Digital Production
The Gnomon Workshop offers the most comprehensive set of Digital Production tutorials anywhere. The broad scope of the tutorials contained in this section range from foundational understanding of the software tools all the way to the professional application of these tools and concepts used by artists working in the film and game industries.
Entertainment Design
The Gnomon Workshop is widely regarded as the global leader in training tutorials for the designer working in the entertainment industry. With tutorials ranging from foundational drawing and design concepts to process tutorials from some of the top concept and character designers in the world, there is surely something here to inspire.
Tattooing
As the tattoo industry has seen an explosion in popularity over the last few years, the need training in this field has also grown. In these video tutorials, some of the top tattoo artists in the world share their techniques and their take on the art of tattoo. The tutorials range from absolute beginner level to advanced color and blending techniques used by some of the world's best.
Software
The Gnomon Workshop offers professional training on most of the software applications used in today's digital pipelines. There are foundational titles to introduce users to the software and tools, as well as advanced production titles that discuss application tools and processes vital to the production of digital assets and media.
Professional Training for Artists
The Gnomon Workshop seeks out the most highly-regarded traditional and digital artists and technicians currently working in the entertainment and design industries. Our instructors have shared their practices working at such top studios as Pixar, ILM, Blizzard, and many more.
Instructor GalleriesInstructor InterviewsA quality character rig is a must for any successful animation production. The rig must be stable, and have the controls and flexibility needed for an animator to tell their story. In addition the rigger must be able to make changes quickly. In this set of lectures, Axel will effectively demystify the "art" of character rigging as well as provide a production-like set of scripted tools to work with. Using the provided scripted tools, Axel demonstrates the benefits of a multi-pose approach to skeleton setup. The separation of deformation and control hierarchies is also used and in conjunction with the pose system, provides the flexibility to easily go back to the bind pose and make changes. Through the process, he details the importance of keeping joint chains planar as well as keeping the joint rotations zeroed out, while showing you how to achieve this through a number of production tricks. Once the joints are all properly mapped, he then moves on to creating the control rig for the character. The next phase involves setting up controls like stretchy IK for the spine, IK and FK with blending for arms and legs, and foot/reverse foot controls. Once the controls are created, Axel wraps things up by generating curve controls for the animators to quickly grab and work with.
Duration: 455 minutes
Format: SD 1024x768
Axel Stanley-Grossman is currently a Lead Technical Artist at Sony Computer Entertainment Santa Monica, working on an unannounced title. In his role as a character tech artist, Axel writes tools to automate rigging processes, assists animators and prototypes new techniques. His latest work can be seen in God of War, the latest title in one of gaming's most beloved franchises. Axel formerly served as Senior Character TD at Insomniac Games, where he contributed to the success of multiple PlayStation 3 titles, including Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time and both Resistance 2 and Resistance 3. He graduated from the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in 2006, and holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. In addition to being an alumnus of Gnomon, Axel has also taught and contributed education related materials for the school.
Axel is a brilliant technical animator whose impressive rigging techniques, scripting skills, and problem solving abilities provide our team with the cutting edge tools necessary to continue to push the boundaries of animation in the gaming industry.
Axel is one the best riggers I've had the pleasure to work with. The work he has done at Insomniac to automate technical art tasks is inspiring and demonstrates a mastery of his craft.