Gnomon Offers One-Day Animation Workshops in L.A.
Hollywood, CA, February 19, 2001 -- The Gnomon School of Visual Effects is holding a new series of one-day animation workshops that are designed to get artists up-to-speed quickly on specific areas of 3D.

The hands-on classes are limited to 12 people. They run from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and cost $295 per class. Volume discounts are available, according to Gnomon.

Here is the schedule of classes and instructors:

-- Maya Fur, February 26th, Darrin Krumweide
-- StudioPaint3D, February 27th, Darrin Krumweide
-- Deep Paint 3D, February 28th, Darrin Krumweide
-- NURBS Modeling: Heads, March 1st, Alex Alvarez
-- NURBS Modeling: Hands and Feet, March 2nd, Alex Alvarez
-- Polygon Modeling, March 19th, Darrin Krumweide
-- Polygon Texturing, March 20th, Darrin Krumweide
-- Subdivision Surfaces, March 21st, Darrin Krumweide
-- Smooth Skinning with Wrap Deformers, March 22nd, Alex Alvarez
-- Paint Effects, March 23rd, Darrin Krumweide,

Alex Alvarez, Director and Founder of Gnomon, is an alumnus of the Art Center College of Design and the University of Pennsylvania. He has a background in illustration using traditional media and computer graphics, having worked for companies such as Malibu Comics and Activision. Prior to Gnomon, Alex worked as an Applications Engineer for Alias|Wavefront, where he was a consultant and trainer for studios in the Los Angeles area. He has been published in 3D Design magazine and on various 3D related sites. Alvarez has spoken at national digital conferences and was one of the first inductees into the E&S CGI Hall of Fame.

Darrin Krumweide, Associate Director of Gnomon, is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in transportation and industrial design. Before joining the staff at Gnomon, Krumweide served as an applications engineer for Alias|Wavefront and senior animator at Kronos Digital Entertainment. As a professional consultant, his clients included Netter Digital, Warner Bros., Honda, Sega and MCA Universal. He has also taught at Art Center College of Design.

For more information on the workshops visit Gnomon's website at www.gnomon3d.com or call 323/466-6663.

Animating Heaven for New Hip Hop Music Video

New York, NY February 19, 2001 -- Artists at the new CGI department at Black Logic, a New York facility, created a 3D galaxy which the members of hip-hop group Common wander around, sitting on planets and walking on golden stairs made of particles.

The video, called "Geto Heaven" was directed by Nzingha Stewart of Propaganda Films, Los Angeles, CA.

"We took the ball and ran with it," said John Mabey, Black Logic visual effects/production supervisor. "The project was creatively exhilarating not only because it allowed us to realize a wholly original world, but because of the extremely tight scheduled [three weeks], which tested our ability to work as a team."

"Because we mostly produce commercials, it was a challenge to come up with enough cool stuff to sustain a four-minute music video," said Dan Connors, Black Logic producer. "We didn't want any of it to get old. It was important that each image look better than the previous one to surprise viewers and keep them interested."

Collaborating with the director from pre- to post-production, Mabey stayed on-set throughout the shoot, while Black Logic executive producer Karen Stewart, helped evaluate the footage and how her team would realize the concept. Common and Gray were filmed against blue screen at a Los Angeles soundstage.

During filming, the Black Logic CG team, led by art directors Patrick Ferguson and Julio Soto, began to experiment with the look of the video and created numerous 2D and 3D animated elements. They also designed a customized color palette made up exclusively of rich earth tones.

"With commercials the visual effects are usually locked in by the time we arrive on the scene and our goal is to enhance the creatives' ideas," explained Mabey, "but with a project like this we had the chance to roll up our sleeves and do some strong creative work."

The Black Logic CG team used Maya 3D animation software, Discreet Logic Inferno, Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. According to Mabey, there are four key animated environments -­ the stripped environment in the beginning, the planets ("Ampland," with its 3D guitar amplifiers), and the star staircase, which was created using the particle and paint effects feature in Maya.

"The real magic in the design was created by Ferguson, Soto and director Stewart, whose design gave us the look that propelled the project."

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Tuesday, February 20, 2001

New Plug-in Allows Export from 3dstudio max to Flash
Boulder, CO, February 20, 2001 -- Electric Rain, Inc. has announced the development of a 3d studio max plug-in version of Swift 3D that allows users of the modeling software to export directly to the Macromedia Flash (SWF) file format, as well as other types of vector-based files.

Max, and other tools like it, export raster-based files only, and cannot take advantage of low-bandwidth vector-based solutions like Flash.

Electric Rain expects to release the Swift 3D Max Plug-In in early spring 2001; a price has not yet been determined. For more Information, go to http://www.erain.com.

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Wednesday February 21, 2001

Cartoon Network Announces New Programming for 2001-2002 Season

February 21, 2001 -- Cartoon Network executives unveiled new original programming and online activities that will be launched this summer and throughout the 2001-2002 television season. Among the announcements:

Animated Television Programming

Celebrating its exclusive rights to the immortal Looney Tunes franchise, Cartoon Network will air every Bugs Bunny cartoon ever created across the three-day "June Bugs" marathon in June 2001

Online Initiatives