In this tutorial we will learn how to create an animated robotic title sequence. Throughout these lessons we will use a combination of Maya, After Effects and Photoshop to do everything from the modeling, animating, texturing, lighting and rendering of an animated title sequence.

There are so many great tutorials in this month’s magazine that it is hard to know where to start the editorial, but we will begin by turning our attention to the stunning cover image by Carlos Cabrera. I hope that you are enjoying watching how two artists tackle the same brief. It is fascinating to see how some features are similar and other are totally different, and in this magazine we see more of the different than the similar. Simon Dominic and Carlos Cabrera look at the creepy creature called a hidebehind in this issue and cover design, compositional and painting techniques as they talk us through the creation of their brilliant images.

Listen up, designers, and wipe those grins off your faces! It’s time to get serious about your design work. For too long you’ve allowed yourself to go soft, relying on your software to do all of your creative work for you. This book will NOT show you how to use every tool and feature in Adobe Illustrator. This book WILL, however, teach you the importance of drawing out your ideas, analyzing the shapes, and then methodically building them precisely in vector form using the methods covered in this book.