Finally the eagerly-awaited next edition of Luke Ahearn's cornerstone game art book: 3D Game Textures is on its way. The book will be refreshed per the latest revision of Photoshop and the latest game industry trends and developments. 3D Game Textures allows next-gen game artists to learn to create everything from bricks to books in Photoshop with this step-by-step instructional guide. Because texture is 99% of what a gamer sees when playing, this topic deserves considerable coverage but has gotten little attention. Unlike anything on the market, this book concentrates soley on texturing, and provides an in-depth guide to game texturing with hundreds of high-quality examples. Game artists learn all they need to know on the topic, including basic artistic principles, tools and techniques, and specific step-by-step tutorials that explain how to create textures for myriad environments. New Coverage of the latest version of Photoshop, including adding multiple edge tiling; adding Photoshop Bridge coverage; an updated metal tutorial and adding coverage of urban exteriors. Included in the second edition is a new chapter and an advanced project, featureing a large outdoor urban area - war torn city. Great amount of work on detailed textures (overlays and advanced blending in PS) that utilize many shaders. This environment will look roughly like Battlefield 2 or more recently Call of Duty 4. The scene will include effects as well - smoke and bullet holes. Grass, trees, curtains, signs, and more. The DVD includes: demo versions of relevant software as well as resource images.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 35 Ratings

Decent supplement, hard to recommend to anyone specific - 2009-08-16
Reviewer Rating:
In contrast to the glowing reviews found here, I felt that I should warn potential buyers about the flaws of the book that most seem to disregard. The book reeks of missing information, behind the scenes manipulations that are not discussed and incorrect settings and values for filters and effects. I can and will list some examples of this:

Chapter 5, first tutorial: creating a base metal texture that will be used for all other textures in the chapter. If you compare your final result with what is present in the accompanying DVD, you will find that your image has a lot more contrast and does not tile nearly as well. I repeated the tutorial 4 times to double check myself but still ended up with a noticeably different texture. My brother, who is familiar with Photoshop, reviewed the steps with me and said that the Spotlight setting of the Lighting Effects filter was the primary culprit of this large amount of contrast. He recommended that I use Directional light instead of Spotlight (though the author specifically indicated Spotlight) and top off the image with a slight Levels adjustment. Lo and behold, my results were much closer to the what the author depicted. Additionally, while the book is geared towards beginners, the last step is this glowing gem:

"Copy the layer and offset it and erase the seams so you end up with a tileable image. Your image should look like Figure 5-2."

He does not explain how to copy and offset the image or erase the seams. Granted copying and possibly offsetting are pretty basic and easy to figure out, but "erasing the seams" is not. Do you use an eraser or a mask? If you use a mask, should you use a large, soft brush or a small, hard brush? What opacity setting should the brush have? In the end, I created a new layer and used a small healing brush that samples all layers to cover the seams. That was a technique I learned from Matt Kloskowski's excellent book "Layers: The complete guide to Photoshop's most powerful feature". That's a real book written by a real professional that doesn't hide anything from you and wont frustrate you with missing information or incorrect steps.

Later on in the same chapter for the Wall Panel tutorial at step 11, he instructs you to apply an Outer Glow to the working layer. He does not, however, tell you to change the default yellow color to black. In the end, his example image looks nice with deep shadows while yours ends up looking shallow and with ugly yellow blotches.

Another example is in chapter 4, Tiling Stones Using Edge Copy. The author asks you to find the source image on the DVD without giving you a name or path (normally this wouldn't matter but the directory structure in the DVD is nonsensical and needlessly convoluted). He then asks you to copy a section of the image to tile, except that the image he shows you is a highly touched up version of the source image in the DVD. Two pages later he writes a small side note that hints at the fact that he touched up the source image before doing the steps he told you to perform but doesn't bother to tell you the details. He explains that he cloned, re-sized and re-shaped several stones to give them a more uniform shape. And while this is vague enough as is to a beginner, he doesn't even mention that he adjusted the colors and tones on the source image to make it more monochromatic and easier to modify hue with overlays. He then has the audacity to claim "This process may take some time so be patient and get those edges clean". It is only a time consuming process if you follow the incomplete steps in this book and then try to fill in the gaps yourself. Anyone that knows the exact steps can wrap this up from source to tileable image in 15 minutes tops.

Ultimately, it is hard to recommend this book to beginners because it is incomplete and misguiding. I also cannot recommend it to Photoshop connoisseurs because they will call it out for what it really is: a lacking book written by someone that had a highly inflated sense of self worth and felt it pertinent to withhold "trade secrets" as many ignorant "professionals" of all careers do. The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of one is because, at the very least, the book does offer a decent amount of guidance on achieving a uniform and consistent look, which is very crucial to creating believable 3D worlds, stylized or not. Additionally, some steps in the tutorials are fairly thought provoking and help paint a larger, if not vague, picture of the entire texture creation process. The last real value of this book is convenience because it has instructions for several textures of related themes, which is better than finding a mishmash of unrelated tutorials online.

If you do purchase this book, be prepared to fill in the gaps through lots of experimentation or supplementary sources. Do not make this your one-stop-shop for all things textures. You will be disappointed if you do.

You might think the fault is my own and that I am unable to learn from books without a guiding hand. I can assure you that is not the case. I have taught myself several programming languages and technologies from books alone without ever taking a single programming class in my life. I also happen to write code well enough to make a living out of it for the past 5 years. I have read dozens if not hundreds of instructional books on art (3D modeling, Photoshop, design, etc.) and technology. This is a sub-par learning source.

A key acquisition: very highly recommended as a foundation title for any video gaming library - 2009-10-19
Reviewer Rating:
3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using Photoshop is a 'must' for any library catering to game developers, and gamers working with computer graphics. All the Photoshop texture options are covered in a collection of texturing techniques key to aspiring video game creators. Updated to cover shader technology and adding new chapters on shaders, world building and terrain editing, a companion DVD includes sample textures, Photoshop brushes and more. A key acquisition: very highly recommended as a foundation title for any video gaming library.

The Fantasy Scene Chapter... - 2009-10-01
Reviewer Rating:
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. :p

Over 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

1st edition---good intro, but bad photoshop tutorials - 2009-08-29
Reviewer Rating:
I bought the first edition. The intro (discussion of textures) was OK, but the Photoshop tutorials weren't. There were steps that were omitted and the results didn't come out like the authors. It appears that these issues are present in this version as well.


Don't waste your money on this book. Get this training DVD instead:
[...]

I give this book 100% - 2009-04-03
Reviewer Rating:
I really liked how this book makes great explanations on using the techniques on how to make realistic game textures, Very well written book. Great pictures, and techniques, a must recomend for anyone who want to understand the techniques in Maya and make wonderful game techtures. Awesome book glad I bought it.

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