blenderblog

Today a copy of Texturing & Painting by Owen Demers arrived in the mail. To boost up my almost non-existant skills in the texturing and materials area I did a bit of research to try and find a good book to learn from and T&P seemed to get a lot of respect from people who had read it. So, without too much delay I ordered it from the Amazon Japan.

Here's some of what convinced me:

...this book takes a new approach to introducing its readers to texture creation. If you're expecting a step by step photoshop tutorial you're in for a surprise, this book actually helps show you how to look at textures and surfaces to see why they are the way they are, then gives ideas on how to recreate these effects and details on your computer...

and

...If you are looking at this book to apply towards on specific software, DONT! It is a total approach that should be a must for all starts for the 3D World...

The reason being is that I want to understand how to make my own textures instead of just buying a CD with a 1000 diiferent images to choose from, and I wanted something that wasn't geared at a particular software package, as most of the 3D books out there seem to be related to Maya or 3D Studio Max. I just wanted the theory of making textures that I can then apply to any 3D software [of course in my case Blender].

Having had a quick look through the book, I'm pretty pleased so far. With chapter heading like 'The Fine Art of Seeing and Dissecting', 'Color Theory' and 'Reference Materials, Textures and Practicle Stuff' it's beginning to seem like a good purchase.

One small gripe - the first time I opened the book the spine split down the middle, so know I have two sections joined only by the cover, which I know won't last long. And no doubt soon single pages will start falling out. Anyways, no harm done really. The information is what's valuable. To tell you the truth I kind of expected it from a New Riders publication [I had a few of their books fall apart already].

As I go through the book I'd like to share/record some of the information on this blog, so while I'm not promising any miracle texture tutorials, there should at least be some great texture advice coming this way soon.