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Master Digital Color: Styles Tools Techniques ReviewAfter I bought Brian and Kristy Miller's first book, Hi-Fi Color For Comics: Digital Techniques for Professional Results, and went through the lessons, I remember thinking, "They've just got to make another book - there's so much more to learn!" For those of us who felt that way, the Millers' follow-up, "Master Digital Color" is a dream come true. Building directly off of the lessons taught in "Hi-Fi," this book expands the techniques taught both in complexity and utility.
Before we begin, I must warn you - to use this book you need to have a version of Photoshop (preferably CS or higher) and some sort of Wacom-style tablet.
The Good: While "Hi-Fi Color for Comics" taught the rudiments of the "cut & brush/grad" coloring style in exceptional detail, "Master Digital Color" goes deeper, taking those lessons and applying them to different styles of art and new techniques. Here, you'll work on everything from animation (Disney, Hanna-Barbara and action/adventure cartoon styles) and manga style art to pin-up, sci-fi, and, of course, advanced superhero comic coloring techniques. Want to learn how to render hair or figure out how to make a face look right? This is the book for you. Want to figure out how to render metallic objects, stone, brick, skies, etc? Again, this is your book. And that just scratches the surface.
There are six chapters (Animation, Superhero, Pin-Up, Sci-Fi, Manga and Alternative), and each chapter has three complete lessons (taking you all the way from flatting the art to rendering, color holds and special effects) and two "Challenge" homework assignments where you take what you learned in the lessons and try them yourself without any help. All of the lessons and homework assignments are contained on the accompanying DVD-ROM, along with color pallets for each lesson, video tutorials, "Hi-Fi Helpers" and Photoshop presets. While this DVD-ROM includes much of the content included on the disc that accompanied "Hi-Fi," you will still need to install this new disc because it also includes new material vital to the lessons. Installation, thankfully, is quick and easy.
The Photoshop Presets, like those in "Hi-Fi," include custom brushes, color settings, and automated actions and scripts to minimize the number of steps you have to go through to set up your files for each step in the coloring process. This is a major aid - though it would be nice if they told us all of the steps for file set-up just so we could try them out for ourselves.
The Bad: Not much, but there are a few little things. While there are a host of amazing techniques taught in this book, one that is not really covered is how to render musculature - while you will render colors over muscles in the lessons, there isn't any in-depth discussion (you'll need GURU-eFX's now out-of-print How To Color For Comics for that). Something else I would have liked to have seen is how to determine which "screen" color (the color you'll use to render and create highlights) you should use in your own art; there is little discussion of choosing colors, which you'd think would be essential. Also, I noticed some typos and editing errors in the book.
Now, the big question: If I buy this book, do I still need to buy the first one, Hi-Fi Color For Comics: Digital Techniques for Professional Results? I would say yes. "Hi-Fi" teaches the rudiments in great detail and, if you've never even flatted a page before or have little Photoshop experience, you will need "Hi-Fi" before you get this book. This book, though it does review some of "Hi-Fi's" rudiments in the beginning pages, assumes you've already read that book and done its lessons first. Just a friendly FYI.
All in all, "Master Digital Color" is a superb book for those interested in learning how to color in a comic book style on the computer, and raises the bar for such books yet again. I recommend it without hesitation. Good luck!
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