Hollywood, Calif. - The Gnomon Workshop, offering professional training for artists in the entertainment and design field, announced its first release of training DVDs for 2010. Launched as a means to share professional techniques with artists who cannot attend the hands-on courses offered at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, the Gnomon Workshop has grown over the past nine years to offer extensive training DVDs by more than 90 professional instructors.
The four new DVD sets include
The Making of White Swan by Sil Van Der Woerd,
Designing and Rendering Fantasy Characters by Wayne Barlowe, Jeremy Cook's
CG Survival Kit, and new addition to John Brown's sculpture series,
Sculpting Expression and Fantasy Characters.
The Gnomon Workshop is a hub for many studios, libraries, schools, and industry-leading artists to come together to help train and learn from peers. As demand for VFX artists increases and the art form matures, continuing education is an important foundation for this expanding industry. Project demands change from week to week, often requiring skills that an artist has yet to research or develop. Gnomon Workshop's DVD library comprises over 200 DVDs that provide techniques that have taken instructors years to master, and the ability to simply select a DVD and learn proven production techniques gives any artist an invaluable edge.
The Making of White Swan
A new 3 disc set by Sil van der Woerd that breaks down the entire production process for the music video "White Swan," winner of "Best Music Video" at HDfest. Sil collaborated with students from the Gnomon School of Visual Effects for all of the effects, and together they cover their particular responsibilities for the production. Each disc explores a particular phase in the production's pipeline from concept to final compositing. This comprehensive title is over 17 hours of lecture and 3 hours of bonus material including a round table discussion and video of the world premiere event at Gnomon.
Designing and Rendering Fantasy Characters in Pencil
Wayne Barlowe's lecture is a visual treat that reveals Wayne's process for designing creatures and rendering in pencil. He begins with a presentation of his artwork and then guides the viewer through a step-by-step process for executing a typical character design for feature film. Wayne is an award-winning illustrator whose credits include "Avatar," several "Harry Potter" films, "The Hobbit," and "Hellboy." He's written and illustrated many amazing books on extraterrestrial life and Hell. Wayne has also designed creature for many films including the recently released "Avatar" for which he was credited for Initial Creature Concepts.
CG Survival Kit: From Concept to Final Image
Jeremy Cook's DVD is filled with great tips for CG artists with a focus on working efficiently and holistically. The lecture covers a range of topics from layout, modeling and rendering in 3ds Max to compositing a still in Photoshop. Jeremy brings to his DVD all of his experience working on "Transformers," "Star Wars Episode 3" and "Mission Impossible 3" as well as many TV commercials and game cinematics.
Sculpting Expression and Fantasy Characters
This 2 disc set covers an array of topics and techniques including sculpting a quarter-scale male bust, sculpting expression, molding and casting, sculpting details and digital painting in Photoshop. With over forty film and television projects, John Brown's credits include "Alien Resurrection," "Jumanji," "X-Files," "Mars Attacks," "Planet of the Apes" and a host of others. In addition to John's long list of feature film credits and extensive experience as a bronze figurative artist, John's finely tuned teaching style reflects his over ten years of teaching figurative sculpture at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, and seven DVDs for The Gnomon Workshop.