$30

Volume Two covers character texturing and shading using Photoshop¬, ZBrush, Bodypaint and Maya, as well as environment creation, lighting and the final composite of the print-res image in Photoshop¬. Jester's 2D line- drawing design does not specify material properties, therefore Alex explores different looks for the various components, settling on weathered leather, metal, cloth and skin. By layering, color correcting and painting over photographic textures, Alex arrives at a photoreal result where each component has its own custom color, bump and specular map. With the character complete, the environment is then designed and created on the fly using Maya and Photoshop¬ for some quick paint- overs to guide the direction. Throughout the making of Jester, Alex shares and explains every step of the process, both technical and aesthetic, making this an invaluable resource for both students and professionals.

The Gnomon Workshop - Character Texturing and Rendering: The Making of Jester, Volume Two (Alex Alvarez)

$30

$30

Starting with a photographic backplate and 3D model, Brendan McCaffrey presents an in-depth look at an automotive illustration project step-by-step from wire-frame to finished product, using Maya, Mental Ray and Photoshop®. In phase one, Brendan covers the initial brief, 3D setup and rendering. He then moves on to the view setup, matching the camera, and preparing the model and textures as they relate to high resolution work: shaders for paint, glass, metal and rubber. Brendan proceeds with the environment and lighting setup and on to the final renders of all the required layers and passes. In phase two, he assembles and corrects the render layers and passes in Photoshop®. Brendan then moves on to blending the image into a cohesive whole using non-destructive color correction and adjustment. Finally, he demonstrates how to apply effects and finishing touches. This DVD comes with the project's Photoshop files.

The Gnomon Workshop - High Resolution 3D Vehicle Illustration: 3D Rendering and Compositing (Brendan McCaffrey)

$30

$30

In this DVD, character rigger Carlo Sansonetti demonstrates the rigging process from research to completion. Carlo covers creating the skeleton and rigging the spine, arms, hands, legs, head and neck. He discusses the core concepts of rigging, including joint orientation and understanding rotation order, as well as some more advanced techniques like stretchy limbs, forearm twist without volume loss, and connecting attributes with Hypershade. This DVD is for students who are new to rigging as well as for professional riggers who are looking for different approaches to rigging their characters.

The Gnomon Workshop - Character Rigging: The Puppet Rig - Maya Rigging Techniques (Carlo Sansonetti)

$30

$30

This series introduces the essential techniques for creating digital sets and backgrounds, an area of visual effects growing in prominence. In this first disc of a series of three, visual effects designer Eric Hanson reviews architectural design principles then leads into setting up a scene with a tracked camera and live-action plate. Next, Eric illustrates efficient set modeling techniques using both NURBS and polygons. Finally, the lesson provides a broad review of camerawork, from motion control to camera projection. Throughout the disc, Eric uses a sample scene of an urban environment to highlight all essential steps. The lecture is designed for all advancing intermediate Maya artists.

The Gnomon Workshop - Digital Sets 1: Design, Modeling and Camera - Urban Environments (Eric Hanson)

$30

$30

This series introduces the essential techniques for creating digital sets and backgrounds, an area of visual effects growing in prominence. In this second disc of a series of three, visual effects designer Eric Hanson covers the global illumination revolution, reviewing lighting principles specific to digital sets. He then leads into direct lighting techniques for both exteriors and interiors. Finally, the lesson highlights digital set texturing, including Adobe Photoshop techniques, and how to weather surfaces with procedural shaders. Throughout the disc, Eric uses a sample scene of an urban environment to highlight all essential steps. This series is designed for all advancing intermediate Maya artists.

The Gnomon Workshop - Digital Sets 2: Lighting and Texturing - Urban Environments (Eric Hanson)

$30

$30

This series introduces the essential techniques for creating digital sets and backgrounds, an area of visual effects growing in prominence. In this third disc of a series of three, visual effects designer Eric Hanson begins with rendering a Maya scene into layers and passes, then leads into the various approaches for professionally compositing and integrating a digital set into a live-action background. He examines the main composite tree in Shake, illustrating the use of the various render passes including diffuse, specular, reflection, shadow, z-depth, effects and ambient occlusion. Throughout the disc, Eric uses a sample scene of an urban environment to highlight all essential steps. This series is designed for all advancing intermediate Maya artists.

The Gnomon Workshop - Digital Sets 3: Rendering and Compositing - Urban Environments (Eric Hanson)

$30

$30

In this continuation of the Digital Sets series, visual effects designer Eric Hanson illustrates a unique and powerful method to capture and re-create natural landscapes within a 3D environment. Integrating disparate technologies such as spherical panoramic photography, digital elevation models, high-dynamic range imagery, and global positioning, Eric is able to provide a reasonable substitute to nodal pan motion picture shooting, with the added ability to modify and enhance the landscape with the rich array of 3D techniques available within Maya. Various case studies are shown and provided on the DVD for the viewer to use in their own projects.

The Gnomon Workshop - Digital Sets 4: 3D Image-Based Terrain - Combining Spherical Imagery and DEMs (Eric Hanson)

$30

$30

This DVD plunges into the basics of Maya's Paint Effects. Ethan Summers gives you a feature-by-feature examination of this powerful package, teaching you to control the density of your polygon mesh, to manage your pressure and control curves and to establish an effective workflow process. Ethan will explain various types of animation and illustrate basic ways Paint Effects can connect to dynamics within Maya.

The Gnomon Workshop - Paint Effects 101 - Fundamental Technicues (Ethan Summers)

$30

$30

This DVD illuminates the particulars of getting the most out of Maya's Paint Effects. In the second of a series, Ethan Summers teaches you to tune your brushes, optimize large-scale scenes, use Paint Effects objects as particle emitters, and create wind deformations. You'll also learn to correct such frequently occurring errors as blown-out lighting and bad shadows. Finally, Ethan shows you how to integrate Paint Effects with Pixologic ZBrush and Maya's Dynamics.

The Gnomon Workshop - Paint Effects: Polygons and Dynamics - Advanced Technicues (Ethan Summers)

$30

$30

In the second DVD of this image modeling series, Greg Downing delves into more advanced photogrammetry techniques. This lesson teaches you how to perform image-based modeling and texturing within Maya using cameras calibrated for Realviz ImageModeler. Greg shows you how using panoramas for photogrammetry allows you to construct a location with a minimal number of images. He then illustrates how to calibrate those panoramas in Realviz ImageModeler for image-based modeling and texturing within Maya. This DVD assumes a basic familiarity with polygonal modeling, and though the examples are demonstrated within Maya, the workflow is applicable to any 3D package.

The Gnomon Workshop - Image Based Modeling Advanced: 3D Modeling from Panoramas (Greg Downing)

$30

$30

This DVD takes you through the artistic and technical process of sculpting a human head from a polygonal cube. In this DVD, Kevin Hudson shows why character modelers are moving away from Nurbs modeling and toward Polygon/Subdivision surface modeling, which allows more freedom to localize detail and work with texture. Follow along as Kevin considers and sculpts the various features of the face - nose, mouth, eyelids and ears - as he transforms this simple structure into something as complex as the human head.

The Gnomon Workshop - Modeling the Human Head: Polygon Modeling Technicues (Kevin Hudson)

$30

$30

In this DVD, Kevin Hudson presents an overview of various issues and techniques related to modeling cars for a polygon/sub-d surface pipeline. Referencing two different cars models, Kevin demonstrates his methods for approaching each model's 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. Kevin concludes by examining the application of his techniques to different car models.

The Gnomon Workshop - Automotive Modeling Techniques: Polygon Modeling (Kevin Hudson)

$30

$30

In this two-disc set on MEL, Kevin Mannens introduces the rich possibilities of Maya's Embedded Language. With over ten hours of lecture, Kevin creates a well-structured foundation for Maya's scripting language. Through an in-depth look at what goes on under Maya's hood, he leads you to a firm understanding of commands, syntax and procedures. Based on real-life production examples of MEL scripts, the second disc of this set delves right into advanced scripting methods. By carefully dissecting every line of code in an existing script, you will learn about each command, Kevin's scripting workflows, tricks and common pitfalls.

The Gnomon Workshop - MEL 101 Fundamentals: MEL Programming Techniques (Kevin Mannens)

$30

$30

In "MEL for Character Animators", Kevin Mannens develops a wide variety of scripting techniques designed to speed up your character animation workflow and make your pipeline more efficient. He explains all scripts in an in-depth and step-by-step manner, aimed at making advanced users more productive in their day-to-day tasks. With this DVD, technically oriented animators will become proficient in developing project specific tools that will shave days off each production.

The Gnomon Workshop - MEL for Character Animators: MEL Programming Techniques (Kevin Mannens)

$30

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In "MEL For Effects Artists", effects technical director Kevin Mannens offers an in-depth and hands-on dissertation on how to streamline and perfect your effects pipeline. This lecture demonstrates how to speed up your cloth workflow based on your production needs, streamline rigid body dynamics, workaround particle limitations, add functionality to Maya'’s hair engine, and make your code more dynamic and productive in a harsh production environment.

The Gnomon Workshop - MEL for Effects Artists: MEL Programming Techniques (Kevin Mannens)

$30

$30

3D game artists are faced with certain restrictions when creating models for use in real-time. Game hardware, art direction and development time all have an impact. It is the challenge of the 3D artist to make interesting and visually believable characters while dealing with these restrictions. This DVD covers the creation of a low polygon model of a head for a game environment. Topics such as polygon component modeling, poly count, scripts and facial anatomy are discussed.

The Gnomon Workshop - Head Modeling for Games: Low Poly Modeling (Mayan Escalante)

$30

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Creating characters for games presents many challenges for the 3D artist. Issues such as poly count, flexibility of the rig, art direction, and the game environment itself will dictate the final look of the character. In this DVD, Mayan continues from the head model and design used in "Head Modeling for Games", demonstrating the tools and techniques used to create low polygon characters. Topics such as working from a concept design, poly count, scripts, props and topology are discussed.

The Gnomon Workshop - Body Modeling for Games: Low Poly Modeling (Mayan Escalante)

$30

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UV layout is one of the most important skills of the game modeler. Unlike high poly modeling, game UVs are given limited texture space. It is important to use that space in the most efficient manner, while minimizing seams and distortion. How you project and arrange your UVs can greatly impact the look of the model and the time it takes to paint your textures. This lecture will cover the tools and techniques necessary to create efficient UV maps.

The Gnomon Workshop - UV Mapping for Games: Low Poly UV Layout (Mayan Escalante)

$30

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In this two-disc set, Mark Lefitz creates a fully realized 3D model from an original concept painting by Feng Zhu. He discusses the analysis and setup of the shot, and demonstrates his techniques for efficiently creating a 3D environment using Maya’s polygon and NURBS tool-kit. Mark explains scene blocking, using animated cameras and their attributes, and how to integrate an animated object in the scene. He manipulates Maya fluids to show how to achieve the desired 3D sky environment, and shows some of his techniques for using painted textures and properly applying UVs. With a painted map from the scene, Mark breaks down the various components and shows how to apply layers to Maya shaders for maximum effect. In Shake, Mark demonstrates the use of Depth, Normals and Occlusion passes, and how to manipulate them in the comp to achieve atmosphere and zblur. Lastly, he explains how to use ambient occlusion as a method for Global Illumination, and discusses the initial setup and optimization for this pass and its integration into the final comp.

The Gnomon Workshop - Digital Environment Workflow: From Concept Sketch to 3D Render (Mark Lefitz)

$30

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The Organic Modeling titles cover the entire process of modeling a multi-patch head with Maya. Using a 200 surface head as an example, we go over all of the steps involved in it's creation. O.M.1 focuses on the construction of the detail surfaces such as the eyes, nose, mouth, ears and horns. We discuss how to cleanly sculpt the masses of the head using a variety of tools while focusing on technique and workflow.

Topics covered:

Primitive Modeling
Curve Tool
Curve Parameterization
Loft
Boundary Surfaces
Rebuild Curve
Rebuild Surface

The Gnomon Workshop - Organic Modeling 1: Head Surfacing (Alex Alvarez)

$30

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While there are several methods for creating a character, patch modeling can yield the cleanest results. It allows for high amounts of localized detail, clean parameterization for texture mapping, and the use of stitching tools. O.M.2 continues from where O.M.1 leaves off, where once the overall form of the head has been defined, and the detail surfaces modeled, one begins unifying them into a cohesive surface network.

Topics covered:

• Curve Tools
  
• Align Curve
  
• Rebuild Curve
  
• Detach Surface
  
• Rebuild Surface
  
• Project Tangent
  
• DXF Paramterization
  
• Stitch Edges Tool
  
• Global Stitch

The Gnomon Workshop - Organic Modeling 2: Head Patching (Alex Alvarez)

$30

$30

In this DVD, Paul Campion explains the essentials of texture painting with Adobe Photoshop®, discussing how observation and an understanding of the original object’s surface qualities are the skills necessary to create photorealistic textures. Starting with reference captured using a standard flatbed scanner, he demonstrates how to create color, bump and specular maps for a prehistoric shark tooth, explaining how each type of map affects the surface qualities of the CG model, and how these three basic maps work together to create a photorealistic surface. In addition, this DVD covers the human face, one of the most difficult areas of a human to texture. This demonstration shows some of the basic principles involved in texturing a human head, relying on the use of good reference and observation skills. Paul also demonstrates how Maya can be effect- ively used as a 3D paint package, using Perspective Camera Projection and texture baking to generate complex UV maps, which are then combined in Adobe Photoshop® to create detailed realistic head textures.

The Gnomon Workshop - Texture Painting: Fundamentals - Photorealistic Texturing (Paul Campion)

$30

$30

Objects created using 3D computer graphics have a tendency to appear too perfect and therefore slightly unrealistic. To create more natural textures, it is necessary to be able to observe and understand how real world objects become worn and dirty with age. This DVD focuses on how the understanding and use of aging, and "wear and tear" on an object can help add realism to your textures. Paul demonstrates how different surface materials can be simulated using simple color, bump, specular, reflection and transparency maps. These principles are illustrated by the texturing of a rustic lantern and weathered house using Adobe Photoshop.

The Gnomon Workshop - Texture Painting: Weathered Surfaces - Photorealistic Texturing (Paul Campion)

$30

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This lecture is an introduction to character animation as it relates to video games and interactive media. Robert 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.

The Gnomon Workshop - Character Animation for Games: Animation Technizues (Robert Coddington)

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Scott Easley takes you through the process of constructing a character animation pipeline in Maya that will allow you to constantly improve and update your characters without adversely affecting any of the existing animations. Scott also shows you how to use the Trax animation editor from the ground up and how to build a library of animation actions which you can then use to block-out more complex character animations. Included on this DVD are tutorials, a sample rig, blend shapes for facial set-ups, character texture maps, custom tools, shelves, poses and a Maya project to get you on your way.

The Gnomon Workshop - Pipelines for Video Game Animation: Character Animation Techniques (Scott Easley)

$30

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Whether in film, episodic television, commercials or music videos, the integration of 3D elements and effects is now a mainstay of modern post production. In the first DVD of this series Stephen McClure introduces you to the fundamentals of matchmoving. For both beginners and professionals, this lecture discusses the details of the matchmoving process including hand tracking techniques, survey information, distortion grid usage, and film terminology. Stephen shows how to recreate real world camera elements in the Maya environment, create custom camera controls, use Maya's integrated camera controls and set up the most popular professional and consumer formats.

The Gnomon Workshop - Matchmoving 101: Fundamentals - Camera Tracking Techniques (Stephen McClure)

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The way you build your model, whether you make it accurate and detailed or rely on informed cheats, depends on its function in the shot. The ability to have complete freedom with the model depends entirely on its level of realism: The more accurate your model, the closer your camera can come to its surface. In this lesson, we build a visually functional electric guitar, teaching you the basics of polygonal modeling and leaving you with the tools you need to build a variety of hard-surface objects.

The Gnomon Workshop - Polygon Modeling 101: Surface Modeling Fundamentals (Sean Mills)

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In this polygon modeling DVD, Sean Mills moves from relatively simple hard-surface forms to the creation of more complex and detail-oriented shapes. Sean introduces you to the principles of creating hi-res poly models by modeling the head of an intricately detailed 4-eyed creature, based on a maquette (sculpted by Neville Page). Utlilizing Subdivision surfaces, he shows how to sculpt your model with real-time feedback on the hi-res surface. Learn to create an intelligent edgeflow around your model's primary forms, one of the more complicated tasks associated with poly modeling. Finishing the process, Sean shows you how to return those changes to a low-res cage, for further modification.

The Gnomon Workshop - Creature Head Modeling: Polygon Modeling Techniques (Sean Mills)

$30

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In this polygonal modeling DVD, Sean Mills shows you how to create a bipedal humanoid model. Sean begins with a set of primitives for different body parts - arms, legs, torso and face - and refines them into muscle masses, primary contours and silouhettes. He then shows you how to refine those masses, establishing preliminary edge loops around musculature and areas of major deformation. Sean concludes by integrating these primary forms onto a contiguous character mesh.

The Gnomon Workshop - Humanoid Modeling: Polygon Modeling Techniques (Sean Mills)

$30

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In this DVD, Sean Mills covers the fundamentals of creating
the UV space to prepare your model for texturing. Using several modified
primitives as examples, Sean takes you through the necessary steps to
map UVs and prepare your newly completed polygonal model for texturing.
By creating a 2D version of the mesh, you give your 2D textures the instruc-
tions they need to land accurately on your model. By the end of this lecture,
you'll be familiar with the basics of UV layout and its relationship to modified
primitives.

The Gnomon Workshop - UV Mapping 101: Fundamental Layout Techniques (Sean Mills)

$30

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In this DVD, Tim Dobbert walks you through the steps involved in a typical production-level matchmove, also known as camera tracking. In order to integrate CG elements with live-action footage, the essential first step is to align the 3D camera with the real-world camera. Tim demonstrates how matchmoving software uses photogrammetry to reproduce the camera-move and how to get the best results possible. The DVD covers all aspects of the matchmoving pipeline from 2D tracking and calibration, right through to placing the camera in an environment and delivering the final scene. The lecture also emphasizes how to troubleshoot the tracking solution when things don't go well and how to choose the best workflow for the shot. Tim uses a variety of software packages for this lecture including Maya, Boujou, MatchMover and After Effects.

The Gnomon Workshop - Matchmoving: Essential Production Techniques - Camera Tracking Techniques (Tim Dobbert)

$30

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In visual effects work, it is common to have an element in the live-action footage that needs to be tracked. This is often the case when you need to add an effect to an actor's face, attach a CG object to a moving vehicle, or even add lip sync to an animal's performance. In this DVD, Tim Dobbert shows you how to track an object's motion using matchmoving software. You'll learn how to use the solution to drive an object's animation in Maya and how to properly evaluate your results. He'll also show you advanced object tracking techniques such as how to solve for an object's motion when the camera is also in motion, and how to invert the camera's motion with that of the object. Tim uses a variety of software packages for this lecture including Maya, Boujou, MatchMover and After Effects.

The Gnomon Workshop - Matchmoving: Object Tracking in Production - Camera Tracking Techniques (Tim Dobbert)

$30

$30

In this DVD, Tim Dobbert takes you through the more advanced aspects of matchmoving and camera tracking. He discusses how to use survey data to force a camera solution to fit a pre-built environment and how to use camera tracking for paint work. He also covers blending, enhancing and extending matchmoved cameras. Tim shows you how to prepare for a live-action shoot and how to get the right information once you're on-set. There's also a section on advanced object tracking that shows how to use an object's motion to create a camera move. And finally, he covers the tricky problem of lens distortion and how it affects the visual effects workflow. Tim uses a variety of software packages for this lecture including Maya, Boujou, MatchMover, SynthEyes and After Effects

The Gnomon Workshop - Matchmoving: Advanced Production Techniques - Camera Tracking Techniques (Tim Dobbert)

$30

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In this DVD, watch BARONTiERi as he demonstrates the different steps behind the creation of two iconic characters using both Adobe Photoshop® and Autodesk Maya®. He will then show how to successfully use your imagination under realistic production constraints. BARONTiERi reveals the latest digital art techniques, ideas and original processes used by the creative members of STEAMBOT Studios. He breaks down the foundations of an efficient character design pipeline for concept artists of the video game and visual effects industries, while demonstrating the importance of teamwork, and focusing on research, development and problem-solving issues. This lecture covers professional tips, speedpainting, basic 3D modeling and environment/mechanical design.

The Gnomon Workshop - Character Design Pipeline: Production Art + Research Techniques

$30

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In this DVD Zack Petroc presents a modern approach to digital sculpting that includes technical discussions, and features in-depth techniques for adding life and realism to your characters. Using a Maya-to-ZBrush workflow, the viewer takes a step-by-step look at how underlying muscles and bone structure affect the true form of the human body. The Maya content highlights creating and preparing a low-resolution base mesh, and includes techniques that apply to other Poly modeling packages. The central part of this demonstration takes place in ZBrush, with a comprehensive description of how to develop anatomy while adding weight, balance, and realism to your character. Finally, Zack showcases techniques for using the detailed ZBrush mesh to create an organized animatable mesh in Maya. This lecture is intended for all students and professionals who wish to strengthen their character work through furthering their knowledge of human anatomy.

The Gnomon Workshop - Digital Sculpting: Human Anatomy - ZBrush-to-Maya Workflow (Zack Petroc)

$30

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Zack Petroc's Art Directing Series begins with "The Digital Maquette". This title presents an innovative and direct approach to 3D content creation. Zack demonstrates a Maya-to-Mudbox workflow, outlining the advantages of digital sculpting and showcasing the benefits it can offer your design team. The workflow is presented with the artist in mind. It highlights specific tools and techniques focusing on how they add to the creative freedom of your design process. As Zack creates two characters from the initial box mesh to final sculpted pose, he discusses how to define your character from both an art directing and digital sculpting perspective. This lecture is intended for Art Directors and Production Designers who are interested in discovering how digital sculpting can add to their creative process. Additionally, it presents information for artists who are interested in growing their skills as digital sculptors.

The Gnomon Workshop - The Digital Maquette, Volume One - Art Direction and Digital Sculpting (Zack Petroc)

$30

$30

Zack Petroc's Art Directing Series continues with "The Digital Maquette, Volume 2", in which he outlines the creation of the Froad Rider, the costume and peripheral accessories using ZBrush. Watch as Zack develops the character from a low-resolution organized mesh for the head, and box meshes for the costume and accessories. After posing the character using ZBrush's new Transpose tools he documents the process for outputting the character as a 3D print with Gentle Giant Studios. Zack presents the workflow with the artist in mind, highlighting specific tools and techniques and focusing on how they add to the creative freedom of the design process. He also discusses how to define your character from both an art directing and digital sculpting perspective. This lecture is intended for Art Directors and Production Designers who are interested in discovering how digital sculpting can add to their creative process. Additionally, it presents information for artists who are interested in growing their skills as design sculptors.

The Gnomon Workshop - The Digital Maquette, Volume Two - Art Direction and Digital Sculpting (Zack Petroc)

$30

$30

In this DVD Robert Kuczera guides you through his character animation process from beginning to end. He first describes how to prepare the Maya Workspace to improve and optimize your workflow. Next, he shows how to prepare a scene for animation and animate the character. He discusses the timeline, Graph Editor, Dopesheet, layers, shelves, hot keys and MEL scripts. Robert demonstrates how to use filmed reference material to identify the key poses and place the breakdowns and in-betweens. The lecture is focused on showing you how to animate precisely and quickly through the camera. Robert presents an insider's view of how professional animators work, showing workflow and techniques with supporting discussions on the principles of animation.

The Gnomon Workshop - Intuitive Animation with Robert Kuczera - High Velocity Production, Feature Quality Resuts

$30

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BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) is a new and exciting DVD series developed to showcase the creation of a game cinematic sequence. The series follows a team of artists as they demonstrate their production techniques from concept phase to final rendered animation. This chapter in the series focuses on the creation of the character Geo, a seasoned veteran of numerous infiltration missions. Cajun Hylton takes the viewer step-by-step through the 3D modeling process, from simple proxy to final model using Maya and ZBrush. The viewer also gets to go behind the scenes and witness actual production meetings that discuss the design and creation of the character.

The Gnomon Workshop - Behind The Scenes 2: Character Modeling for Production - Modeling Techniques (Cajun Hylton)

$30

$30

BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) is a new and exciting DVD series developed to showcase the creation of a game cinematic sequence. The series follows a team of artists as they demonstrate their production techniques from concept phase to final rendered animation. This chapter in the series focuses on the vehicle featured in the cinematic, a futuristic helicopter designed by renowned Art Director Mark Goerner. Instructor Paul Schoeni takes the viewer step-by-step through the 3D modeling process in Maya, from simple proxy to final model. The viewer also gets to go behind the scenes and witness actual production meetings that discuss the design and creation of the helicopter.

The Gnomon Workshop - Behind the Scenes 3: Vehicle Modeling for Production - Modeling Techniques (Paul Schoeni)

$30

$30

BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) is a new and exciting DVD series developed to showcase the creation of a game cinematic sequence. The series follows a team of artists as they demonstrate their production techniques from concept phase to final rendered animation. In this chapter of the BTS series Ben Neall explores the many aspects of texture creation for the main character Geo. Some of these aspects include techniques such as UVing, Projecting, Texture Painting using 2D and 3D softwares, as well as overviews of shader and render setup. Ben also shows techniques to help the artist in the visual development stage, using compositing software to make real-time decisions. The viewer will also see actual production meetings in which the design and creation of the textures are discussed.

The Gnomon Workshop - Behind the Scenes 4: Character Texturing for Production - Texturing Techniques (Ben Neall)

$30

$30

BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) is a new and exciting DVD series developed to showcase the creation of a game cinematic sequence. The series follows a team of artists as they demonstrate their production techniques from concept phase to final rendered animation. This chapter in the series focuses on hard surface texture painting for 3D models – in this case a military styled helicopter. Ted begins by organizing the vehicle into discreet layer groups reflective of their final material assignments. He then shows various texture painting techniques and methodologies using Maya, Photoshop®, BodyPaint and ZBrush. The DVD includes production meetings with art director Mark Goerner and culminates with a spectacular rendering of what all the various maps look like when placed on the model

The Gnomon Workshop - Behind the Scenes 5: Hard Surface Texture Painting - Vehicle Texture Painting (Ted Davis)

$30

$30

This is Chris's first lecture in a series on character animation using Maya. In this lecture Chris introduces the basics of feature film style character animation. Starting with the bouncing ball and then moving on to using a character rig, Chris gives you a guided tour of the inner workings of Maya, covering the interface and how to develop good workflow habits. He discusses the basics of acting and emotion and demonstrates how to setup the always challenging walk cycle, from blocking in and smoothing out the animation to refining it by adding attitude and feeling.

The Gnomon Workshop - Character Animation: Fundamentals (Chris Kirshbaum)

$30

$30

This is Chris's second lecture in a series on character animation using Maya. Using the same character rig as in Character Animation: Fundamentals, Chris leads you down the twin paths of successful character animation: mechanics and emotion. Conjoining believable motion with believable acting is the holy grail of animation, and this duality is demonstrated by animating the bouncing man. Chris covers appealing poses, believable weight distribution, activation of limbs, use of gesture to demonstrate attitude, the aura of the character and effective utilization of the stage.

The Gnomon Workshop - Character Animation: Mechanics and Emotion (Chris Kirshbaum)

$30

$30

This is Chris's third lecture in a series on character animation using Maya. In this lecture, Chris delves ever deeper into the world of acting and its most important aspect: the character's internal thought process. Chris covers the fundamental principles of lip sync and dialogue, from keying the audio track and breaking it down to phrasing and inflection. Building on earlier themes, including dynamic posing, contrast of shape and emotion, line of action and use of negative space, Chris shows you the step-by-step process of bringing a scene to the level of full 3D theatrical animation.

The Gnomon Workshop - Character Animation: Acting and Lip Sync (Chris Kirsbaum)

$30

$30

In The Skinned Character Rig, lead character rigger Carlo Sansonetti shows the skinning process from start to finish. The lecture begins with the concepts required to understand basic skinning, allowing the viewer to quickly start deforming their characters. It then progresses to detailed examples and explanations of advanced techniques. Carlo covers his favorite tools, smooth binding, deformation order, deformation correction, indirect skinning and deforming cloth. This DVD is for artists who are new to rigging as well as for experienced riggers who are looking to expand their current knowledge base with varying approaches on advanced topics.

The Gnomon Workshop - The Skinned Character Rig - Skinning and Deformations (Carlo Sansonetti)

$30

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In this DVD, Richard Smith guides you through modeling a Next-Gen game character. Richard starts with a rough concept design and then creates a low-res base mesh. From there he sculpts each part in ZBrush with special attention paid to creating realistic clothing folds. Once each part is completely sculpted Richard retopologizes it inside of Maya using a plug-in called Nex. Finally, using XNormal he creates the normal map and then sets everything up in Maya. This DVD is intended for artists with a basic understanding of polygon modeling in Maya, but the techniques he demonstrates could be applied using other 3D modeling software.

The Gnomon Workshop - Character Modeling for Next-Gen Games (Richard Smith)

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This "making of" demonstration and lecture began with the decision to create a new still image and record the entire process. Using Maya, UVlayout, ZBrush and Photoshop, "Smile" was created in ten hours over the course of a couple evenings. Observe and listen as Alex shares his workflow, thought process and techniques, covering everything from creating a base mesh and laying out UVs to creating a final comp in Photoshop.

The Gnomon Workshop - The Making of 'Smile' (Alex Alvarez)

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Trin was started to create a high-res 4k still image, yet evolved to become a looping ten second animation rendered in vertical HD at 1200x1920 to be displayed on a wall-mounted digital display. Starting from a personal sketch, Trin was created in twenty hours using Photoshop, Maya, Zbrush, UVlayout, Bodypaint and Mental Ray. The entire process was recorded and is demonstrated using timelapse footage, where I explain every step with an emphasis on both the technical and aesthetic thought processes. The process covers everything from orthographics to shaders, lighting and compositing.

The Gnomon Workshop - The Making of 'Trin' (Alex Alvarez)

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These chapters represent a technical overview of how the image 'Fume' was created using Maya, ZBrush and Photoshop. In contrast to some of my other work on Gnomonology and The Gnomon Workshop, Fume was created without any initial design direction. There was no sketch to develop, as was the case with Jester or Trin. Therefore this tutorial demonstrates a slightly different workflow as I allowed a design to evolve organically. The actual creation of Fume was not recorded, therefore these lectures are all created in realtime as I explain, in detail, the process of creating the image. 'Fume' has been toprow plugged at cgtalk, zbrushcentral, 3dtotal and was a 'daily deviation' at Deviant Art.

The Gnomon Workshop - The Making of 'Fume' (Alex Alvarez)

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