I just released a couple new DVDs on working with satellite data to create terrains using a variety of tools: Google Earth, The National Map, GlobalMapper, ZBrush, Maya, Photoshop and Mental Ray. There's over ten hours of lecture over the two titles, so a lot of info!
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Founder/Director, Gnomon
3D World Cover, December 2013
I was comissioned to create a cover illustration for 3D World magazine, which was a lot of fun. The editor Ian Dean contacted me asking for 'a stone head in a jungle'. I ended up having about three weeks to create the image, so a lot of late nights as I used this project to finally delve into SpeedTree... which is awesome. I also wrote a four page tutorial on the creation of the image for the issue. It was an honor to be asked, and hopefully I can do something for them again one day!
Forest Path
I've been obsessing over natural environments lately, developing my workflow for plants/trees and techniques for object placement. Maya, Mental Ray, Paint Effects, Onyx and a little Zbrush for the path. 110 million polys. Rendered with physical sun/sky and all miaMaterialX. Surprised by how many polys I can throw at Mental Ray!
Gathering
New image made with Zbrush, Photoshop, Bodypaint and Maya/Mental Ray. This project started as an interest in trying out Dynamesh, an amazing new modeling methodology in Zbrush. I started with a sphere, which become the demon, and then decided to give him a place to exist. Learned a lot about rocks/plants/etc and now feel way more comfortable with the mia_materials. Hope people dig it... was a lot of fun to make!
Fast Company praise for Gnomon!
Well this was a surprise... Fast Company magazine recently announced their list of the ten most innovative companies in film, which included Gnomon! Weird but very cool... my sincere thanks to them for the accolade! Click here to check out the complete list.
fastCompany
3D Artist Magazine: Gnomon Feature!
Very cool... this month's issue of 3D Artist magazine (issue 25) features an eight page story on Gnomon! Thanks so much to Lynette Clee for the support and amazing article! Click here to order a copy...
The Union: Saga/Gnomon Brazil Event!
From March 10th - 18th I had the amazing experience of going to Brazil for an event that Gnomon organized with Saga, a company that teaches CG to thousands of kids across Brazil, aged 11-17. I organized the speakers, inviting several friends along for an epic journey: Neville Page, Fausto de Martini, Neil Huxley, Seth Hall and Stefano Dubay. During this one day event in Sao Paulo, over 400 people were exposed the experiences and techniques of several leading artists from the film and games industries. It was a ton of fun and I sincerely had an amazing time in Brazil... it is a beautiful country with wonderful and genuine people. I hope this is the first of many such events... Also, we announced a partnership between Gnomon and Saga to open a new school in Brazil in 2012. Stay tuned...
Dirge
Finally had time this summer for a new personal project. Started about four months ago in my limited 'free time'(i.e. late nights), so it's hard to say how much work was put into it, but quite a bit. Initially it was just a character based on a pencil sketch, but then once the dude was done I decided to make a background for him... which ended up being the bulk of the work. Environments are definitely time consuming and this project definitely upped my respect for all the 3D environment people out there. It was a lot of fun, but I think my next piece will be way simpler. Heh. About halfway through working on it I decided to create an animation to loop on a framed monitor.The final image is 6k printed at 30"x48" on canvas, framed and on a wall at Gnomon. The animation is running at 2560x1600 on a framed 30" monitor. Let me know what you think!
