www.artist-reference.com

3D graphics design has truly taken the world of animation to the next (lets hope not ultimate) level. Thegnomonworkshop.com in particular, has gotten this concept down to a tee. Since 2000 this website has provided the resources that make one of the cornerstones of the entertainment industry – 3D graphics design. Needless to say, if you could describe this website in one word, it would be “fabulous”.

The Gnomon School of Visual Arts is a famous school in California for training some of the hottest talents that are responsible for refining the movie and gaming industry with state of the art concept designs that made us fall in love with it. Thegnomonworkshop.com makes for a handy online tutorial website for those that cannot attend actual classes or who travel a lot and cannot attend regular training sessions. Working experts use this website to create and teach artist the best concept art, effects animation and more.

The website, thegnomonworkshop.com, includes instructional DVDs and tutorials that are up for purchase. In other words, this website gives its members a chance to make it big in a booming graphics industry by giving them access to all their training videos. The idea of a free membership was to provide people a chance to utilize all that The Gnomon School had to offer without actually having to join the school itself and pay for classes. Beats having to pay for tuition fees, I would say. What impressed me the most was that the tutorials and DVDs on this website have also been utilized by media giants like NBC, Disney and even DreamWorks!

As far as the pricing system is concerned, The Gnomon Workshop offers its members up to 3 different pricing systems. They are divided into 3 “plans”. The first package, Plan 1, allows users to purchase every Gnomon tutorial for sale for 499 USD on an annual basis. If you want specific tutorials you can also opt for Plan 2 or 3. Plan 2 in particular consists of tutorials that are within the subject of visual effects for film and games, while Plan 3 includes tutorials in the field of design, illustration and sculpting. Registered members can opt for these packages for yearly tutorial updates.

Other than that the membership process is also free and easy. All you have to do is to follow standard procedure (email and accepting their policies) and you are home free. The subscriptions are the only things that you have to pay for if you want to use them. You can also make single purchases even if you are not a registered member. All you have to do is to toss your desired purchase into your “cart” and the website will take it from there. You will, however, have to register as a paying customer. This still beats having to specifically subscribe for whole sets of tutorials and being stuck with more than you know what to do with.  I was also surprised to find out that I could purchase the tutorial videos either as DVDs or as QuickTime downloads. The prices for both formats are the same, so it is best that you stick to the downloadable versions if you do not particularly like to wait for them to be delivered to your doorstep.

The subscription page seemed to be lacking something though. I would have preferred if the video tabs had a couple of screenshots or summaries that told me what they were about. For example, you will have to go out of a specific DVD’s web page in order to view its video details. The content for each page is distributed on various tabs which were a bit confusing as well. Nevertheless, I found that I could easily navigate myself through the website without coming across any digital dead ends.

I don’t know about you, but buying DVDs on the internet has never been my cup of tea. This website has changed all that. The content and the layout are very professional. However, you need to already know the basics before you even think of watching the DVDs. I lost my train of thought on more than one occasion on a DVD (“Production FX Workflows”) that showed “Brandon” talk about VFXanimation. I have had no VFX training whatsoever but I loved the way he showed how everything comes together so I wasn’t complaining. The DVD also included links and files so I had no problem with finding where I needed to go which was very helpful. Other than that, it consisted of basic tasks, terminology and file layouts.

Thegnomonworkshop.com is also a fairly user friendly website. At least, it was to me. In order to preview the content of each page, visitors generally have to browse their way through it via the content navigator. This will let them know what the website has up for offer in each section. One of the best things I realized was that the website allowed me to search for my preferred item by “Subject”, “Software tools” or by “Instructor”. Chalk one up for usability! It also offers “freebies” like free tutorials and desktop wallpapers for registered members. However, what really got me hooked was the discussion by “subject” tab. That, in my opinion, is where the real action is. This tab allowed users to pay particular attention to digital paraphernalia of every type imaginable. For example, I really liked what they had to offer in their Games and Visual Effects section. It included tutorials on Character Animation, Cinematography, Compositing and Effects Animation to name a few. Other “subjects” like Industrial Design, Illustration and Industrial Design were just as extensive. The pictures and art on display were up to 800 to about a 3000 pixels. Other than that the subscription DVDs themselves offer a ton of quality content for purchase. The “Galleries” also had artwork from the institute’s art directors. Each staff member had his own gallery page that displayed their profiles and their accolades. The gallery also displayed some samples of their art work.

Would you want to use this website? Absolutely! Will it help you get a step closer into breaking into art of movies and games? You said it! One of the best things about this website (besides the awesome layout) is the fact that it offers online tutorials that will instruct you on almost everything you will need to know in order to take your CGI aspirations to the next level. The creators and professionals offer great tips on topics like portraits as well as drawing hands and feet. How they are done is taught by professionals and at affordable rates to boot! In other words, if you are on the lookout for a website that brings together both quality and affordability, thegnomonworkshop.com is the place to be.

Summary:

+ A good navigation system and excellent 3D graphics design software and tutorials make this site unique. Other than that the fact that this website offers a great alternative to attending actual classes by providing members online 3D design tutorials is another selling point.

- Too many tabs for a single video description made looking for a particular tutorial annoying.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Today the main intentions of business communities are focused on minimizing the cost effects of whatsoever they are doing. Same is the case with media industry, which most commonly includes film making, gaming, TV commercials, presentations, simulations and interactive websites. To simulate real life scenarios there are two options – either hire real people on real places and capture it using cameras or make everything using computer graphics. Later one proved to be more useful because of less limitations and practical problems of real world, as well as currently being more economical. Flat Pyramid is a company addressing the above mentioned issue. In following lines we will analyze Flat Pyramid from every possible angle with the aim to provide complete details to artists and all others concerned with computer graphics industry.

This was all about the industry and the concept, now I will deliberate in detail on Flat Pyramid as a company. The official name of company is “FLAT PYRAMID” and was founded in 2005 in Los Angeles, CA. It is one of the biggest provider and online distributor of 3D content and interactive graphics which includes 3D models, photo renders, 3D tutorials, textures and 3D software along with various plugins. It is an online marketplace stuffed with non-exclusive and royalty-free digital graphics. Flat Pyramid is brought into existence with primary aim to reduce production costs in computer graphics industry. Hiring specialized graphic designers and experts for a single project is very expensive and can raise the financial costs. Even if specialized people are not hired still getting custom 3D models and graphics prepared from a provider is an expensive job. Flat Pyramid has provided a way out of these problems by making available lots of 3D models, textures, rendered photos and many other interactive graphics.

Flat Pyramid is mainly divided into 5 categories which are 3D models, photo renders, textures, 3D tutorials and 3D software and programs. 3D models, photo renders and textures, all are further divided into 15-25 different categories, which are very well tailored. Few examples of these sub categories are architecture, food, animals, computers and technology, business and communication, sports, weapon and many others. 3D tutorials section is divided with respect to the program to which it relates (e.g. cinema4D, maya, 3Dmax) or with respect to the technique/process used (3D modeling, 3D rendering and animations etc.). Though everything is listed in its respective category, filtering the list with different filters is also possible.

There is also section called “Custom 3D Graphics” which does not contain any stuff but is there to meet your requirements. At Flat Pyramid, it is possible to let customize 3D models or photo renders accordingly to your wishes. They even offer 3D animation service that includes whole set of works concerning with pre-production, production and post-production. These kinds of services are quite unique among this type of websites. Also, Flat Pyramid is not just a seller of interactive graphics and related products, it provides the opportunity for designers to place their stuff and sell it, too. In short, customers can do both buy and sell products. To sell products, one just needs to sign up for a free account with the option to become seller. Flat Pyramid pays 55% of the proceeds from sales to the artist. In this way, the company provides an excellent platform to expose your talent by making it public. Plus it is good opportunity to earn some money, too.

Let’s have a look on technical aspects, like file format and sizes. All types of models or textures are already searchable as per their format, however, if you buy anything from Flat Pyramid, you are likely to get many formats. For example in case of 3D models you get about 4 to 10 different formats depending upon the availability. The most famous formats are .3ds, .fbx, .max, .obj, .dxf, .psd etc. for 3D models, JPEG, PNG for photo renders and JPEG only for textures. File formats of 3D models give designers the independence of using these models in any program of their choice. Each purchased photo render or texture comes in various sizes (from low resolution to high resolution images), too.

Speaking about pricing, Flat Pyramid possesses a simple and straightforward payment system. You simply pay for what you buy. The price of 3D models varies from 40 to 650 USD per item (according to complexity and details), whereas photo renders are available for 10 to 70 USD per photo. No matter how many items you buy, the price would remain the same. The concept of membership is not introduced on Flat Pyramid. The price of custom 3D work also depends on the detail included in the model and the deadline before which it is required. It usually cost more than a regular item but for this price they adjust it according to your wishes and needs. The time which it takes to deliver the custom order is around 6 weeks, but it is possible to agree to shorter delivery time. Flat Pyramid even helps its clients in using the purchased stuff in their projects. You need not to pay any extra fees for obtaining pictures in different sizes or formats.

There is no doubt that Flat Pyramid is made with a very good concept and clear principles. Initially taken a slow and steady pace, the database is now growing quite rapidly. The most common advantages of being a customer of Flat Pyramid includes reduction in production costs, ease in buying items, ease in navigating through different categories, the availability of various file formats and sizes and opportunity to sell one´s works. Other than this, the custom modeling and design facility is really a unique feature. It helps designers in fulfilling those needs of their clients which they are not capable of. It is like a machine full of expertise and ready to output anything. In addition to above mentioned features, Flat Pyramid is made in a very decent and professional look.

Graphics designing is a field full of complexities, new challenges and changing technologies, hence being perfect in this industry is almost impossible. In accordance with this fact, Flat Pyramid also has some disadvantages or weak areas. The main problem is the lack of content. Though it’s increasing with a good pace but right now Flat Pyramid is not a place where you can find everything. In photo renders section, many categories do not contain any file at all. That can leave a very bad impression in visitor’s mind. The prices are also quite high if considering buying in bulk. Reasonable solution would be to offer some discounts or membership plans in these cases. Also, only one file format is available for textures and hardly two are available for photo renders section. Till now the 3D modeling has been the main focus which left textures and photo renders section in dark.

In my concluding remarks I would appreciate the efforts of designers and complete team of Flat Pyramid. They have managed to build a good platform which is likely to grow very fast in days to come. Even the stuff which is being offered by the company today – there is no doubt it is of very good quality and can be very handy to all professionals in the field of graphic designing. With efficiency and better skills, Flat Pyramid has started its journey towards earning a good repute.

Summary:

+ 3D models are of very good quality and designed with perfection. They are compatible with all leading software of the graphic designing industry. In addition, opportunities to let customize 3D models or photo renders for you or even earn money by selling your own, make this website unique.

-    The website lacks the volume of stuff. There´s no content in some categories so complete reliance on Flat Pyramid is somehow not possible. Also, it is needed to mention, that I haven´t got any reply on my e-mail I sent them in order to ask for some samples.

Popularity: 23% [?]