Forum: MarketPlace Showcase


Subject: Toxic Angels Advanced Postwork Tutorial!! review by Kirisute

kirisute opened this issue on Sep 11, 2003 ยท 7 posts


kirisute posted Thu, 11 September 2003 at 7:06 AM

Toxic Angels Advanced Postwork Tutorial: Life is strange, one minute your happily working away and quietly going about whatever business you might be involved in, then somebody throws you a curveball of such size and meaning that you have to drop everything and take a bloody good swipe at it! Its at time like those, that things happen.odd thingstake this review for example I have been awestruck by the work of Toxic Angel for many years now, it would appear there are very few, if any, limits to the talent of this artist. And then he asked me to review his Basics of Postwork tutorial! Its a life changing experience, being asked to review a tome that i'm sure by now has become a holy bible to Poser users and artists throughout the world. Then you happen to be talking to the man himself once more and what does do? He asks you to review the next edition!! Next edition? Yeah you read it correctly! Next edition..as if one postwork tutorial did not change the face of the Poser community enough, the man decides to up and write anotherand ol muggins here gets to review it.. Its not easy you know What you get: Well after the download has finished..close to 19 meg as I recallyou are presented with a PDF document of 66 pages!! And like the previous offering, this in itself is a work of art! The design and presentation of the tutorial is superior to say the least.easy to read text flows effortlessly through simple to follow stage by stage descriptions of the techniques being taught. Images are clear and exactly where they need to be, presented in such a way as to enhance rather than detract from the text. If truth be told it almost feels like you are holding some mighty magical tome, inside the secrets of one of the worlds best Poser and Photoshop artist tells his secrets..the magic begins. Whats in it then?: Well if you take out the sections like credits and foreword, your left with 4 sections of pure tutorial. There are 6 sections all told and they flow together with such ease that you rarely realise your reading tutorial at all. Inside the sections Janne (Toxic Angel) takes us through his vast repertoire of skills: from painting candle sticks with, what he should really patent, as his organic painting technique, to inspired methods of creating realistic fur and see through clothing. Along the way we stop at various side stages to browse painting feathers, fire, and cloth. Each stage of the tutorial is superbly written, occasionally you might stumble across a word that just does not fit into the sentence, or maybe it is the wrong word altogetherand if Im honest all you can do is smile then.you realise Jannes native language is not of course English.and yet rather than detracting from the proceedings these minor grammatical errors add a certain personal flavour to the booklet.you can almost imagine your listening to the instructions rather than reading them.the clinical process of the thing is lost, and it becomes a superb easy flowing text that guides you gently through each stage of the process. What can you learn?: On a personal level Ive studied and used Photoshop for the past 4 years, and I can honestly put my hand up and say this tutorial has opened up new paths for me to follow! And yet it is never a case of reading the tutorial and thinking: Ive been doing it wrong all along Far from it, the occasional quip, the occasional grammatical English error, even the easy way that Janne can guide your mind through the stages all serve one purpose, and that is to guide you gently and surely where you need to be. At no point do you feel like you are surpassed in the process, never do you think, I cant do that! Even if you take only a few tit-bits from the processes within there is a world of knowledge still that this tutorial has opened for you. Be it uses of filters you never considered, ways of manipulating layers you had not thought of, or just settings in Photoshop you had no idea existed, I defy anyone to pick up this booklet and not learn something! Conclusion: If you have the Basics of Postwork booklet, you have already seen inside the workings of the genius that is Toxic Angel. And you should now know that you need to get your hands on this second instalment! It will guide you further along your chosen path, it will lead you hand in hand towards goals few of us dared hope to achieve.and yet it will make those goals seem easy to reach and grasp. If you have never picked up the previous booklet then maybe you should, but even if you dont there is a wealth of knowledge here to work on. The first booklet is not needed to facilitate the methods held within Advanced Postwork. The methods still work without prior knowledge of the artist or his previous tutorials. Even if this is the first tutorial you ever read on using Photoshop to postwork your renders you will find the easiness of the structure and the flow of the text a path which you will enjoy following, and a path that will guide you further than you had dared hope. And thats where the start of this review comes back into my mind..thats where it starts to turn odd. I thought I knew a lot about postwork.I thought the techniques of Toxic Angel were god given and no mere mortal might touch them..then I read this tutorial and I found a path that lead to another path that opened up a series of paths towards goals I had never though I could reach.and maybe, just maybe, if I read, and practice and learn then I will touch upon those skills that seemed so hard to reach before. And whats odd about that you may ask? I would love to answer you, but I have another stage of this tutorial to practice Kirisute 9/9/2003


Philywebrider posted Thu, 11 September 2003 at 8:34 AM

Terriffic, how much and where do I buy it! I tried a search in Renderosity, but it doesn't seem to be posted yet.


ClintH posted Thu, 11 September 2003 at 9:32 AM

SoftgoodThumb22843.jpg

Advanced Postwork Tutorial

Clint

Clint Hawkins
MarketPlace Manager/Copyright Agent



All my life I've been over the top ... I don't know what I'm doing ... All I know is I don't wana stop!
(Zakk Wylde (2007))



Philywebrider posted Thu, 11 September 2003 at 10:20 AM

Many thanks Clint.


ClintH posted Thu, 11 September 2003 at 12:05 PM

:) Your welcome. Clint

Clint Hawkins
MarketPlace Manager/Copyright Agent



All my life I've been over the top ... I don't know what I'm doing ... All I know is I don't wana stop!
(Zakk Wylde (2007))



JurgenDoe posted Thu, 11 September 2003 at 12:26 PM

Awesome words Kiri. I guess nobody could better describe this awesome Tutorial. Excellent :)

Strength Is Life, Weakness Is Death


Taria posted Tue, 23 September 2003 at 6:53 AM

Wonderful tutorial it lends its hand in many things an artiest such as myself had questions about, many of which can be found in this tutorial. It is more advanced and since I'm not as far in my talents as such, I did find it difficult to do some things but I know with loads more practice and more time I will be able to do everything in the tutorial, I say it's a must have item if you have the means and if not, then wait until you do, it is worth the money it cost. Wonderful tutorial! Good going for giving it such a rave review, wonderfully put! I could not have done it the justice as you did.