www.artist-reference.com

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: 17% [?]

What do you get when you take state of the art animation, 3D effects and a school that can provide you with all that? The Gnomon School of course! This website is just one of the few that the Gnomon group has to offer besides gnomongallery.com, sketchtheatre.com, cgchannel.com as well as thegnomonworkshop.com which I have reviewed earlier. Let´s have a closer look on the gnomonschool.com website.

The website has all that you need to know if you are one of the many hopefuls that hope to make it big in the world of 3D animation and graphics design. Basically, The Gnomon School of Visual Effects is an institute where professionals from the special effects industry come to share their expertise and to instruct those that are either already in it or are aspiring to be. As the website says, “we know that it is not technology that drives the results, but the artist.”

The website itself had my undivided attention the moment I clicked on it. It went right into what The Gnomon School of Visual Effects had on offer. As they say, their courses are for anyone that is interested in the film, game and broadcast industry. The Gnomon School offers several options to choose from – programs or individual courses and on-campus or online training. ´Entertainment Design´, ´Digital Production for Entertainment´ and ´Entertainment Design and Digital Production´ are provided as long term programs consisting of several courses. There is also Maya Fast track program which in particular is designed for those who are already adept at 3D concepts and are now striving to refine their skills on Maya even more. Needless to say, this program is not for people that are new to 3D graphics.

Other than that, training courses can be divided into digital and traditional. One can choose from many courses like Character Modeling and Sculpting, Animation and Visual Effects or Drawing for Film to name a few. Every of them usually lasts 10 weeks and prices range on average from 552 to 1695 USD. Their training options include also an online training courses which allows you to take classes at home. Besides this, their online training program includes Masters Classes that consists of a total of 12 two-hour training sessions. The website has a lot of info on all options (Program and Training Options Comparison; Course Schedule) as well as how you can register for classes.

However, the website was lacking a Home page when I accessed it. Instead, it had a substituted the standard Home Tab with a customized page ´The Gnomon Experience´. But I did like the fact that the people behind the website had chosen to broadcast the latest news in the special effects industry on the first page. Who wouldn’t want to see a play by play of how Pixar’s 3D animated movie “Tangled” was made?

I have to admit, the website has been very clear and intuitive as well as impressive, speaking about design. I also liked the fact that it has assigned a separate section for displaying the work of Gnomon students. It kind of gave me an idea about the level of sophistication and skill that The Gnomon School promises to train its students at when it comes to state-of-the-art 3D graphics design. The ´Best of Term´ section is place where some of their student’s best 3D works were put on display. Regularly, there are winners at the end of each term, who win shopping vouchers to Gnomon store. Here are some latest best works.

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There is no doubt that the Gnomon School of Visual Effects is one of the best training institutes in the field of visual graphics and special effects. The gnomonschool.com will not only tell you what the ´Gnomon Experience´ is, but will also give visitors step by step instructions on how they can be a part of it. The 93% placement rate speaks for itself. And the fact, that the website gives aspirants a means to collaborate with and builds on their own expertise, becomes another feather in its cap.

Summary

+ An excellent website when it comes to informing people about all that the Gnomon School of Visual Effects has to offer.

- You will have to look for information on their profile on other tabs since it is not on the first page.

Popularity: 6% [?]