Dive into the world of Ballistic publishing with "CGCast" episode 12, where we dive deep into five captivating art books spanning character modeling, matte painting, and architectural designs. Host explores the tactile experience of owning these beautifully
crafted volumes, from their robust paper quality and striking artwork to practical quirks like strong ink smells and occasional image repeats. With personal anecdotes and candid reviews, listeners will find insights tailored for artists looking to
enhance their skills or simply admire stunning visuals. Whether you're into characters, landscapes, or the intricacies of 3D modeling, this episode promises a treasure trove of recommendations and honest feedback to guide your purchase.
Throughout the episode, we also touched on practical aspects like shipping experiences (Swiss efficiency!), physical qualities (thick paper, strong ink smell), and pricing considerations. Each book was evaluated not just on its artistic merit but also
on its usability and value for money, ensuring listeners get a well-rounded perspective before making their purchase. Whether you're looking to enhance your skills or simply admire exquisite artwork, this episode promises valuable insights tailored
to your artistic interests. Stay tuned for more exciting content in January
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
Welcome everybody to the 12th episode of CGCast
This is our very first
video cast
so it's kind of a special moment
Today I'll be reviewing
these five Ballistic publishing books see if they're good or
bad or whatever well overall
I really like the books I have expose one here it's the
very first one I put it into contrast
to see how things have changed I have the elemental to the
artist Matt's painting Matt's
painting the artist character modeling and consultive on
the shipping was really fast
release books it took about a week and a half wasn't too
bad but I had spent
extra customs when they arrived here the Swiss guys in Sy
racuse they are very
persistent they actually went on the internet to
investigate how much all of
this cost to charge me the 16 francs for the customs but
that's alright another
thing the smell of the ink is really really strong so when
you first get the
books it's kind of good idea to open them out in open space
so you don't get
little dizzy if you're in a closed area. The paper is very
good, it's thick, it's
nice but another thing with the black ink is you touch it
you want to leave a
fingerprint so be careful about that. The pages are a bit
thicker and the newer
ones from Risco they want so that's a good thing. Most of
the artwork is
amazing these books because they have thousands and
thousands of entries and
I don't even need the best of the best, get in.
Look at me, there are a few problems.
Another problem were repeats of images in the books.
But that's alright.
It's a bit annoying at times when you see repeated images,
but it's not that bad.
But it would be better if there were less repeats of images
.
Some of the books have zip casings, which are really cool
because they protect the core
book, so these get protected but at times when you're
putting in it can get a little
damaged.
Another thing, the leather editions, pretty expensive, $150
for a leather edition, and
with that $150 you could buy these three books, normal
edition.
So if you got the money and you really care about leather,
which is just pure vanity to me, then go for it.
But if you're low on cash, instead of buying just one book,
you can get three.
The first book I'm going to talk about is Exotic, which is
a book filled with characters.
It's mostly female characters, but I'm not going to
complain about that.
It has a mix between 2D images and 3D images, a lot of
different styles.
And this book I just love. I would recommend it to anybody.
who's interested in characters. It has 228 images by 113
artists from 37
different countries in about 119 pages. A cool thing about
this book the first
500 books include limited edition prints. I'll show you
those after this cool
they're pretty good so if you are you're interested in it
in those prints you
should order quick this book also features has eight artist
profiles Linda
Burr's quick probably separate name on Lee Ann Kemp Pascal
Blanche Jason Chan
Fred Bastid Olivier Poissonnet which I kind of really like
this work and
Jean Yves Le Cirque probably said his name wrong also Hen
ning Ruud D'Izziwijel
Check out, I'll show you up in the book. It has some full
pages and it's really good.
There's not much to complain. Also, there's a nice tutorial
in the middle of the book to show you what goes on.
The print quality is amazing. It's pretty good.
Check it out. I really highly recommend this book.
There's another tutorial in the book.
It's just great work.
The next book I have is The Artist Character Modeling.
This book I really really like a lot because it has a lot
of educational material so if
you're really into character modeling this book is
definitely worth it um steven stahlberg we all
know him he's a great uh character modeler he has a couple
a lot of pages of tutorials in it
very educational francisco cortina he made the characters
for final fantasy he shows us how he
does his stuff um pascal blanche who has his own style
shows us how he makes his stuff so it's
pretty good um the book is in a slip case as i said before
which is pretty nice helps take a look
trust me me and stuff they get damaged really easy because
i travel a lot um book has a lot
of good artwork it's not just pure educational they had a
call for entries where they had people
submit their work uh it was pretty good because the the
featured artists they post comments
on the images which i thought was really really cool idea
and what and what else could you want um
There's 129 pages, all these books apparently are 129 pages
, I guess they like that number.
The step-by-step techniques of the artist-cad models
feature modeling a young girl's face,
modeling figurative pose, modeling hair, face modeling,
skin shading, telling a story, creature
modeling, anatomy study modeling, and it's pretty good.
The work is good.
This image I love and showing how he went about doing it.
I'm sure you can find this tutorial on the internet but
having it in paper to carry on
with you is pretty good.
The pages on this are wide so when you touch it, it doesn't
really leave much of a mark.
I really highly recommend this book if you are into
character modeling or just characters
or just want to see cool images.
Check it out.
There's an image done by friend Mihai, he was on the show
and it's really high quality work of his but there's not
much that you wouldn't like.
Alright next up is the artist Mattpainting.
This book like, I wouldn't have actually gone out and
bought it because I'm not really interested in Mattpainting
.
but after looking through it it's pretty interesting
because um magic painting is like the
unsung hero in cg because um they use it a lot in movies
you don't really notice it like these are a
lot of lord of the rings and star wars but it's pretty good
because this book actually shows you
how most of the stuff is done they actually have tutorials
of how stuff was made in star wars so
this stuff is you know really good they also um accepted uh
images from other artists so it's
It's like the same style as the other de-artists.
But they have a few more tutorials.
The featured artists in this book are
Krzysztofski, Abautuner, Dylan Cole.
I'm pretty bad with names.
The artwork just seems amazing.
And actually, this book itself got me interested in matte
paint.
I wasn't really much of a big fan of it before.
But now, I'm really interested in doing it.
This has a lot more tutorials in it
than the other The Artist books.
But it's all good.
Check it out.
I have somebody from my art school here
interested in the books.
They get attention.
Another thing that this book has
is step-by-step tutorials on things like
Tower of London, Desert City, Lava City,
Gothic Cathedral, Planetscape, Sky,
Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith.
another Star Wars thing would be the temple in the golden
...
golden gate
but as you can see there are a lot of colorful people in my
school
but seriously this book if you're into landscapes
this book is definitely for you
I'm not sure if this would be everybody's cup of tea but
it's pretty good
it's quite good
anyone say some comments to the people?
nothing because I'm not able to speak
able to speak a little bit English but the books you showed
me were really good.
Really really good. Especially this one for me because it's
impressive to see
the precision of the skin. So amazing. It's really really
good book.
From looking at the cover which book would you choose? For
the cover? This one because if
If you tell me that it's not a real picture, not a real
biography, at first I won't be like you.
Okay, this is Elementor 2, it's the latest book from Ball
istic.
Only features Autodesk or for me known as Scree.
It has tons of architectural work.
I mean a lot of architectural work.
a bit too much for my taste but it's alright it's like 80
pages that's like a
third of the book like the buildings I'm kind of get sick
of them after a while
but these are kind of better because they're like more
interesting let me see
if I can find one of my friends oh this image I really love
this image I don't
know what uh-huh you find a cool image age 86
Yeah, like this one. This one is pretty cool. It's made by
my friend David.
This book is pretty good in general except for the overdose
of architectural work and
lack of 2D since Autodesk doesn't make much 2D programs.
Only 3D Max, Combustion, Inferno, Flinch, all of that.
There's like no room for 2D but I'm sure not everybody
likes 2D but myself I prefer a little
bit of 2D. So I would kind of choose an Expose book over
this since this is like an inversion of expose just a bit
watered down um but it still has
amazing work like this for the hellgate london game and it
has a few abstract stuff like this one
like this image by olivier posano from france this is
amazing um but it's pretty good this book has
like has about as 215 images by 157 artists in 192 pages
also cool thing it
was a game art section which is kind of new since game
artists don't get much
respect and it was kind of cool to see I'm not reading to
game art myself so
I'm not being biased see you sir yeah bye you like the
books right
Yeah, it's the same rate as the Pulsar.
Would you buy one?
Yeah, maybe.
$50, that's how much they cover.
Is that a fair price?
No.
No, you think it's a fair price? $50?
Yeah, but this one is quite good, so...
The real wellness, I think...
Very $50, okay.
But would you prefer to buy it on the internet?
Or if it was available in a snack?
Whatever it's...
Whatever it's available in a snack.
Another thing, the leather version is not available yet.
available yet that's until like somewhere sometime in
January hardcover
edition is available all right as I said before the exotic
book it came with four
prints really cool prints the first 500 people they're very
nice thick paper
good ink nice and glossy nice artwork too protective paper
check it out even
have a little bit of information in the back so you can
find out about stuff
like these prints alone would be really nice if you got
them like i think i'll probably frame them
build a nice piece of work all right so the next book
expose one uh they don't make leather
editions of these anymore and this is artist edition it's
kind of my time to show off but
But still, my book has taken a beating because it's been to
Switzerland, Miami, Honduras,
back to Miami, Spain, and back to Switzerland.
Imagine that.
But it's kind of getting damaged and the binding is kind of
messed up.
But it's kind of my fault.
But considering through what all the books been through, it
's in pretty good quality.
It had some protectors to protect the leather, but the
leather's still alive.
know made it worth it getting the leather compared to those
but I don't
think the price is justified the book still if you haven't
bought it and you're
interested still has a lot of good artwork it held up to
its time there's
not much to complain about doesn't smell like Nick anymore
but it's good the
page is a bit thinner and why can I say they find a cool
page yes
I'm shamelessly plugging myself, yes, I'm gonna do that.
Should do.
But, look, this book is cool.
It has magic paintings, 2D, 3D.
What more can you ask for?
I highly recommend this book, all the expose ones, because
they have good artworks.
All these books are really good quality, but at least it's
for a different person.
So if you get all the books, we might see a few repeats.
Not that bad, but if you're into really into characters, 2D
or 3D, then I highly recommend Expose. If you really,
really love character modeling, couldn't care less about 2D
, I really recommend this. You'll learn a lot.
If you're really into matte painting or just interested to
see what all the fuss is about, how Star Wars was made, all
the matte paintings, the backgrounds of matte paintings
were made, check this out.
If you're really into Autodesk, 3D Max, and stuff like that
, check this book out.
If you're really into architecture, this book is also
really good.
The expose is like a jack-of-all-trades.
It has everything, a little bit of everything.
Don't you think so?
Do you like the books?
Would you buy a book?
Well, not from me, but...
If you had the money, would you buy a book?
Yes, yes.
How much do you think these books...
How much would you pay for one of these books?
50?
50?
Wait, I'm going to show you...
I don't know, a centenary of my age.
That's kind of bad.
Oh, what do you think about this image?
This one?
Yes.
I made that image
so I did that
you did this
we just pin there
this
so
it's the image
well you just see
this one
it's very kind of
it's bad
beautiful one
yeah yeah
Honduras
I think this concludes the show.
All these books are worth it
if you're into something.
As I said before,
I know the show's been kind of weird lately,
but I've had,
the show's been a little weird,
but I've had like a huge amount of bad luck in the past
week.
Like you wouldn't imagine all the bad stuff that's been
happening to me.
Been busy out of school work, going out to Lausanne, having
to film the stuff for school.
A little bit of personal issues.
And well, every time I had wanted to film this properly, I
haven't had the chance.
And since I'm not going to be around in this area from
Saturday on, might as well film it now.
This wasn't the last chance I had so
It's a bit weird. It's not my fault
It's not things I could control but I promise if I make a
video cast in the future could be much better much more
professional
Right Jill. Oh, yeah, but now that's all and they'll talk
about. Oh, would you buy a book Jill?
What do you think about these books?
Shit
What's happening in the book him well, I find him as
I'm really interested in this one because it's really
realistic.
But I don't know really much about 3D.
But personally, just because I like the image on this book,
I like this one.
Okay, sex sells.
If you want to sell it, sell more books for more naked
women.
I'm really busy.
Yeah.
but you think somebody who is not interested in 3d would
like these books
not interested in Jigsaw LR if they like these kids
yes hey hey yo come what do you think about these books
making a video show
don't walk in front of the camera what do you think about
these books
you get out that's your opinion just from looking at the
cover okay look at
this book cut
no but what's your opinion on the book that one is in would
you buy for $50 no
no parties considering a useless hey no way $50 why not
yeah I'll buy it has a
good cover but just from the budget they were like fifty
dollars man I don't know
if you had the money okay I have the money I got the power
no no I yeah yeah
like it now you see the quality and everything okay thanks
for your time
man Chris okay well I hope you enjoyed the show I had fun
making in it was
pretty fun um even though a little weird but yeah uh see
you guys again in january when i come back
we have more interviews i have some stuff planned up but
nothing too out there i don't think i'll be
doing a video cast for a while unless i get some
interesting people in good circumstances well peace
out
cut um there's 228 pages 113 artists from 37 countries
in 192 pages okay that was pretty bad yeah start over joe
come and cut or demo so
okay joe you can cut yes okay okay joe cut okay next book
we have is elemental zoo it's like a
expose book except it's just discrete or autodesk um
artwork made with those programs like 3d max
infernal combustion etc it also has no 2d since autodesk
doesn't make much 3d programs but so it's
full of 3d um another thing it has a lot architectural work
but i mean a lot it's a
It's a little bit too much for my taste, but I'm not diss
ing architectural work.
There's like 80 pages of architectural work.
That's like a third of the book.
It's nice, but too much is too much.
But other than that, it has a lot of cool stuff.
Like these are better, like, but the buildings and stuff.
Oh, God, I have to start over.
Okay, Joey, can you cut?
Okay.
Hey
Come and talk to me
Fish?
Hello, Sammy
Here, what do you know?
See my friend
See you Thursday
Okay
Thursday
Thursday, don't get
Quite busy
No
What the heck are you doing this for?
The video show, not that horse
I have to edit that
Here, I've got the hecker
Bye.
I don't care what you do
I'm out
Bye.
