August, 2007
Crumble.Crackle.Burn is a work of art in and of itself; a beautiful glossy hard cover that's a welcome addition to your coffee table or reference library.
The book itself features 60 full color illustrations, each paired with a black and white texture that was used to add depth and interest to the work. Each spread includes some information about the texture itself, including the source where the photo was taken, and some notes from the author. For convenience, the texture's location on the enclosed DVD is also listed with the image itself.
Each of the 60 textures featured in the book are available for use in your own compositions, and the DVD contains another 60 textures and a large selection of photoshop brushes that you can incorporate - royalty free - into your own designs. Given the cost of high resolution stock photos, this alone makes the book a valuable investment!
This book is very visual, and will be immensely helpful to the "hands-on" learner. Concepts are demonstrated graphically rather than through lengthy technical explanations. This allows the reader to jump in with both feet; to actively participate in their own education without much verbal instruction.
The DVD includes five folders:
1. Textures in the Book - each of the 60 textures featured in the book come in the following size, resolution and formats:
- 300 dpi layered grayscale PSD format (10 x 12)
- 300 dpi bitmap tiff (10 x 12)
- 1000 x 1000 square PSD brush (Derived)
- They may be used in Illustrator or Photoshop
2. 60 Bonus Textures - The 60 bonus textures found on the DVD are saved as bitmap tiff images. The resolution of these textures varies, but they are suitable for offset printed projects. (Note: If you purchase the book, you can receive another 30 textures - not featured in the book - for FREE by submitting a copy of your receipt and your name through the link found at: http://texturebook.com/)
3. Art Featured in Book - PDF files of each of the 60 full-color illustration appearing in the publication.
4. How to Use Textures - samples of layered Photoshop and Illustrator documents which can be deconstructed to see how the textures were applied by the talented artists featured in the work.
5. Additional Website Links - which is self-explanatory.
The adventure doesn't end there. Glitschka offers tips to help you create your own textures with a digital camera. His excitement about this subject is contagious, and his advice really helps readers develop a new appreciation for the complexities of the world around them. He does warn that "texture usage can lead to addictive tendencies", and he's absolutely right!
Kudos to Von Glitschka for teaching illustrators everywhere to take their designs to the next level. Crumble. Crackle. Burn. is a must-have resource for digital illustrators; I highly recommend it.
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System and Software Requirements: To access and use the textures on this DVD, you'll need at least 512 MB of RAM on either a Mac running OS X with DVD drive, or a PC running Windows XP with DVD drive. The following applications for Mac or Windows may also be necessary: Adobe Photoshop 7 or above, Adobe Illustrator 8 or above, Macromedia FreeHand 8 or above, CorelDraw 9 or above, and Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader 4 or above. Sample usage files found on the DVD are only provided in native Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Photoshop CS2 formats.
List Price: $35.00 USD | $43.00 CAN
Title: Crumble. Crackle. Burn.
First Edition: 2007
ISBN-10: 1-58180-958-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-58180-958-9
Pages: 128
Copyright (c) 2007, Adrienne Turcotte, All Rights Reserved