3D Creature Development Master Class with Alex Alvarez
Introducing a brand new product from The Gnomon Workshop; this custom "class-in-a-box" set includes eight DVDs, 25 hours of lecture, 66 HD 1080p video clips for live action integration, a 176 page full-color Pipeline Guide and six limited edition prints of artist and instructor Alex Alvarez's work. Designed after Alvarez's Creature Development course taught at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, the content covered in the lectures and text book included is considered "intermediate level" and assumes that the student has a solid grasp of the fundamentals, from modeling and UV layout to rigging and animation. The goal is to enable students to realize what they are capable of and gain an understanding of the needs of production with an emphasis on speed and efficiency.
Whenever I need to breathe life into my characters, Alex Alvarez is where I go. Whether it be to collaborate on concepts with him directly or to watch his DVDs, I am always confident in accessibility to great information. Not only has his technical prowess pulled me out of many holes, but his character sense has given rise to some wonderful moments on some major motion pictures (Avatar and Star Trek). These new DVD’s encapsulate what I gush about. Crazy and creative character design coupled with empowering technical know how.
– Neville Page
Character/Concept Designer
Avatar, Star Trek, Watchmen, Cloverfield
This Special Edition Boxed Set includes eight DVDs, 25 hours of lecture, 66 HD 1080p video clips, 176 page full-color Pipeline Guide and six limited edition prints.
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Add To Cart $649Master Class Overview
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3D Creature Development is a creative process that evolves a design by taking advantage of modern 3D tools and techniques. This Master Class introduces the student to the entire pipeline, while exploring form, looks and behavior. Along the way we focus on the experience of working on a project where our work must regularly be presented to an art director or client, while also keeping in mind that the workflow should allow for an iterative approach. This requires an emphasis on speed and efficiency. Projects are never done, they are due. You can tweak things forever, but in the end your work just needs to satisfy the demands of the project, client or specific shot that the work is being made for. With this in mind, all of my techniques are based on a workflow that allows me to spend as little, or as much time, as I have been given. For this creature project, the deadline was one day for each of the seven stages of development: Design, Modeling and UV Layout, Digital Sculpting, Look-Development, Texturing and Shaders, Rigging and Posing, Animation and Live-Action Integration.
Regarding the level of technical details we go into for each stage of development, this Master Class thoroughly discusses and demonstrates every single step with over twenty-five hours of lecture. However, there are certain assumptions that have to be made in regards to the student's technical knowledge of the tools being used. This is an intermediate level course.
- Observe an entire creature development pipeline from design to animation.
- Learn techniques that emphasize efficiency while facilitating exploration.
- 2D sketching, design and orthographic preparation in Adobe Photoshop.
- Polygon Modeling and developing an organized Topology.
- Digital Sculpting: Normal, Displacement and Cavity Maps.
- Creating Turnarounds and Turntable Animations.
- Exploring Texture and Shader Looks in 2D using 3D rendered passes.
- Developing Subsurface Materials with Image Based Lighting (HDR).
- Rigging: Skinning, Inverse Kinematics, Animation Controls, Pose tests.
- Camera Matching, Tracking and Integration with HD 1080p footage.
- Creature Animation integration with multiple live-action locations.
- Tools: Photoshop, Maya, Mental Ray, UVLayout, ZBrush, BodyPaint, SynthEyes, After Effects.
Pipeline Guide