Free education for all artists
Giving back to the community: Gnomon School’s events create opportunities for artists everywhere to grow their skillsets – for free!
Giving back to the community: Gnomon School’s events create opportunities for artists everywhere to grow their skillsets – for free
When we hear the word ‘Gnomon’, we will most likely immediately think: ‘Education’. Whether this association comes to us from the internationally famed, award-winning school in Hollywood, or from our trust of the online training platform from Gnomon School’s sister company, The Gnomon Workshop, the common factor is industryleading instruction.
Serving Hollywood and beyond
Hailed as “the MIT of visual effects” by
Fast Company magazine, Gnomon School of Visual Effects offers an unrivalled experience for students looking to work in films and games, and boasts a 2016 employment rate of 100% and 93% for its vocational programmes. Add to this a new BFA degree in Digital Production that launched this year, and it’s clear to see that Gnomon School is stepping up its game and taking impressive strides to educate the next generation of digital artists with even greater opportunities than ever before.
While studying in Hollywood may not be feasible for everyone, one of the things that makes Gnomon School different is its efforts to build and maintain a global community through an exceptional programme of Gnomon events that are available to everyone – for free! For those local to the school’s campus, they can meet superstars from studios like Walt Disney Animation, Riot Games, Industrial Light and Magic, as well as art legends like Star Wars’ Iain Mccaig, Stranger Things’ Aaron Sims, and ILM’S Paul Giacoppo. What’s more: almost all Gnomon events are streamed live through Gnomon’s Livestream channel, and archived for future enjoyment. Again: this is free. Head to livestream.com/gnomon to check out the full collection of past events and see what’s coming up next.
Power in numbers
From making-of features showcasing the latest VFX techniques of blockbuster films and video games, to inspiring panel discussions with award-winning artists, Gnomon events have grown over the last couple of years to a rate of at least two free public events per month – and sometimes four or more. In 2016, Gnomon’s senior editor and creative content manager, Lynette Clee, produced – leading a fearless events team – more than 30 events throughout the year, with around 2,460 attendees visiting the Gnomon campus within 12 months to watch the free events in person. Additionally, Gnomon logged that events were viewed by over 183,500 unique viewers on Livestream last year, with online watchers tuning in from all corners of the globe. This impressive feat was the handiwork of Lynette, who before working at Gnomon School spent nine years serving
the digital art community through her roles for 3dtotal.com, 3dtotal Publishing, and 3D Artist magazine.
Lynette told us: “We’ve built a fantastic following through our events; we’ve worked with artists from many of the biggest studios in LA and beyond, and we’ve been honoured to host several oscar and Emmy Award winners at the Gnomon stage this year alone. We love meeting new artists from the local community every month – and by streaming our events on Livestream, we can also communicate with viewers all around the world, even while we’re producing the events live. Being able to extend our stage – which accommodates around 250 attendees – to literally thousands of people across the globe, adds to the excitement and energy for the audience and speakers alike.”
The Livestream team have been impressed by Gnomon’s efforts, too: “From in-depth panels to artist workshops, Gnomon [provides] exclusive, high-quality content to their students, faculty, and viewers around the world,” said Carly Walsh, content and social media manager at Livestream. “Gnomon makes it possible for anyone interested in computer graphics to learn from their favourite artists on their phone, computer, tablet, or smart TV apps.”
As further testament to Gnomon School’s event success of late, technology giant Lenovo joined forces with Gnomon this year as an event sponsor. Lynette explains: “In 2016, we helped companies like Allegorithmic, NVIDIA, Foundry, Chaos Group, Formlabs, and Pixologic host cutting-edge events at Gnomon, and so we were thrilled when Lenovo came on board as an official sponsor this year; we have such a talented and technology-hungry audience, which makes the partnership a great fit, and it’s obviously a huge honour and compliment for us to have the support of such a wellrespected company.”
Keeping it real
one of the keys behind Gnomon’s event success is the eclectic mix of artists and topics that Lynette curates to reach artists of all genres, interests, and skill levels. In fact, Gnomon’s event archive reads like a who’s who of the film, game, and TV industries! From Game of Thrones’ five-time Emmy Award VFX Producer, Steve Kullback, to Blur Studio owner and
Deadpool director, Tim Miller, and dozens of game artists from the award-winning
“being able to extend our stage… to literally thousands of people across the Globe adds to the excitement” Lynette Clee, senior editor and creative content manager, Gnomon School
naughty Dog studio, events have spanned the making of Uncharted 4 and Zootopia, as well as live demos by artists that worked on
Wonder Woman and Star Trek Beyond, and discussions with Spider-man video game leads and Kubo and the Two Strings’ VES Award winners.
A highlight of the Gnomon event calendar has to be the Anatomy Lab series. This year’s Anatomy Lab: Stylized Creature Design Workshop event brought five talented illustrators and 3D artists to the stage for an assembly of live sketching, Photoshop, and Zbrush demonstrations, and offered attendees the chance to meet and sketch Boxer the serval between sessions. What’s extra special about these anatomy events is that they always surprise by thinking outside of the box, bringing together experts in taxidermy and specialists from the natural History Museum alongside professional animal handlers and digital artists to help attendees truly grasp the importance of anatomy in their art. We can’t think of any other similar free community events that compare to this.
a Little extra
While Gnomon School produces these events for the community at large, it’s the students at the campus in Hollywood that benefit the greatest. Lynette says: “Whenever possible, if we get the chance to bring rock stars from the likes of Disney, ILM, Blur Studio, and Blizzard Entertainment, we always, always try our best to coordinate one-on-one time with our upcoming graduates and the visiting artists; this gives students a chance to get industry insights beyond those given at the event – and more importantly the chance to get portfolio reviews by industry legends!”
While studying at Gnomon may remain a dream for most of us, we’re going to continue tuning in to the Livestream events; Gnomon School has very gracefully allowed us all to be a part of its community, and we can’t wait to see what’s coming next.