Digital Character Design and Painting is really two books in one: it teaches the fundamentals of character design, and the skills, tools, and techniques needed to master digital painting. Character design is all about ideas and how to put those ideas together to create a look and feel for a character. It's about creating a character that elicits a specific emotion from viewers—fear, joy, anger, sadness, etc. Character design does not have a standard creation process, but there are basic principles that can be followed. Digital Character Design and Painting explores these principles and teaches conventional artists how to enhance their skills to bridge the gap between traditional and digital art. All of the fundamentals of character design, from artistic design issues and character development to physical details of the character are explored.

Unlike character design, digital painting is not so much about ideas as it is about the combination of method, technique, and artistic theory. It is about making something that will be viewed in two dimensions imitate three dimensions. Using a variety of practical Painter 7 tutorials, artists learn how to apply traditional painting techniques with digital tools. Details on sketching, color theory, lighting, and texturing are also covered, along with specific techniques for painting trees and foliage, eyes, faces, hair, clothing, and fur.

Using these practical techniques and procedures, artists can learn how to create and beautifully illustrate their own life-like or fantasy characters for games, movies, or other commercial productions.

On the CD!

* Sketches, paper textures, brushes, and texture files to use with the tutorials presented in the book and to customize for your own projects

* QuickTime movies illustrating some of the painting techniques and other clips that support general painting ideas

* Shareware versions of programs available from Mediachance Software and Ransen Software

* Demo version of Painter 7 from Procreate (All of the material in the book Painter 8 compatible.)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows ME, or Windows XP. IBM Compatible PC, Pentium 200 or higher, 64 MB RAM, 24-bit 800 x 600 Display, 2X CD-ROM Drive, Mouse or Tablet. Mac OS 8.6 or higher, Power Macintosh ® G3 or higher, 64MB RAM, 128MB RAM for Mac OS X, 24-bit (800 x 600) color display (1024 x 768 for Mac OS X), Mouse or tablet. Users also need QuickTime 6 to view the movie clips included, and Painter 7 or equivalent program to perform the steps in the tutorials.