Gnomon

Gnomon strives to emulate a production environment within its classrooms by utilizing instructors who are working professionals at film and game studios. To prepare students for the collaborative nature of a career in visual effects, Gnomon’s courses parallel the inner workings of effects studios. The school’s technical curricula take students through the completion of collaborative and individual projects. Student develop their creative concepts into fully realized production assets, utilizing methods and workflows used every day in the entertainment industry.

Intro to Maya

This course focuses on the foundation of 3D computer graphics using Autodesk Maya. Students are introduced to the Maya interface and philosophy, as well as 3D modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, and animation.

Texturing and Shading 1

This course builds on the techniques learned in Introduction to 3D with Maya. Through weekly lectures and out of class assignments, students develop textures and shaders using Autodesk Maya, Chaos Group’s VRay, and Adobe Photoshop.

Lighting and Rendering 1

This course builds on the principles learned in Introduction to 3D in Maya. Students will learn to create artistic and cinematic lighting setups with Autodesk’s Maya and Chaos Group’s VRay.

Character Modeling and Sculpting

This course teaches students to build balanced bipedal characters, merging the traditional art of sculpting with digital modeling techniques. Autodesk Maya, in conjunction with Pixologic’s ZBrush, is used to create appealing and functional characters in 3D.

Houdini 2

This course builds on the principles learned in Houdini 1. Through lectures and homework assignments, students learn to develop introductory simulations using SideFX’s Houdini.

Advanced Digital Sculpting

This course focuses on using advanced hard surface sculpting techniques in Pixologic’s ZBrush to create models for film, games, and 3D printing.

Props and Weapons for Games

This course presents the fundamentals for creating artistically creative prop models optimized for real-time engines. Priority is placed on gaining an in-depth understanding of normal maps and how important they are throughout the entire process.

Game Creation 1

This course is designed to give students an introductory understanding of working with game content in the Unreal Engine 4 toolset.

Visual Effects for Games 1

In this course, students will create visual effects by learning the fundamental concepts of real-time particle animation and material manipulation for implementation in a games medium.

Look Development

This course builds on the principles learned in multiple intermediate courses, such as Lighting and Rendering and Texturing and Shading. Students will learn the tools and techniques necessary for look development with Autodesk’s Maya, Chaos Group’s VRay, and The Foundry’s Nuke and Mari.