The Gnomon Workshop adds to its digital and analog collections this month with eight new titles covering visual storytelling, character design, environment creation and industrial design. Joining the Digital library, the Gnomon Workshop welcomes art director Aaron Sims with his new two-DVD collection on Creature Design. These titles reveal the artist's use of Adobe Photoshop, XSI, DeepPaint3D and ZBrush. Sims, an art director at Stan Winston studios, worked for years designing creature effects make-up with Rick Baker before perfecting his digital skills. Since migrating to the digital side, Sims has contributed designs to such films as MEN IN BLACK, A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, TERMINATOR 3 and CONSTANTINE.
The Gnomon Workshop director Alex Alvarez noted, "Few concept designers working in film execute their designs in 3D due to perceived time constraints, yet Aaron proves that through the integration of 2D and 3D, designs can be beautifully executed amazingly fast."
Also this month, The Gnomon Workshop welcomes master visual storyteller Iain McCaig's titles to the analog library. Over four noteworthy DVDs, he introduces the student to the critical process of developing a story, the characters, costumes and the environment necessary to create a compelling, beautiful fairy-tale. Iain's work has contributed to numerous films, including HOOK, PETER PAN, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE and THE STAR WARS prequels, including the designs for Queen Amidala and Darth Maul.
This month Scott Robertson also returns with two contributions to the Gnomon Workshop analog library: one title on creating environments, the other focusing on industrial design rendering.
Of Iain McCaig, Robertson said, "I'm very eager for the rest of the art and design community to be able to learn what I have been fortunate enough to learn from Iain McCaig through the production of his first four DVDs. Any time an artist or designer can portray story points through a design or an illustration the work becomes much more engaging. This series is a great addition to our educational DVD library".
Descriptions of the titles are below:
CREATURE DESIGN WITH AARON SIMSVOLUME 1: DESIGNING WITH PHOTOSHOP, XSI AND ZBRUSH
In the first of two DVDs, Sims illustrates the techniques he uses when designing creatures for movies. As the character's facial features are the first and most important part of designing characters in film, this DVD concentrates on creating the character head. Using Photoshop, XSI and ZBrush, he shows you how to accomplish stunning designs that can be easily altered for other designs. Speed is an important aspect of character design in production, which Sims demonstrates by showing you how his process helps you design within a production environment.
CREATURE DESIGN WITH AARON SIMSVOLUME 2: DESIGNING WITH PHOTOSHOP, XSI & DEEP PAINT
Sims' second DVD illustrates the process of designing a full character in a 3D environment. Starting by creating a quick concept in Photoshop, Sims models the character in XSI, texturing it in Deep Paint. Sims shows how to use XSI to build the rig, pose the character and then set it in an environment where he lights and renders it. Finally, he finishes the piece in Photoshop, showing you techniques to give your design a refined and completed look.
VISUAL STORYTELLING WITH IAIN MCCAIGVOLUME 1: ANATOMY OF A STORY
Stories can be written with pictures as well as with words. Veteran storyteller and concept artist McCaig takes you on a journey through the process of creating a story visuallyfrom story beats and story gates, to story drawings and the art of dreaming images on paper. By the end of this DVD, you will have the tools and techniques you need to create dynamic visual stories of your own. This DVD contains the source for the subsequent lessons on creature and character design, as Iain McCaig retells Hans Christian Andersen's THE LITTLE MERMAID as a science fiction epic.
VISUAL STORYTELLING WITH IAIN MCCAIGVOLUME 2: COSMIC MERMAID CHARACTER DESIGN
Creating unforgettable and iconic characters is the goal of character designers everywhere. In the second DVD of this series McCaig shows you how to create an unforgettable leading character, infusing your design with the power of visual storytelling in order to give it life. McCaig begins creating the title character for his science fiction adaptation of THE LITTLE MERMAID.
VISUAL STORYTELLING WITH IAIN MCCAIGVOLUME 3: SEA KING/SPACE WITCH CHARACTER DESIGN
Creating memorable Icons of Good and Evil is the pillar of all Storytelling. In the third DVD of this series McCaig shows you how to generate unlimited ideas for good and evil characters while sharing the secrets of his three-step process to iconic character design. McCaig creates the Sea King and the Space Witch in his science fiction adaptation of THE LITTLE MERMAID.
VISUAL STORYTELLING WITH IAIN MCCAIGVOLUME 4: HUMAN CHARACTER AND ENVIRONMENT DESIGN
Creating realistic human characters for imaginary worlds is one of the great challenges for artists and storytellers alike. In this fourth DVD, McCaig shows you how to build alternate worlds, costumes, and human characters by passing the real world through the looking glass of the land of story. This DVD tracks McCaig's progress as he creates the two leading human characters in his science fiction adaptation of THE LITTLE MERMAID.
THE TECHNIQUES OF SCOTT ROBERTSONCREATING UNIQUE ENVIRONMENTS
On this DVD Robertson introduces you to the marker-sketch-collage techniques he employs when creating unique environment paintings within Adobe Photoshop. The process starts by loosely sketching a variety of shapes with warm grey markers on vellum and Mylar. After he completes and scans eight of these quick sketches, you can follow along as he overlays the sketches to create unique color palettes and compositions within Adobe Photoshop®. To complete the process, Robertson then paints digitally on nine of the compositions. During the execution of the quick environment paintings he discusses lighting strategies, composition, atmospheric and linear perspective.
THE TECHNIQUES OF SCOTT ROBERTSONINDUSTRIAL DESIGN RENDERING - BICYCLE
On this DVD, Robertson walks you through the industrial design rendering techniques that he employs within Adobe Photoshop. He quickly demonstrates draft view sketching before scanning one of the sketches that will be rendered to a photoreal level. During the rendering of a bicycle, Robertson discusses basic lighting and reflection strategies to indicate a variety of materials and colors. Watch along, and by the end of the DVD, you will see all of steps taken in Photoshop to transform the initial loose sketch into a very real looking object.
Founded in 2000, The Gnomon Workshop (www.thegnomonworkshop.com) produces art-training DVDs for the visual industries. Created by professional artists and designers who work in all areas of the visual arts including films, games, industrial design and fine art - these DVDs give artists the real information they need to succeed in the visual arts industry.
Design Studio Press (www.designstudiopress.com) is a specialty publisher that focuses primarily on original artistic works and educational books.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
