There's an interesting-sounding, relatively new
Photoshop book on the market--CS2 for Advertising and Marketing:
Secrets from an Entertainment Advertising Insider by Daniel Sorenson. I haven't had a chance to review the book,
but I can recommend an online, three-part tutorial by Sorenson on creating a 3D illustration in Photoshop.Although Photoshop doesn't offer the features you'll find in a real 3D program, Sorenson shows you how to use Photoshop to simulate a 3D scene. He achieves convincing results using Shape layers, layer styles, patterns, gradients, and brush work. I find that tutorials like this one, that pull together multiple Photoshop features and techniques to create an entire image, are valuable learning tools. It will be worth your while to walk through the steps of creating this scene with Sorenson. You'll find all three parts of this tutorial at the Layers Magazine web site.
