The Gnomon Workshop announced the release of two new titles in their wildly popular -Behind The Scenes- series which gives an in-depth look at the creation of a game cinematic sequence. Produced with the cooperation of Producer Emmanuel Fragelus, Art Director Mark Goerner and Director Louis Bolivar, this series follows a team of artists as they demonstrate their production techniques from concept phase to final rendered animation. Each DVD includes actual production meetings with Art Director Mark Goerner as he goes over the existing designs and lends direction to the project.

These two new additions to the series take the character and helicopter models created in earlier DVDs to the next stage: UV layout and texturing. Both Ted Davis and Ben Neall demonstrate their approaches to texturing using a combination of different software, reflective of their daily production practices. See the DVD descriptions below for more details.


Accolades

"Ted Davis is the type of artist you want to have around in production. His innovating approaches combined with shear and raw talent makes the work he produces priceless. It’s a pleasure to be working with him again, who knows what he will captivate me with next?" - Cathy Morin - Lead Texture Artist - Digital Domain

"Ben’s talent and eye for perfection easily puts him as one of the top handful of artists in the industry." - Dave Schoneveld - Senior FX Animator - Dreamworks Feature Animation

Artist Bios

Ben Neall received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Chico State University, with a major in Painting and Drawing. With a background in traditional art, Ben started his career in texturing at Luma Pictures, and has been Lead Texture Artist at Luma since 2005. In this position he has worked on many projects, including City of Ember, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, No Country for Old Men, and Underworld: Evolutions.

Ted Davis attained his BFA in Computer Animation from the International Fine Arts College in Miami, FL. He has foundations in traditional, modern and contemporary techniques of drawing, painting, sculpting and other mixed media art forms. Upon graduating from college, he began applying his various skill sets into the field of Computer Graphics, ultimately becoming a texture artist. He has done work for major visual effects houses, video game studios, broadcast campaigns and freelance clientele. Projects include God of War II, Spyro the Dragon, Silent Hill Experience, Ratchet and Clank, Tools of Destruction, Speed Racer and Thunder Cats.

DVD Description

Character Texturing for Production - Texturing Techniques with Ben Neall

In this chapter of the BTS series Ben Neall explores the many aspects of texture creation for the main character Geo. Some of these aspects include techniques such as UVing, Projecting, Texture Painting using 2D and 3D softwares, as well as overviews of shader and render setup. Ben also shows techniques to help the artist in the visual development stage, using compositing software to make real-time decisions. The viewer will also see actual production meetings in which the design and creation of the textures are discussed.

Hard Surface Texture Painting - Vehicle Texture Painting with Ted Davis

This chapter in the series focuses on hard surface texture painting for 3D models, in this case a military styled helicopter. Ted begins by organizing the vehicle into discreet layer groups reflective of their final material assignments. He then shows various texture painting techniques and methodologies using Maya, Photoshop�®, BodyPaint and ZBrush. The DVD includes production meetings with art director Mark Goerner and culminates with a spectacular rendering of what all the various maps look like when placed on the model.

More Information at: www.thegnomonworkshop.com. Video and Image Courtesy of Gnomon Inc.