True study is a form of experience.
– Frank Lloyd Wright (1958)
Here you’ll find associate links to various books that have become staples in my library, and that I frequently recommend to peers and students alike.
You’ll also find information on various tools of the trade, and websites that I frequent and recommend.
Principles
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Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice While this book is essentially an introduction to classical studio practice, it’s introduction to traditional design principles, light and surface interaction and observation and recording, make it a staple for any artist’s bookshelf. |
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The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media |
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Ideas for the Animated Short: Finding and Building Stories |
General
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The VES Handbook of Visual Effects: Industry Standard VFX Practices and Procedures |
Lighting
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Light for Visual Artists: Understanding & Using Light in Art & Design Fantastic all-around resource for all visual artists. This book is essentially an overview of various lighting topics and phenomenon and serves as a great introduction to lighting concepts. |
Rendering
Modeling / Digital Sculpting
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ZBrush Professional Tips and Techniques |
Photography
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Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera If you only buy one book on the subject of photography, I think this should be. It got me started years ago, and still holds much weight today. Since the book focuses on photographic principles, the lessons can applied to any camera or to digital rendering. |
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The Digital Photography Workflow Handbook Everything you wanted to know about the digital photographic workflow. Introduces and covers topics like color management, image capture and processing and data management. |
HDR and Panoramic
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The HDRI Handbook 2.0: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers and CG Artists Pretty much the gold standard in hdr and panoramic photography resources. If you are interested in either or both subjects, you won’t regret this information and resource rich, powerhouse of a book. |
Compositing
A little compositing know-how can not only improve your presentation, but also your texture workflow.
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Digital Compositing for Film and Video |
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Compositing Visual Effects: Essentials for the Aspiring Artist |
Technical
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3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development, 2nd Edition I was terrible at math in high school, and still am. This book is my life preserver when I’m working in Python, ZBrush Z-Script or in Substance Designer. |
Process
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The Power of Business Process Improvement: 10 Simple Steps to Increase Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Adaptability As a senior artist, you may often be concerned with observing and improving workflow or pipeline processes. This book can provide in-valuable insights on how to analyze and map workflow and productivity, present results and achieve buy-in and finally to implement and quantify improvements. |
Photography
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X-Rite MSCCPP ColorChecker Passport |
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X-Rite MSCCC ColorChecker Classic |
HDR and Panoramic
Calibration
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Datacolor Spyder4Pro S4P100 Colorimeter for Display Calibration Datacolor’s Spyder line is a simple and affordable calibration solution that offers consistently great results. I’ve been using the pro version at home for years on matched dual displays. |
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Datacolor Spyder4Elite S4EL100 Colorimeter for Display Calibration The most notable enhancements over the Pro, is the ability to fine tune settings across multiple monitors. This is essential for me at work, where I have 2 completely different monitors and want to achieve color consistently and match their brightness levels. |
