I'm new to the whole 3d/2d world, and currently i'm learning Lightwave on my own. The thing is, mastering a 2d program is essential, and i'm trying out photoshop (the only one available to me right now) but i've found i haven't gotten very far after a couple of months. THe tutorials on the net seem to be for more intermediate users who have a specific project to do. So... how do i learn it so i can master it? Thanks! ^_^

There are a few basic books that may help with understanding Photoshop. The "visual quickstart guide" books usually cover the fundamentals. They usually run towards the $20 (more-or-less). It takes you throught the app in a "step-by-step" approach with screenshots/pictures as a guide. Give one of them a "look-see" at any Borders, B&N or your local bookstore. see ya' around :) scott

personally, I've never read a manual for photoshop in my life. We had it at school, and I'd just use it every day. I basically learnt by going into it over and over again. If i saw someone do something "cool", I'd ask'em how they did it. I've been going at it for about 3 years and a bit now tho, and I guess I have a lot of patience (especially with a 380mhz computer!), which might not be ideal for you. There are some books in stores that to me look like good introductions, and will cover the tools in detail in terms of explanation. I sincerely doubt however that you'll find one that shows you how to recreate the Mona Lisa on the computer. Thing is, once you know what the tools do, its up to you to figure out different methods of applying them in conjunction with eachother in order to do what you want to do. take a look at Amazon.com as well, you might get a good deal.

http://www.quickstartonline.com/

The above link is for the Visual Quickstart Guides. They have a 7 day free trial to browse through the whole line of the Visual Quickstart Guides including Photoshop and Lightwave. The book level is beginning and intermediate.

I find tutorials distracting, especially some of the online ones; but that's just me and my poor attention span, my inability to consume large chunks of sometimes poorly written, confusing, or error ridden explanations. However, if you find you need tutorials I would recommend you shop around for a really good, simply written, yet comprehensive guide (good luck!). Actually, I think the Quickstart guides would be a good place to start.

NB: Manual guides can get pretty expensive, so make sure you give it a good read first, and make sure it is exactly what you want.

{Hey Slinky: and here I was bemoaning my 450 mhz!}

Hi,here's another possibility:try to learn something about the essentials of fotofinishing (colors,filter- ing,effects,etc.).There are plenty of magazines about that.Personaly I think it's easier to understand the "digital way" if you know somthing about the "analog" side. rollmops :-)