Book Review: ImagineFX Sci-Fi: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Digital Painting Techniques

Sci-Fi is the 4th book from ImagineFX on digital painting techniques. Previously, they have covered Fantasy Creatures, Manga and digital painting in general.

The tutorials from this book are those featured in the past issues of the magazine. They are in the form of demonstrations where the artists share their techniques and process to creating their artwork. There are 26 tutorials and a short artist gallery.

Here's the list of contents:
1. Characters
- Tap into A Sci-Fi Classic by Marek Okon
- It Came From Beyond Space by Aly Fell
- Creating Epic Sci-Fi by Marek Okon
- Paint Like Syd Mead by Francis Tsai
Creatures
- Monster Creations by John Kearney
- Quick Martian Concepts by Andy Park
- Symmetrical Designing by Mike Corriero
- Make The Most of Photo-Collage by Marc Taro Holmes
Environments
- Getting Composition Right by Gary Tonge
- Classic Sci-Fi Painting by Bill Corbett
- Light Your World by Ioan Dumitrescu
- Epic Space Batter by Dr Chee Ming Wong (aka Koshime)
- Dramatic Winterscapes by Sam Burley
Robots & Weapons
- 25 Steps to Building Better Robots by Christian Alzmann
- Create a Robot Concept by Keith Thompson
- Unify Elements of Your Concepts by Travor Claxton
- Creating a Giant Robot by Jess van Dijk
- Mecha's Heart by Saijin Oh
- Inventing Retro Weaponry by Patrick Reilly
Vehicles
- Paint a Light Cycle by Koshime
- Implying Detail by Thomas Pringle
- Designing Orion by Kevin Cunningham
- Making Fantastic Flying Creatures by Christian Bravery
- Dramatic Concept Art by David Levy
3D Art Skills
- Create 3D Models by Sunil Pant
- Take Your First Steps in 3D Glen Southern
Sci-Fi Gallery
- Marek Okon
- James Paick
- Ben Mauro
- Mike McCain
- Alex Broeckel
- Daryl Mandruk
- Monsit Jangariyawong
- Aley Fell
- Josh Grafton
- Christian Bravery
- Skan Srisvwan
- Wei Ming
- Joe Uinton

The tutorials are step-by-step with examples and commentary. In some tutorials, you need to know Photoshop to know the terms they refer to. The subjects are quite diverse and covers a bit on the different aspects of Sci-Fi, such as alien creatures, characters, environments, robots, etc. There are also tutorials on 3D modeling, but those are quite elementary.

It's a book good for beginner to intermediate artists who want to learn about creating certain effects and get tips on conceptualizing basic sci-fi paintings.

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This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook or visit their website.

Sci-Fi: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Digital Painting Techniques (ImagineFX) is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook or visit their website.