Wednesday, January 14, 2009

First Experiences at Gnomon.




Sorry for the long lapse in posts, we haven't really done anything noteworthy, until now. Monday, classes began at Gnomon. To answer Elliott's and Matt's question before either of them even asks, we are taking;

Matt:
-Lighting and Rendering 1
-Character Creation for Games
-Creating 2D Textures for 3D Art
-Anatomy in Zbrush (5 weeks)
-Texturing in Zbrush (5 weeks, after Anatomy)

James:
-Texture Mapping 1
-Character Creation for Games
-Polygon Modeling 1
-Intro to Zbrush

Josh:
-Dynamic Effects 1
-Character Animation 1
-Compositing with Shake
-Character Kinematics

So far Josh has had his first Dynamics class (for the Moms, dynamics in terms of 3D, is creating things like smoke, rain, water, stars, fire, explosions, etc for use in 3D scenes). Apparently he already has a great deal of work, creating a Nebula simulation or something of that sort.

James' Texture Mapping (creating the textures that are placed on models of environments, characters, objects, etc) class was unfortunately canceled on the first day, the teacher got caught up meeting a deadline at the Studio he is employed at. Par for the course I assume. If we want education from working professionals, we have to be understanding of their more important commitments.

I had my first Lighting and Rendering (In Momish: This is essentially the process of making a 3D scene look as though it is real, accomplished through adding realistic lights and shadows, fog effects, and then rendering out the scene through a render engine, which, in a sense, takes all the aspects of the scene such as environments, characters, lights, textures, and animations, into a viewable movie....more or less) class yesterday. It is taught by the lead lighter at Rhythm and Hues. He recently finished working on the film "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". Regardless of how good the movie was, the visual effect warranted a Oscar nomination. So needless to say, this guy means business. Luckily for myself, much of the understanding of how light works is very similar to same concepts used in photography.

The campus of Gnomon is a wonderful places, with a very similar feeling to the interior of the Art Dept. at Springfield. It is an incredibly creative environment, with comfortable lounge areas, and very advanced computer labs. Many of the computes are set up with 30" monitors! Goodie.

So that's basically the gist of recent events. I will keep you posted as we complete projects and experience new classes, posting stills and videos of our work.

Thanks for reading!

For more details on our classes, see the course descriptions here:
Gnomon School of Visual Effects Course Descriptions


Ive included a few images of Gnomons "campus".





9 comments:

fluxist8070 said...

Thanks for the update!
Not much going on over here.
I signed up for the action here contest on zBrush.com.
Tell James that he looks quite stylish and at home in the Gnomon lab. Maybe we could get some of those stand up arcade games for VAPA. (wishful thinking.)
I am proud of you guys for taking on this challenge. You will come out better for it!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for letting me know what you are taking! I just about to ask....
I like the "momish" subtitles-
how about the "ruthish" this would be fur on pugs- pugs drooling elc...
It sounds like it is going well!

The Sickels said...

Matt,
Thanks for the "momish" info. It is all rather Greek to me, but my creative side does grasp quite a lot of it and your descriptions help.
Sounds like a great atmosphere, full of creativity.
I can't wait to come out in Feb.
Dad, Orion and I are so proud of you!
Take care, work hard, be safe and have fun. mom

The Masses said...

Hi Josh and Matt & James, sounds like your classes will be keeping you very busy. You will all bring back a wealth of knowledge to SC.
Hope all is well, love the pics!
It is below zero here in Maine. Josh, we are bringing Justin back to QU tomorrow. He likes the tee shirt. love, Mom & Dad

J. Masse said...

yeah classes are keeping us busy, but fortunately I still find time to lounge by the pool :)

Matthew R. Dale said...

I had my first ZBrush Anatomy class with Ryan. The man is amazing. We only covered base meshes and gesture/proportions, but the way he explains things, and he expertise....

Oh, and Matt,I was looking over James Intro to ZBrush syllabus, and combined with mine from my 2 ZBrush classes, we will have a lot of material for you to get some ideas for the ZBrush class you were thinking about. Same goes for my lighting & rendering class.

fluxist8070 said...

Thanks for thinking about the 3D recon, guys. I am interested in the material and how I can use that to make SC classes better! BTW, check out my character for the action hero contest.

"http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=66620"
From what I gathered from hearing Ryan Kingslien's tuts and interviews is that he seems like a really gracious and nice guy. It sounds like you are enjoying the classes! Keep it up!

Matthew R. Dale said...

Matt- The character looks awesome! I have my 2D Textures for 3D Art, and Characters for Games Classes today.


Ryan is a really nice guy, its a pleasure learning from him.

fluxist8070 said...

thanks, and NICE!
I can't wait to see some of your projects.