The Making Of Worms
This week The Gnomon Workshop announces a special DVD set unlike any you have seen before. Sil van der Woerd, a talented music video director from the Netherlands, has reconstructed the steps he took to produce and direct a music video for the Dutch singer Lolly Jane Blue. The music video "Worms" has won critical acclaim and demonstrates Sil's strong visual language. All of the effects, from 3D models and textures to full digital sets and an amazing underwater sequence were planned, directed and executed by Sil. This four-disk set breaks down his entire process for making "Worms" and is geared towards both the student and professional who are interested in seeing how, even with a very low budget, you can combine multiple disciplines to create a professional film short or music video.
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Matte Painting Production Techniques
In this DVD, Chris Stoski demonstrates his techniques for creating a complex matte painting. He illustrates how a matte artist utilizes 3D modeling, texturing, lighting, photographic reference materials and digital painting to complete a beautiful and efficient matte painting. Throughout the lecture he describes his techniques and relates his experiences designing shots for feature films and executing them as final matte paintings. From painting and image manipulation in Adobe Photoshop® to 3D particle-system waterfalls and animated vegetation blowing in the wind, this DVD offers a complete spectrum of knowledge for the beginner to intermediate matte painter.
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Set Designs by James Clyne
In this first of three DVDs in a series, James will cover a wide range of Adobe Photoshop® techniques that he uses as a concept designer in the feature film industry. Focusing on the subject of futuristic architectural landscapes, James starts with a blank page and quickly delves right into such topics as sketch ideation directly in Photoshop® and blocking in a dynamic composition. Setting itself apart from other concept art techniques, this DVD concentrates heavily on the smooth integration of photo reference and high-end conceptualization ideas, or what James terms “Photoshop® kit bashing”, blurring the line between photo and ideation rendering. Subjects such as Photoshop® layer properties, creating custom brushes, and developing architectural concepts are also covered.
In this second of three DVDs in a series, James will cover a wide range of Adobe Photoshop® techniques that he uses as a concept designer in the feature film industry. Focusing on the subject of historical architectural landscapes, James jumps into subjects such as keeping a rendering loose while maintaining presentation level quality and how to reinforce the visual narrative. Setting itself apart from other concept art techniques, this DVD concentrates heavily on the smooth integration of photo reference and high-end conceptualization ideas, or what James terms “Photoshop® kit bashing”, blurring the line between photo and ideation rendering. Subjects such as “painting in” a mask, strong lighting technique and character indication are also covered.
In this third of three DVDs in a series, James will cover a wide range of Adobe Photoshop® techniques that he uses as a concept designer in the feature film industry. Focusing on the subject of a contemporary loft interior as a film set, James acts as a location manager, production designer and illustrator to visually explain a common feature film art department pipeline technique. Setting itself apart from other concept art techniques, this DVD concentrates heavily on the smooth integration of photo reference and high-end conceptualization ideas, or what James terms “Photoshop® kit bashing”, blurring the line between photo and ideation rendering. Subjects such as using photo scrap as virtual set pieces, texture mapping in 2D, and rendering a wide range of materials from brushed steel to polished hardwood floor are also covered.
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3dsmax And Brazil Fundamentals
This DVD offers an in-depth overview of the rendering plug-in Brazil 2 for Autodesk's 3d Studio Max. In this title Sebastien covers in detail all the different materials, shaders and texture maps included with this amazing tool from Splutterfish. He also demonstrates how to create and manage materials in a simple scene in order to reproduce a photorealistic image in 3D. This DVD contains an extensive custom library which has hundreds of resources in a simple browsable interface. The library includes materials, textures, references and links to everything you need to enhance your scenes and to enable you to create new materials on your own.
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Pipeline For Video Game Animation
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.
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Character Animation
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.
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.
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.
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Matchmoving Advanced Production Techniques
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 match- moved 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.
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Digital Environment Workflow
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.
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Digital Sets 3
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.
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http://rapidshare.com/files/160743580/GDS3.txt
Digital Sets 2
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.
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http://rapidshare.com/files/160743033/GDS2.txt
Digital Sets 1
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.
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http://rapidshare.com/files/160741791/GDMS1.txt
Vue Infinite
In this DVD, Ethan Summers shares his techniques for e-on's Vue Infinite, an amazing landscape creation tool and general purpose rendering engine capable of handling scenes as large as 50 billion polygons. Starting at an introductory level, Ethan covers all the main windows and functions within Vue. He then discusses more advanced topics including strategies for creating ecosystems, methods for designing realistic terrains, and ultimately how to employ DEM maps through the function editor and in conjunction with Maya. Ethan also covers XStream, e-on's new plug-in for achieving seamless lighting and render integration with Maya and Max.
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http://rapidshare.com/files/160629269/GVIIAW.txt
Character Texturing For Production
In this DVD, Ian textures and completes the game cinematic character he modeled in Character Modeling for Production. In this lecture, he shows different techniques to UV map objects of various complexities quickly and efficiently using 3ds Max's UV tools and DeepUV. Ian covers both hand-painted and image-based methods to create textures for the character. From there he uses various ZBrush plugins to both block-in and finalize textures and he uses BodyPaint to fix seams and to begin new textures. Ian demonstrates a variety of other techniques incorporated in the Max>ZBrush>BodyPaint pipeline and shows you how to enhance the hair created in his first DVD, and take it to a more finalized level. Finally, Ian shows how you can reuse your rigs from character to character using Biped, and how to use Adobe Photoshop® to add an extra level of professionalism to your final models before submitting them to a client. In this DVD Ian uses: Max, DeepUV, PolyBoost, ZBrush, ZappLink, Zmapper, BodyPaint and Photoshop®
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http://rapidshare.com/files/160502378/GCTFP.txt