I recently had a chance to meet with character designer and self-proclaimed “idea boy” Cameron Davis at his mansion home in Studio City, CA. It played like this: I arrive at 3pm. A genuine French Maid invites me into his backyard where I interrupt him hot tubbing with (apparently) the performers of a Cirque du Soleil show. After toweling off and handing me a “breakfast mimosa,” we sit in lounge chairs in the shade of a massive avocado tree….
Read the interview with Cameron Davis by Travis Bourbeau
This week The Gnomon Workshop releases a new rendering DVD for 3ds Max and mental ray. Titled Look Development with mental ray, this new tutorial introduces instructor Alessandro Cangelosi, who has extensive teaching experience and technical expertise for achieving a photorealistic look with mental ray. Using Autodesk 3ds Max, Combustion and Composite (aka Toxik), he covers lighting strategies for a cinematic architectural interior, efficient scene management, procedural natural environments, shading pipeline and mental ray features, live integration, production shaders, scripting and much more.
“Alessandro has a proven track record and deep understanding of creating shaders that reproduce natural phenomena – like sand, ice, water surfaces, and lava. These are technical achievments, but Alessandro has a passion for cinematography, composition, lighting, and color. Having a solid foundation in these areas will always create better work – when artistic prowess meets technological understanding and not the other way around. Alessandro has helped us immensely on difficult effects shots, and we were able to trust his judgement on how a shot should be lit and composed. He always concentrates on the importance of a shot, its form and subject, before dealing with all the technology that goes into producing the end result. Alessandro’s careful observations and strong technical skills have made it a pleasure working with him.”
Matt Moses
Lighting Director, Renkewitz Studios
Read the Press Release
This title is available as digital download and is also featured in our training subscription plans.
Look Development with mental ray 3ds Max Techniques with Alessandro Cangelosi
This week, The Gnomon Workshop expands its training for the Unreal® Development Kit to include a comprehensive tutorial on Materials. Waylon Brinck delivers an excellent lecture that explains the tools and processes for creating Materials, while covering advanced features along the way. Topics include: basic material setup, tuning controls, organization, emissive materials, working with channels, material instances, vectors, performance and optimization, and much more. As noted with the release of the Intro to the Unreal® Development Kit Editor DVD, Waylon’s extensive experience teaching Unreal at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects and at various workshops, is reflected in his thorough and methodical breakdown. Visit the website for more details and to purchase this tutorial on DVD, as a digital download, or access the tutorials immediately by joining our online subscription.
“One of the most unique and talented individuals in the games industry; Waylon embodies talent that crosses a very rare gap of art and engineer. His methodical approach to problem solving has made him a valuable sounding board to everyone on our team. He has grown a lot in his time at EA, from Background Artist to CG Supervisor – the rapid progression illustrates that he is not only a valid member of the team, but also a mentor, an example of quality, a partner, a leader, and someone who our team cannot do without.”
Lance Powell
Art Director, Medal of Honor
Read the Press Release: click here
This title is available as digital download and is also featured in our training subscription plans.
Unreal Development Kit: Materials An Introduction with Waylon Brinck
My name is Josh Herman and I recently graduated from Gnomon in December. As a kid, I drew a lot and liked to create my own games, typically board games. I would steal the printer paper with those perforated edges from my dad’s printer and lay it out on the ground and make a life size board. Even though I probably ruined tons of paper and made a mess of the rooms, my family was always very supportive and would usually play with me…
Read the interview with Josh Herman
This week, The Gnomon Workshop announces the release of a new creature design DVD by concept artist Neville Page. Through his experience on such films as Avatar, Star Trek and Cloverfield, to name a few, Neville has developed a variety of approaches for creature and character development. In this lecture, initially created for a Master Class series at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Neville explains and demonstrates an approach for developing character concepts through a process of fostering “happy accidents”. He shows how to apply his technique for working loosely and “finding an image within”, using Photoshop and ZBrush and resulting in a sculpted ZBrush sketch.
“If a brand new form of life was discovered on Earth, and only one artist could illuminate the masses, it would be Neville Page.”
Rick O’Brien
The Monument Project
Read the Press Release: click here
This title is available as digital download and is also featured in our training subscription plans.
Creative Character Design Techniques with Neville Page
