Hey all,
I thought I would post a little mini review of Scott Robertson’s latest DVD series – How To Render Matte Surfaces. I got the three DVD set delivered on Friday and finished watching this afternoon. Scott is not only a skilled artist but is a born teacher, which is something that is rare. He clearly explains his ideas and each topic is used as a building block as the lectures play out.
The production quality of the DVDs are very high. One of the best things of the series are the videos of cubes, cones and spheres being lit to show the concepts being discussed. This could have been done with 3D but I appreciate the effort that was made to show these phenomenon happening in real life. You may think you know how a cone would look like being lit from the side but it’s really interesting to see these things replicated.
Scott uses PrismaColor markers, pencils and chalk to render these surfaces and has included the sketches and line art on the discs so you can easily print out a copy and try these things for yourself. I have to admit, I’ve never used chalk before and was amazed that you can get some realistic results very fast. And it’s a lot of fun too (take a look below for my renders of Scott’s line art).
The topics covered were very informative and will be applied to all artwork I create from now on. They can be easily recommended for beginners and for advanced artists as well. I knew a little about core shadows but they were covered very in depth on the second volume. Also the price point makes it very affordable. Each titles costs $39 US which is the cheapest Gnomon sells their titles for and I consider this a great bargain for the amount of information you’re given. Highly recommended.
–Roger
