Students are tutored in job hunting, what skills are needed for different positions, how to network and how to make pitches. Above, a work by student Miguel Ortega.

The classes include not only digital skills such as character animation and set building, but a large block of analog courses, in skills such as figure drawing, character sculpture, writing, and even hand drawing of animation cels. The students also learn acting, an especially important skill needed for the new generations of videogames, where resolutions are now so high that detailed emotional expressions of bodies and faces are necessary, something that the creators of first-generation games never had to worry about.

The students are also tutored in “Career Realities,” in job hunting, what skills are needed for different positions, how to network, and how to make pitches. As in all things at this school, the emphasis is very real-world, on how to actually get jobs and get projects produced, rather than on ars gratia artis, learning theories of art for their own sake without any real application. One important aspect of learning here — and one that could not come from any textbook — is the practical knowledge of production, of meeting deadlines, that the 40-50 teachers here impart, by telling it “how it is” directly from their experience of working in the industry.

“What really makes us different from other schools is the instructors, because they are all working professionals who teach the skills they use on a daily basis,” Hogarth noted. The results of the Certificate Program here are startling — 88% of students who complete it get placement as digital artists, according to the school, a phenomenal success rate. I had personal evidence of this during my tour, which was interrupted by a call from a major videogame company, whose director phoned to thank Gnomon for the graduates they had recently sent him — and asked whether the school had any more just like them.

The third way to attend classes is via Fast Track, intensive nine-week classes in specialized subjects such as the Maya toolset that meet Mondays to Fridays. from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and include some 270 hours of class time.

In addition to providing classes, Gnomon clearly cares about the industry; for example, it provides meeting places for regular gatherings of major animation congregations such as the User Groups of Side Effects (Houdini), Pixelogic, Maya and RenderMan (Pixar), where students can mix with these professional communities and learn the latest in hot technical and production issues and network to their hearts’ content. The school supports these meetings free of charge. Gnomon is lucky in having available a number of large meeting and presentation spaces, including a huge sound stage, a remnant of the time when the school’s buildings were all part of Technicolor Studios.

Gnomon’s student body takes full advantage of opportunities to learn from the school’s well-placed alumni, as well as other industry professionals. Above, pioneering scientist/filmmaker Paul Debevec, speaks to a full house.

Gnomon also encourages student projects as a means of evolving collaboration and production skills; recent productions included show bumpers and a tribute to John Lasseter. The results speak for themselves — the list of studios and projects employing the alumni of the school looks like a who’s who of animation and visual effects, and includes Digital Domain, EA, Weta, Double Negative, Film Roman, Zoic Studios, Sony Interactive, and Rhythm & Hues, to mention only a few. A perhaps underappreciated advantage of a production-oriented school such as Gnomon is the ability that its students have to network with this universe of alumni, as well as with the instructors and a large advisory board that consists of senior managers from the industry.

I spoke with one of the students, named Matthew, at the school and asked him about his experience. “This place is a real good investment of time and money,” he said. “I’ve taken fine arts classes at other schools and enjoyed them, but it sure is nice getting a paycheck. Also, other schools often have books and materials that are totally out of date, whereas everything here is being used right now.”

Gnomon is an accredited vocational school, which means that students can get loans and other government support. In addition to its F2F (Face to Face) classes, the school also has online classes and a large set of instructional DVDs on almost any conceivable topic related to visual effects production. The panoply of online and DVD offerings can be accessed via its website, www.gnomon3d.com.

Christopher Harz is an executive consultant for new media. He has produced videogames for films such as Spawn, The Fifth Element, Titanic and Lost in Space. As Perceptronics svp of program development, Harz helped build the first massively multiplayer online game worlds, including the $240 million 3-D SIMNET. He worked on C3I, combat robots and war gaming at the RAND Corp., the military think tank.