JJ Abrams digs Gnomon!

wired_playlist_gnomon This month's issue of Wired magazine features guest editor JJ Abrams who was awesome enough to mention Gnomon in the playlist section! JJ swung by Gnomon a couple months ago and this was extremely exciting not just for me, but definitely for the many students who got to see him poking his head in classrooms and walking through our labs. JJ has hired Gnomon alumni at Bad Robot and, as it turns out, discovered Neville Page by watching Neville's Gnomon Workshop DVD. How cool is that? Neville has since worked with JJ as the lead creature designer for Cloverfield and Star Trek.

Here is the pic published in the magazine with a link to the Gnomon Workshop. Some people think that is supposed to be me... hmm. lol.

The Art of Steambot Studios

Come one, come all, to the opening for Exodessey, the art of Steambot Studios, at the Gnomon Gallery... This Saturday, May 9th at 7pm. The artists will be there as well as snacks, drink, DJ and more. The event is open to the public and it should be a great way to spend your Saturday evening! More info is at the Gnomon Gallery site: http://www.gnomongallery.com

Master Class Demo

Here is the creature I made for the Gnomon master class entitled 'Creature Head Texture Look Development'. I made some style variations in Photoshop starting with a simple layered comp rendered from Maya. About 30-40 minutes each. Very fun to do! I create these at 4096x4096 so that I can project the image onto my model in Bodypaint as a solid startpoint for final texturing. Click on the image for a high-res version.

Gnomon Master Classes

I recently organized a bunch of super cool master classes that will be running the week of December 12th-19th. I can't wait to watch them all!! Check them out the Gnomon School site.

Jordu Schell at Gnomon Gallery

So tomorrow night is the opening for Jordu Schell at the Gnomon Gallery at 7pm! If you're in or around Hollywood, swing by and check out some amazing creature sculptures. -Alex

Wordpress!

So the home page may look the same, but my friend Dani just installed Wordpress so that I can more easily update news in here! (Thanks Dani!!!). So now I have a bunch of news posts with zero comments. Looks a little sad I must say... heh. Anyhow, I look forward to updating this blog a little more regularly now that it is so easy. :) For those of you who have been posting comments in my guestbook, thank you so much... all of the feedback is very much appreciated! To Abhay in Mumbai, India... yes, I need to get back into production of some new tutorials! I just got the beta of 2009 so perhaps you'll see some new stuff from me this fall. -Alex

Gnomon Gallery closing party!

Hi all... so the Gnomon Gallery Rabbitholes show is having a closing party (open to the public) this Wednesday, September 17th at 7pm. Swing by and check out the work! The images are really stunning in person. www.gnomongallery.com

Guardian

Image made with Maya, Zbrush, Mental Ray. I started this as a head sculpt/sketch from a sphere in Zbrush, but then added the torso... then the lower limbs... then decided it needed a background... then some bugs.. then some smoke.Since I didn't start with a design, I just poked at it from time to time over the past couple months. So I guess the image evolved over time, but I'm happy with where it ended up. The final image is 4500x8000 to be printed at 30"x54".

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