I just finished this book yesterday. I had to purchase this book for a photoshop class i took last semester, the book wasn't related to the assignments it was more of a thing we could get and gain some extra insight from. However i never really read it until this last month and I really enjoyed the way you can gain the knowledge from the artists doing the drawings. The explanations aren't minutely specific, It more goes over the general practices the artist uses in photoshop. Although you will want some photoshop know how, because it won't always tell you how to do something, but more of that they are in fact doing something. Then the knowledge about how to do that thing is more up to you. Its hard to explain but here let me give an example. If i was doing one of the chapters I might go about how i set up some masks for a mountain range in the background. I won't say how to create a mask or what they do because I'm assuming the reader knows what a mask is in photoshop and if they don't than maybe this book is a few steps away than their readiness level. Overall I recommend the book it had some good art and I'm currently deciding which 3d total book i want to get next. I also have no idea how qucikly the info goes out of date because I'm using CS6 and it all still applies but I can't speak for volume 1 and 2 as I havent read them. But then again this one is from 2011 and its 2015 and its still good if you ask me.