www.artist-reference.com

The CG Channel is an online magazine that pays homage to the industry that made watching animated movies cool – Visual Effects and Computer Graphics. A part of the Gnomon group of industries, the website itself is also updated everyday which means that it provides visitors with everything that is happening in the world of special effects as it comes.

Like the Gnomon Workshop, CG Channel’s purpose is to “inspire” artists and designers that will ultimately have a hand in taking the world of graphics design to the next level. Their claim to fame owes to the fact that they have access to some of Hollywood’s “best artists and studios for unique, insightful content.”

As far as the layout of the website is concerned, I was a bit disappointed to find that all the homepage included was stuff they had for sale. I kind of expected the homepage to have text that at the very least gave me an idea of what the website is all about without me having to click every single tab to find out. I mean I know that it isn’t exactly a B2C website, but that doesn’t mean that they do not mention anything about themselves from the start. In fact, their About page had all this and a bag of chips so I was surprised that it wasn’t the first thing I saw when I visited the website.

Other than that, cgchannel.com is a fairly well made website. It includes a standard search bar at the top of the page if you get lost. Besides that their tabs include topics such as Features, Galleries, Community, Training, Competitions and info about their online store. What the Training tab offers speaks for itself. It includes training videos that you can purchase and also has their prices on display. The videos are tutorials from professional graphics designers and artists so that explains the hefty price tags. I was glad to see that the website also offered free online tutorials. They might not be as extensive as the ones that are actually up for sale, however, watching them would still be useful if you want to get an idea about the quality of their tutorials and whether buying their other videos would actually be worth it. Chalk one up for authenticity!

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Summary

+    Free online video tutorials give good examples of their work and also help in determining whether the quality of their training sessions is really something worth spending your money over.  Plus a lot of interesting information from the field of CG graphics.

-     No information about the website on the home page.

Popularity: 11% [?]

You know you have an engaging website on your hands when you can’t keep your eyes off of it. The gnomongallery.com website is such a place.  Basically, The Gnomon Gallery is as they say “Hollywood’s premier art gallery for the entertainment industry.” It was initially created by Alex Alvarez, who is also the CEO and founder of The Gnomon School of Visual Effects as well as The Gnomon Workshop Website. The purpose of The Gnomon Gallery in particular is to provide info about Gnomon exhibitions held in Hollywood. These exhibitions broadcast the works of different artists in the field of animation (both 3D and otherwise), graphics design and special effects. They are free so anyone can join in. The artwork ranges from genres such as sci-fi fantasy, props, vehicles, sketches, environment and sculptures. Needless to say, the Gnomon websites, like gnomongallery.com, are a great place for anyone that wants to break into the world of special effects and game design.

The website itself goes right into the lowdown on their latest exhibitions. This will be great for someone that follows the shows or just wants to know when the next Gnomon art exhibition will take place. One can find for example info on future shows as well as the names of the artists that will put their works on display. This way, graphics design hopefuls can keep up on when their favorite artists will be making an appearance. There is also a tab that displays the shows archives, which refers to all the shows that have been held in the current year as well as the year before. I was blown away by whom they had invited to give live demonstrations! Some of them were also none other than the artists that worked in commercially successful game franchises like the famous “God of War” series as well as  “Transformers: War for Cybertron.”

However, there is not much more, except links to other Gnomon websites like thegnomonworkshop.com and gnomonschool.com. All in all, it is a fairly simple website whose only purpose seems to be to provide visitors with information about Gnomon art exhibitions, names of artist that will be expected to make appearances there, the venue, date of the exhibitions and the duration. It’s a pity that there is not much more offered by the website.  I would have expected the people behind it to include something that would allow visitors from other cities to share the “Gnomon experience.” It would be great and I am convinced that many people would appreciate it, if there were shown some pictures of the exhibitions, or works themselves, for people who have no chance to visit the ongoing exhibition (for example foreigners).

Also I did wish that the website had more info about how it was related to the Gnomon group. A paragraph or two would have been good for people that might be visiting the website for the first time. Nevertheless, gnomongallery.com is still a great place for anyone who wants to know where they might go to have a front seat to what the latest in the special effects industry has to offer.

Summary

+ Simplicity at its best and a great place for anyone that wants information on interesting and valuable exhibitions.

- No textual description about the Gnomon group in general which might confuse a new visitor who has no knowledge about who they are. Plus visitors from other cities or countries lose out on a chance to actually see what is featured since exhibited works are accessible for seeing only to those that might be fortunate enough to live in or near Hollywood.

Popularity: 13% [?]