Gnomon School of Visual Effects Introduces First Full-Time Three-Year Program in Entertainment Design & Digital Production

[Tami]

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gnomon School of Visual Effects, the industry leader in professional training for artists in the entertainment and design field, recently announced its first full-time three-year curriculum for aspiring artists wanting to work in production for movies, games and television. Beginning in summer 2010, the Entertainment Design and Digital Production Program blends one year of foundation art and design classes with two years of digital production to prepare students for a career as a digital artist in the film, video game or broadcast industries. As with all of Gnomon's programs, the goal of the new comprehensive curriculum is to develop the digital entertainment industry’s most well-rounded and production-ready artists.

“The Gnomon School has long been recognized as a leading institution for advanced training within the digital entertainment industry, and we are now proud to expand access to Gnomon though the new Entertainment Design and Digital Production program,” said Alex Alvarez, Founder of Gnomon School of Visual Effects. “With the new three-year program, students without a foundation in art can now quickly and affordably develop their skills to begin a career in one of the most exciting and lucrative fields for artists today. As Gnomon instructors are working professionals in the industry’s leading studios, our students receive exclusive hands-on instruction that makes them ideal job candidates upon graduation.”

Unlike some conventional curriculums, Gnomon’s Entertainment Design and Digital Production Program is blended to provide both a core foundation of toolsets, as well as specialized tracks that prepare students to work in the field of their choice. Gnomon’s curriculum is geared towards the development of both artistic and cutting-edge technical skills to ensure that students’ skills can be applicable to all industries of entertainment, including games, broadcast or film. In addition, Gnomon uniquely provides an advanced learning experience with classes taught by leading visual effects artists that specialize in each field of study.

Entertainment Design and Digital Production Program Curriculum

Through Gnomon’s Entertainment Design and Digital Production Program, students will build foundational artistic skills in the first five terms, and then go on to choose an area of concentration for the remainder of the program. The three-year program offers several specialized tracks for students to choose, including Modeling and Texturing, Character Animation, Visual Effects Animation and 3D Generalist.

Modeling and Texturing

Modeling and texture artists have skills rooted in a strong understanding of form, texture, and detail, and this track focuses on the design and creation of digital assets for games, broadcast or film. Assets may vary from a simple building for a live action shot or a more complex creation of many elements for a 3D feature or game. This track focuses on creation, modeling and look development through final rendering and delivery of content. Supporting these concepts are fundamental classes on anatomy, sculpture, painting and design.

Character Animation

Focusing on the creation of animated assets that demonstrate proficiency as an animator, this track provides animation-based classes that cover CG and traditional animation, stop motion animation and technical character rigging. Animators are the actors of the visual effect industries and need to demonstrate their ability to deliver believable emotion to a character.

Visual Effects Animation

The Visual Effects Animation track focuses on the various processes in which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the live action shot. Most work as a visual effects artist is to create realistic elements that are integrated into a shot that would otherwise be too costly, dangerous or impossible to capture on film. This track is ideal for the artist who wishes to work with all the elements that comprise a visual effects shot, including blending of background plates or matte paintings with 3D architectural, character or elemental assets. Classes concentrate on lighting and filming techniques, creation, tracking and compositing of elements, and the creation of both particle and dynamic effects.

3D Generalist

The 3D Generalist track is track is an outgrowth of Gnomon’s longstanding program "High-End CG Certificate Program” and is ideal for exploring all aspects of 3D production along with a strong visual art foundation. This program has allowances to choose elected specialty classes when further focus is desired.

With over ten years of experience training students and professionals, Gnomon works with only the best artists and the top studios in the film and games. Staff, instructors and successful alumni work with studios all over the world, such as Activision/Blizzard, ILM, Weta, Electronic Arts, Pixar and Digital Domain. Interested students can learn more about Gnomon’s new three year Entertainment Design and Digital Production Program at: www.gnomonschool.com/programs/entertainment_digital/, or visit the Gnomon School at the Game Developer’s Conference March 11-13, 2010 in booth #CP-2419.

About Gnomon School of Visual Effects

Located in Hollywood, the epicenter of the entertainment industry, Gnomon School of Visual Effects (www.gnomonschool.com) is an innovative training facility that stresses the importance of creativity in digital entertainment production. The school believes that while new software tools help to create impressive computer-generated characters and worlds, it is not the technology that drives results, but the artist. All Gnomon instructors are specialized industry professionals who bring their experience and connections into the classroom to provide an outstanding start to the careers of the next generation of leading production artists. The results speak for themselves, as the flagship Digital Entertainment Production program boasts a 90% job placement rate within three months of graduation.