Beyond Photoshop: Advanced techniques integrating Photoshop with Illustrator, Poser, Painter, Cinema 4D and ZBrush

I am a photographer. Sometimes I have a vision for one of my images that trancends what I can accomplish with 'normal' photographic techniques and tools. This book certainly opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities! I am excited to begin the learning peocess of using the new tools, techniques and visions that are presented in this book. Since I already have Photoshop CS5 and Painter 10 I am going to begin with those pograms. But the author points out that free trial versions of the other programs he uses are available, so I will be trying those programs and techniques also. There is also a very comprehensive website for reader of this work with all the images and techniques you will need to duplicate any of the projects in the book. That is the mark of a true master, the willingness to share his entire work with you, including materials, techniques, images and tools. This is not a simple book full of simple techniques, but rather a comprehensive volume full of amazing, though often complex, excercises that result in some amazing works that I could only dream about previously! As complex as some of the excercises are, they are presented in a series (often a long series) of simple procedures that anyone with only moderate skills should be able to execute without any problem. The author understands that the best way to accomplish a complex task is to break it down into a logical series of simple steps. He does that extremely well!! Derek Lea has provided an invaluable book for those of us who want to explore the creative aspects of going 'Beyond Photoshop'. This book gets my highest recommendation!

I was excited about finally finding a book that shows how to use several different programs together taking the strengths of one to build upon those of another one (Illustrator and Photoshop for example). This is not the one... What it does is take you minute step by minute step through a set of excruciatingly complex projects. I got so bored with each one that I dropped every single project when halfway through it. This book is a yawn and the art you must work on is ugly (just look at that woman's face on the cover...) Worse of all is the feeling you get that the author is persistently complicating the process he is describing for no good reason and that for most of the projects you could have reached the same results in half the steps and while staying within one application.

I've been a huge fan of Derek Lea's books since last year when I bought Creative Photoshop CS4. He goes beyond the typical tutorial books by not only showing you how to do cool things with the software, but how to make great works of art. He really introduced me to the true potential of Photoshop.

"Beyond Photoshop: Advanced techniques integrating Photoshop with Illustrator, Poser, Painter, Cinema 4D and ZBrush" by Derek Lea is a wonderful book for those who are looking to incorporate Photoshop to their illustrators, 3D work or painting projects.I recommend this book for those who are past the basics of Adobe Photoshop and those who have dabbled and own the software mentioned below. It's important to note that the author is using CS4 for these projects.The chapters are:CHAPTER 1: Sharp Edges and Painterly Blends (Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Illustrator CS4)CHAPTER 2: 2D Textures and 3D Vectors (Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Illustrator CS4)CHAPTER 3: Live Trace and Pathfinder Effects (Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Illustrator CS4)CHAPTER 4: Hand Painted Magic (Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Painter 11)CHAPTER 5: Create an Old Master (Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Poser 8)CHAPTER 6: The Best of Both Worlds (Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Cinema 4D 11)CHAPTER 7: Sculpting Raw Materials (Adobe Photoshop CS4 & ZBrush 3.2)The first step is to go to the website for the book and download the project files and from there, begin following the instructions laid out in the book. Instructions are very thorough and one of the reasons why this book has only 7 chapters is because it's thorough and Derek Lea does a fantastic job explaining each step.The good news is that with each step, there is a picture of the artwork and the tool on the software being used, so you can see what is being selected.If anything, this is a book that works well for those who are at the intermediate level. Beginner level, it all depends on how fast you learn and your familiarity with other software. And this is where the book has its caveat and that is one may own Illustrator but then not own the other software and thus making the other chapters obsolete until you get it.Even for me, I've purchased and owned only four of the software, so I can only go up to chapter 5. And I assume that many people will be in the same boat.There are awesome techniques from Derek Lea but it's a book that will be subjective to the user because you need these software to work the project files. Also, it depends on how current your software is. Granted, if you know the software well, you don't need the latest versions and do your own personal workaround.Overall, "Beyond Photoshop" is a book that is well written and definitely handled quite well by the writer Derek Lea. It would be great to have multiple "Beyond Photoshop" books that focus on Photoshop and one software rather than one book featuring techniques with several software, because it limits the user to the software they own. If you only own Photoshop and Illustrator, you only have three chapters to work with.This book does favor Photoshop/Illustrator with three chapters and one for the others. So, in a way, I wish there were 3 chapters dedicated to Photoshop + another software each to make the book balanced (if it was well-balanced, this book would receive a 5-star rating) but since it's not, I'm only going to give it three stars. But it's a very good book, it's a well-written book but unfortunately, it's limiting.It's a solid book but if you intend to buy this, make sure you have the software, so you can utilize each chapter.

This book is Oky but if you have many prior knowledge of the software systems in it, Photoshop, illustrator, poser and Zbrush, then chances are theres nothing you don't already know here