Search form

Gnomon Workshop Offers Three New Training DVDs

The Gnomon Workshop is offering three new spring training DVDs. Kevin Hudson brings a modeling title, Robert Coddington offers a character animation title and Dustin Brown introduces The Gnomon Workshop's first StudioTools DVD.

Hudson, modeling supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, presents his second title for The Gnomon Workshop. In this overview of modeling cars for a polygon/sub division surface pipeline, he applies his modeling techniques to different car models, showing you how to build a model, create surface details and prepare the model for texturing.

Coddington is a lead animator at Electronic Arts in Los Angeles. His title CHARACTER ANIMATION FOR GAMES gives you a step-by-step view of Maya's animation tools, demonstrating simple loops, transitions and creating a run cycle, all of which you can practice with the included character rig.

Brown, currently a senior industrial designer with Ignition Inc., leads design efforts, on numerous projects, primarily consumer electronics and business products. Brown's StudioTools title covers lighting and shading for product design. Brown demystifies the internal workings of this powerful application, covering critical settings, and presenting his approach to planning, lighting and creating shaders.

Producer Eric Hanson noted, "In this release, The Gnomon Workshop again delivers titles valuable to those in the 3D field. "Sony Imageworks' Kevin Hudson continues his modeling series by showing tips and tricks of automotive modeling, while EA animation supervisor Robert Coddington offers a rich introduction to the nuances of character animation for gaming. Lastly, adept industrial designer Dustin Brown offers an unprecedented title on rendering with the Alias StudioTools package, while still having great value to those using Maya. We will continue to provide premiere content found nowhere else."

DVD Description:

* AUTOMOTIVE MODELING TECHNIQUESPOLYGON MODELING WITH KEVIN HUDSONReferencing two different car models, Hudson demonstrates his methods for approaching each models construction. He covers using orthographics and scale models, roughing in the car body, refining individual panels, creating surface details, building complex wheel rims and preparing the model for texturing. He concludes by examining the application of his techniques to different car models.

* CHARACTER ANIMATION FOR GAMESANIMATION TECHNIQUES WITH ROBERT CODDINGTONThis lecture is an introduction to character animation as it relates to videogames and interactive media. Coddington takes you step-by-step through the basics of Maya, its animation tools, the graph editor and dynamic character posing. He guides you through the animation of simple, yet expressive game-style assets, demonstrating simple loops and transitions and creating a run cycle. As an added bonus, this DVD also includes a professional quality character rig so you can follow along and get started animating in Maya right away.

* PRODUCT DESIGN RENDERING ESSENTIALSLIGHTING AND SHADING IN STUDIOTOOLS WITH DUSTIN BROWNStudioTools is a workhorse application for many industrial designers, but much of its functionality is buried within complex option windows and cryptically named settings. In this DVD, Brown covers not only critical settings within the software, but also presents his unique approach to planning, lighting and shader creation. He concludes with a comprehensive rendering demo in which he shows this approach in action and discusses, among many other things, such difficult topics as depth of field, chrome and clearcoat paint finishes.

Since 2000, The Gnomon Workshop (www.thegnomonworkshop.com) has provided artists and students with the educational resources they need to succeed as artists in the entertainment industries. Whether they're interested in design, modeling, vfx, animation, storytelling or matte painting, these DVDs provide a valuable educational resource for students around the world. The Gnomon Workshop is the sister company of The Gnomon School of Visual Effects, which provides professional caliber visual effects instruction to students and professionals in Los Angeles.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.

Tags