Hey Guys its been a long time sense I last posted on this blog and due to not being able to sleep well right now I decided why not take this chance to for a update. One of my friend in a lab I monitor at gnomon pointed out to me that he ran across my blog while he was researching on weather he wanted to go to gnomon or not and pointed out that one of my first entries in this blog was "I am not going to be one of those bloggers that suddenly stop blogging and vanish" Well guess I should never deal in absolutes because my last blog entry was on 3/10/2014. Today is 5/19/2015 its been over a YEAR sense my last post... Way to drop the ball there Mark >.<
So lets try this again shall we? Here is a update about Gnomon and were I am at in the program.
If you read my past entries you should know I was able to get into Gnomon after taking the 1 year program "Entertainment Design Track" and I would say over all I was vary pleased with this choice. Was it cheap? Hell no after taking in the track and cost of living I payed around $26K for my first year at Gnomon (Rough estimate I have to look back at my books for the exact amount) The reality is this was a choice I made to become a better artist over all re teaching my self some of the fundamentals as well as learning about Design. I am right now enrolled in the "Entertainment Design and Digital Production" track do to credits will transfer over seamlessly from the 1 year and you don't have to re take classes. Plus to be honest after the 1 year of this track you are taking all the same classes you would of taken in the "Digital Production for Entertainment" track also known as the 2 year track at Gnomon.
I chose this wrought because I wanted to improve my skills and grow as a better Artist not to become a button pusher. Gnomon will teach you the software in the end of the day and you will have trained eyes looking at your work and offering you feed back on how to improve to be a industry professional. This is what Gnomon does really well and is why our school is recognized as one of the leading places to become trained in the FX industry. I am vary proud to be a part of such a amazing staff and student at this school. I been working as a Teacher Assistant now for three terms. I am guaranteed a work station to work at for 3 hours, get paid doing my homework, and get to help other people which I really enjoy doing. I hope after working in the industry for a while to have the opportunity to teach on the side because its something I really enjoy doing.
As for the track I chose at Gnomon I have decided to become a Animator. A odd choice I know sense when I originally came to Gnomon almost 3 years ago I wanted to be a modeler. So after getting more time to be in the trenches this is a snap show of what I feel is good about the programs at Gnomon after talking to alumni, personal friends, teachers, and staff at Gnomon about the different tracks.
Disclaimer:
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Let this be a reminder that this is not gospel or hard true facts. It is my educated opinion from my own experience and those I talked to. The staff at Gnomon are amazing. Max Dayan, Andrea Adams, Crystal Mora, Liz Cooper, Shannon Wiggins, and so many other members of Gnomon staff try every day to make this place amazing and they are all great artist them selves. This school tends to only hire people with some kind of real world art background be if as something they studied in or worked doing so you always have a common ground to fall back on.
There was something I heard at one of my friends Gnomon graduations that always stick in my mind. Alex Alvarez said he made Gnomon because it was the school he always wish he had when he got into this industry. Its a amazing place that turns out great artist every 10 weeks for a reason.
What I think about Gnomons tracks:
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Generalist / Modeling and Texturing Track:
I think to date Gnomon strongest track is there Generalist and Modeling and Texturing track. Why? Because the core teachers of Gnomon meaning ones that are on staff and have been teaching the longest at Gnomon are either Generalist, Modelers, or Textures artist them selves. This means that Gnomon get teachers that not only know this field intimately but also are good at teaching.
You see its a double edge sword when you always want to staff industry professionals as your teachers. What happens is you get some one who knows there trade that you just payed over $1k to learn from for the next 10 weeks but they may be a lousy teacher. Its really hard to fine some one who's not only good at what they do but also good at teaching. These are two different skills sets that not every one has. You have to build up to be a good teacher just like anything ells. Also Gnomon tends to re staff as quick as they can between breaks and this does not give any time to train the new teacher on HOW to teach. Meaning you get a shot gun approach. Near the end of the term we are given evaluations to fill out and its from these evaluations Gnomon decides if there going to keep that teacher around. If they don't pass the bar they are let go and the visas cycle starts all over again.
But why don't they have trained teachers teaching me I payed a lot of money for a good teacher! Because you wanted a teacher that is working in the industry. If you have not learned yet our industry if vary challenging place to live in. Long work hours that fluctuate rapidly does not bread a place of stability also factor in LA commute time and no formal training in teaching and you got a hog pog mess of possibilities so you never know if that teacher you are about to get is going to be any good or not and its a roll of the dice.
So lets say the teacher is just learning how to teach but now he has to pass the hurdle of "Will the students axe me because they were not happy with my performance?" Gnomon takes these things into consideration its not so black and white but it is something that they struggle with every term. They really on our feed back to see if a teacher is working or not then they have to hope we filled out the evaluations honestly and are not just venting and then from there have to hope the teacher wants to sign up for another term to teach.
The Modeling and Texturing / Generalist tracks have people who are not only great teachers like Max Dayan or Mark Dedecker, Steven Delilah, or Stephen McClure. These are Instructors that both know what there doing and know HOW to teach. They have both sides that are needed to make a amazing Gnomon Instructor. This is not to say other tracks don't have this but they do not have as many top notch teachers that are also working professionals.
This is why I feel these are the two best tracks at Gnomon right now. Also if you look at the advisor administration who over see the tracks these are the only two tracks I found that have have advisers that directly have worked in that industry that are on staff currently. I know they don't have one for Animation but I don't know if they even have one for VFX.
VFX Track:
Once again this is something I only gathered knowledge 2nd hand sense I am not a VFX artist. This track seems to be a mix bag I usually run into 1 or 2 super stars and a lot of mediocre VFX artist that come out of this track. Its odd that there is such a big extreme but there could be several reasons for this. I can only tell you what I learned from asking other VFX artist why this is or what there take is on it.
The most common complaint I get from people about this track is that they feel the equipment is not adequate for them to do the work at Gnomon so there chance to learn a new skill set it rather hampered. Creating a sim takes a lot of time and a powerful computer. To top it off it also requires a lot of space. VFX is one of the smallest tracks at Gnomon with people who choose it as there track selection. I am told some of the teachers are mediocre in the fact they cant show you ways to solver your problem because in essence they would have to re simulate to even know if there going in the right direction.
This has always been something about VFX that frustrated me. You push some sliders around hope you are right then kick off a simulation that you wait hours to finish and then look at it and try to trouble shoot if its right or not. This track requires a intense understanding of the tools you are using and programming knowledge. You have to fail a dozen times with hours of in between time to HOPE you are right. Its the nature of the beast at the end of the day.
The other common complaint I hear is that you don't get Houdini till the end of the track which most VFX artist have told me is to late to be competitive in the work force. Now I can understand this if you feel the only place you want to work at is a VFX house that uses Houdini like ILM but this is called do your research. Gnomon teaches you Maya Dynamics which is much more cost effective for small to medium size FX houses but Houdini is a VARY expensive program and should be learned by any VFX artist but it is not the only fish in the sea. At the end of the day its the artist that makes the asset not the software.
Animation Track:
So our last track which is the one I currently am in is the Animation Track. Now I don't tend to get into things and go half way. When I commit to something I through my whole self into it. I been active in trying to do as much as I can to be as successful as I can while balancing all the non animation related classes that gnomon throws at you as well as the animation ones.
I feel over all this track is good for what it is but definitely could use some improvement. Would I recommend it over the other available resources out there when it comes to learning Animation I can not say this is the best option. People do not come to Gnomon to become a Animator it is not publicized in any of the local rings when it comes to become a Animator but that does not mean you can't become a good Animator take a look at Jesse Daumgartner who works at Riot Games.
So some background on me also so you can get a clear understanding of what I am saying here. I never really animated in my life. When I chose this track it was because I found I really enjoyed telling stories and am interested in doing my own stories. I wanted a track that allowed me to tell a narrative story through CG and found I always really loved animated movies and cut scenes from games because they were miniature stories. I get board doing anything ells fast because I am not getting in the head of a character and acting them out. Call me a late bloomer when it comes to animation but its always been something I admired.
So now you know my background and you know Gnomon does not come up on the raider when it comes to school to go to for Animation yet Gnomon still does teach animation. Lets face it Gnomon goal is to build a well rounded 3D artist who knows a lot of little things and is really good at one thing. So when I leave Gnomon if I compare my self to say some one who got out of Animation Mentore and we both are hard driven people yes the person from Animation Mentor will be a better animator then me. I will know how to do more things though then him instead of just animating.
If all you want to do all day and night is Animate and never touch anything ells I would not go to Gnomon for there Animation track. I would consider at most going to the cources indivigualy and networking with Gnomon Students and staff to help you land your first job because the most important thing it seems in this industry is who you know not just what you know. Let me tell you know that I meet people who come out of school like Animation Mentore at Gnomon who are good animators but still could not land a job because they did not have a network to get them the job. Are they better animators then me? Yes they been doing this longer. What you get from Gnomon is not just a skill you get the network that Gnomon has if you work it.
So any ways back to the track. Gnomon has a list of good teachers I have not had a teacher yet at Gnomon animation program up to this point which is before demo real that I have felt is completely useless. I had a few that were not amazing teachers but all of them are incredible animators. If your expecting to come to class on time and just sit there absorbing info and having the holy grail of "If you do xyz you will get a job %100" or "Here is exactly how to fix your shot and a detailed example step by step on how to do it and this will work all the time!" NO! This does not exist. I don't know if this is just the nature of animation sense I never gone to another school but even the 12 principles of animation is really guide lines and not cold hard facts.
If I could improve the program I say get some one on the administration level who is in charge of the Animation department. They over see teacher selection, training new teachers, and are available to help any animation student during normal work hours (9am - 5pm) Do we have this? No. I love the staff at Gnomon but none of them are animators which means what help they can provide to you is limited and when they are given the job of filling in positions like the demo real teacher for animation who you will MAYBE have for half a year it puts them at a tough spot to pick a good applicant. They do the best they can with what they have available to them. Its up to you to take things further to really get the most out of this program. Be up front and honest with your teachers. If you do not understand what there saying in class try asking them out side of class or sending them a email. Oddly some people I found are horrible at explaining things in a class setting but when you get them over email or Skype they can tare your work apart and give you a detailed listing of how to fix it. I guess some people just suck trying to work in front of other people.
I see Gnomon produce amazing modelers / Texture artist / Compositers like it was a factory line with out batting a eye. Its not the same case for Animators. Most Gnomon animators end up doing pre viz when they get out of Gnomon as there first job do to our sense of timing which you don't even animate anything past a camera really. The reality is Gnomon need to re work there curriculum to build strong animators. Animation is a really different skill set and needs to be re looked at. We don't texture things, we don't software render things, we don't compost things, and we don't model thing things. Most shots I may put a cube there to represent a table or a sphere to represent a ball. Lets face it when you animate you worry about performance and sense of be-livability through movement. The reason you have these classes is because Gnomon is a Generalist school for most the tracks is still a relatively new thing. If you know you want to be a Animator then be ready to skim by on a lot of classes NOT related to Animation. I hope some day Gnomon takes a closer look at there curriculum and re does the Animation track because I can tell you there are a lot of classes that are not related to Animation.
I say rigging is good to know so you can at least fix your rig when you break it and you will break it or when you need to jury rig things together for a shot like one I am working on now were I need to have a character take his head off and still be able to emote with the head and body separately. I used to complain about the rigs Gnomon has comparing them to other schools like Animation Mentor who have in house riggers to build custom rigs for there student then realized through people who work in the industry that you wont always have the luxury and need to learn how to still get a good performance out of a bad rig.
Well that's enough for today so have a good one guys and girls I will try and get in a better habbit of updating this blog now. I wish you guys the best if you have any questions drop me a line at my email: thedeo85@gmail.com and I will try and get back to you :) Best of Luck!
