Kevin Mannens, Chris Nichols, Meats Meier and Mark Lefitz contribute
exciting new DVDs
December
5th, 2005, HOLLYWOOD. The Gnomon Workshop has been
busily creating DVDs, and is delighted to announce six new
digital titles today, just in time for the holidays! They
include ZBrush, V-ray, MEL, and digital environment workflow.
This series of releases brings us new titles from Chris
Nichols and artist Meats Meier, and introduces effects artists
Kevin Mannens and Mark Lefitz to The Gnomon Workshop.
"These tltles further enhance the Gnomon Workshop library," says
Gnomon
Workshop Producer, Eric Hanson. "New offerings include robust technical
titles on creative MEL scripting and interior lighting using V-Ray, as well
as how to develop concept artwork into final 3D production models. The
Gnomon Workshop continues to expand its catalogue, producing tools to help
artists become more efficient and skilled in the visual effects field."
Mark Lefitz shows you how to transform a 2D concept by Feng
Zhu into a 3D environment. In the process, he covers numerous
facets of Maya, culminating by compositing the piece in
Shake. Mark, currently a Lighting and Compositing Technical
Director at Disney Feature Animation, left a career in Architecture
to work on such projects as Bicentennial Man, Mission
to Mars, Matrix Loaded, Chicken Little and
numerous other projects during his decade-long career in
the entertainment industry.
Technical Director Kevin Mannens joins the Gnomon Workshop
with a suite of titles covering Maya's Embedded Language,
or MEL. This thorough collection presents MEL Fundamentals,
MEL for Character Animators, and MEL for Effects
Artists.
Kevin has trained clients at numerous effects companies,
including Moving Picture Company, Double Negative, CFC,
Cinesite and others. He is currently a Technical Director
at Oriental Post in Thailand.
A name very familiar to the Gnomon Workshop audience, Meats
Meier returns with a DVD that reveals the artist's
workflow via the creation of his "Arm Upgrade" illustration.
Meats, a resident artist at the Gnomon Workshop, maintains
a successful career as an independent artist, recently designing
the box art for both ZBrush and Alias Maya 7, in addition
to numerous books, magazines and websites.
Christopher Nichols, Senior Lighting Technical Director
at Sony Pictures Imageworks, presents his second Gnomon
Workshop title on Global Illumination with V-Ray. This DVD
explores GI lighting techniques for interiors spaces. Chris
has credits on such movies as The Day After Tomorrow, I,
Robot and Stealth.
DVD Descriptions:
ZBrush for Illustration
Arm Upgrade ZBrush Project with Meats Meier
This two-disc set follows ZBrush master Meats Meier through
the process of creating his "Arm Upgrade" illustration,
from concept to final print. Designed for the artist familiar
with ZBrush and its tools, this lecture provides a rare glimpse
into the workflow and techniques of this accomplished artist.
As Meats creates his detailed imagery, he explains his wire
style and the process of using materials, layers and easy
light setups. This lecture demonstrates the ease and advantages
of using ZBrush's 2.5D environment to create complex high-resolution
imagery.
Digital Environment Workflow
From Concept Sketch to 3D Render with Mark Lefitz
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.
Global Illumination: Interiors
V-ray Lighting Techniques with Christopher Nichols
Continuing from his first DVD, Global Illumination: Exteriors,
Christopher Nichols explains how interior global illumination
differs from exterior GI. Christopher focuses on the concept
of digital sets and explores issues of interior lighting
for GI, including the variety of light sources that can be
used, as well as how space plays an important role in lighting.
Christopher demonstrates the differences between regular
light sources, environment light, IES lighting, area lights,
and even how geometry and shaders can affect the lighting
of a scene. Additionally, since bouncing light plays an important
role in interior GI, this lecture looks at some special techniques
such as using V-Ray's photon mapping and light cache.
Christopher also explores the idea of baking lighting into
textures, which is a useful technique for some situations.
With Global Illumination: Interiors, you will see the rendering
of an interior space in a whole new light.
MEL 101: Fundamentals
MEL Programming Techniques with Kevin Mannens
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.
MEL for Character Animators
MEL Programming Techniques with Kevin Mannens
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.
MEL For Effects Artists
MEL Programming Techniques with Kevin Mannens
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 Mayas hair engine, and make your
code more dynamic and productive in a harsh production environment.
Since 2000, The Gnomon Workshop 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, effects, 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, CA.
Visit http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com for more information
on The Gnomon Workshop and our library of over 125 training
DVDs
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