Photoshop: Secrets of the Pros is a book that features one-on-one
competitions between twenty top artists and designers. Designers
include some of the most talented web, print, broadcast, 3D designers
in the world. This friendly competition was called the Photoshop Tennis.
Sounds
like another tiring outdoor game? It’s not an outdoor game and it’s not
tiring. Well, it may be tiring in a way but not, at least, for those
skilled designers.
The
Photoshop Tennis was invented by Jim Coudal, founder of Coudal
Partners, a Chicago advertising and design agency, one summer before
the September 11 terrorist attack. He and a friend “whacked” a file
back and forth to kill time. Then he invited designers he knew to play
in official matches.
Photoshop
Tennis is an on-line game in which players are mostly web designers.
The object of the game is to add one layer of design on an image
document that is sent back and forth by two players. Only one image
document is used. Players are allowed to put different layers of
designs such as background and foreground. Results are posted on a
website in real time. The game ends whenever the players decide to end
it or if it takes hours the decision will be based on the number of
votes.
After the four test
matches and four official matches were completed, designers from ad
agencies and design shops visited his site. Some of them contacted
Coudal for a chance to play in a match.
The
book PhotoShop: Secrets of the Pros is all about this type of
competition. It is the first book to feature such game. As explained by
the author of the site http://photoshop.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=22104, in Photoshop Tennis in this book, two designers take on one another over the internet over a ten round or volley period. In
each volley, the designer either creates a new theme (in the initial
volley), or they take what has been sent to him or her and start
playing off of what was previously created. The competition results to
a different appearance each time out. Programs used in this competition
range from Illustrator and Freehand to Flash to 3D Studio Max and Maya.
The designers used the basic tools and the basic commands like,
brushes, and fills instead of shortcuts.
The
book is not about web designing, it is about the 10 different
competitions played by 20 professional designers. It is about teamwork
and adaptation of different styles from their competitors.
One
thing that is frustrating about this game is that sometimes it takes
hours for a player to finish his work while keeping the other player
waiting and it will only take minutes for the other player to destroy
the art work. You can tell a story out of it but most of the time
players tend to make his own story. Next thing you’ll notice is that
the story of the image focuses on the destruction of the flow of two
different stories.
