in mess about levels and they worked a treat.I found the start of the book a little dull as it went though all the things to look at when creating art such as things being 3D and not just 2D etc, though I understand it was the theory so to speak, I literally just wanted to get into Photoshop and start "doing".....it took a little longer then I wanted to get to the "creating your first texture" part! However, this was just me and im sure many may disagree as learning all the fundamentals about how art is and why it is etc is needed for a base line?Once you do start creating textures its great fun, as I thought I would never be able to do it well. I was surprised just how easy it can be to get fantastic results. Also the more effort and tweaking you put into a texture the better it looks.Needless to say after reading this book, I am now creating good quality textures and know how to navigate Photoshop. Though no expert, its certainly made a huge difference in my work and now everything looks even more unique and original which was the overall goal.However, just a few notes, I was hoping the book would cover UV laying out, but it doesn't, also best tools and methods used to import in and out of game engines and possible some examples of best methods? None of this is covered.This book literally is just about creating textures in Photoshop and nothing more, though a fantastic book and I would not be were I am now without it, I think it could have done with just a little bit more info about other areas.....again just my opinion.I would recommend this book for anyone starting of with texture creation. I would say maybe just a little bit of knowledge of Photoshop before hand may help as some parts in the earlier chapters presume you know what to do when asked.I will certainly be keeping this book near by.

Das Buch ist ein echter Gewinn. Anfänger bekommen hier alles gezeigt und viele essententielle Grundlagen angelernt. Für Fortgeschrittene zeigt dieses Buch viele Techniken und Möglichkeiten seine Arbeiten weiter zu verfeinern. Ich beschäftige mich schon seit einigen Jahren mit der Materie und habe viel neues dazugelernt. Das Buch ist eine echte Empfehlung und jeden Cent wert.

Das Buch hatte ich als Geschenk gekauft - Der Beschenkte (Game-Designer) arbeitete damit intensiv und kann das Buch nur weiter empfehlen.