New video update to Development section... Need to get back to doing more 2D stuff as my 3D work will only get better if I do... I just need more hours in the day! So this video is just 3 minutes, as it is timelapsed to about 20x speed. Wouldn't want to bore you with the realtime one! Heh.
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Founder/Director, Gnomon
New section: Development.
Well, I had an animation section that stayed empty for way too long, so I decided to swap it with something new this weekend! As I create new work, I can now use this section to provide very brief overviews of how they were put together. Jester, Smile, Draeke, Guardian and some Look-Dev are discussed, as well as a new video that crams a week of work into 10 minutes. I've got a new 3D Creature Development 'master class' coming out soon that has 25 hours, eight DVDs, a 176 page book as well as sixty-six HD 1080p clips for students to use in their projects. But until then, this video provides a glimpse of what I do in the class (and editing 25hours down to 10minutes sure took awhile! heh). Hopefully this year I can keep this section updated with new stuff, assuming Gnomon allows me the time to! -Alex
Heading to Australia for agIdeas 2010.
So in a little over a month I will be heading to Melbourne, Australia for agIdeas 2010! They were very kind to invite me to speak at this international design forum, where I will be discussing creature development as well as the importance of education in design, vfx, games, etc. I'm scheduled for a two hour presentation as well as a full day workshop. Should be fun... plus... since I'm going to be on the other side of the planet for agIdeas, I've also added a four day trip to New Zealand to visit Weta and middle earth! After years of hoping, looks like I finally will get to see NZ...
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Wow... what a frickin amazing movie this turned out to be!!! Thank you Neville Page (lead creature designer who hired me) for giving me the opportunity to be involved in something so special. I took a seven month 'sabbatical' from Gnomon to work full-time in the art dept from '06-'07, knowing that the experience of working on an epic sci-fi Cameron was something I just couldn't miss. There were about 25 artists at Lightstorm where I worked (more at other locations), and being in the same place as Neville (with whom I shared an office), Ben Procter, James Clyne, Yuri Bartoli, Tully Summers, Tyruben Ellingson, Daphne Yap, Jordu Schell, etc... was truly a privilege. When I joined the creature crew, most of the work was being done in 2D/clay with a little bit of Zbrush, so my role was to bring in 3D so that I could further develop some of the creatures in ways that 3D is best suited. I worked a lot on the Banshee, as well as the Leonopteryx, Fan Lizard, Woodsprites, Direhorse, and some other secondary creatures.... resolving 3D models, doing texture/shader look development, integration tests with paintings by Dylan Cole, rigging and pose tests, animation, etc. Its crazy that this is almost two years ago... What Weta pulled off is just mind boggling. Really the most overwhelmingly intense non-stop visual feast I've ever seen. It has been quite a while since I wanted to see a movie again, immediately. I've only seen it twice, but I know another viewing is right around the corner. Hats off to the hundreds of artists who contributed to it and to James Cameron for being a genius (who btw wasn't a tyrant as people say, but was always quite friendly during his weekly visits with the creature crew). And thanks again Neville! $2B and counting. Crazy.
Returning to Singapore in December!
Well, looks like I'm off to the other side of the world again next month! I've been invited to speak at the Entertainment Design Masters Showcase, Dec 12 + 13, along with Neville Page, Scot Drake and Feng Zhu. If you live in that part of the globe, it sounds like something worth checking out! More info here.
Interview with me in 3dcreative magazine!
The good folks at 3Dtotal were kind enough to ask me to do an interview for their downloadable PDF magazine, 3D Creative, which was just released. The article has a bunch of my work and images of the Gnomon campus and they were kind enough to give me a bunch of space... 17 pages! Thanks to Tom, Lynette and Rich for your interest!
Their mag really has a lot of great content... I highly recommend getting a subscription. :)
Here's a link to the PDF of the article, file size is 22MB, which you can view in a browser or right click and save as: click here
Gnomon Master Classes Online
Hi all... So I just organized this year's Master Classes for Gnomon and it should be awesome! Craig Mullins, Iain McCaig, Sze Jones, Neville Page, Feng Zhu and many more amazing artists will be sharing their techniques, workflow, thoughts on design, etc. Definitely check it out! click here for more info.
me on the Carson Daly show?
Pretty unexpected, but I got a call a couple weeks ago from the Carson Daly show wanting to spotlight me and Gnomon! They came to Gnomon last week to interview me and film the school. It aired a couple nights ago and it turned out pretty cool! Just ignore Carson's embellishments in the beginning. I am not one of the best creature designers in the world. heh.
To check it out, click here.