The Gnomon Workshop is pleased to announce the release of "Introduction to Redshift for Maya", with Christophe Desse

In this introduction to the Redshift renderer, Christophe Desse shares his experience with harnessing the power of GPU rendering. All of the core features necessary to integrate Redshift into your workflow are discussed and demonstrated including Materials, Texturing, Subsurface Scattering, Depth-of-Field, Motion Blur, Photometric Exposure, Render Proxies, Physical Sun/Sky Lighting, Global Illumination. Christophe also delves into how to set-up a back plate for lighting/shadow integration with live-action elements. Using a variety of high-quality examples, Christophe has prioritized that the student will understand both the technical and creative aspects of using Redshift for Maya. Whether you are new to rendering or an experienced artist switching from another engine, this title will help get you up and running in little time, thanks to Redshift’s intuitive workflow, speed and notable ease of use compared to other renderers.

Today we are happy to welcome Hossein Diba to the library with the release of "Creating Hyper Realistic Character in ZBrush"

This title offers an in-depth demonstration on how to effectively use ZBrush to create a hyper realistic character. Hossein Diba shares a thorough breakdown of his workflow, tools and methods using a character study of the wrestler Steve Austin. Likeness sculpting starts with a low resolution base-mesh, then continues with sculpting of the primary shapes, where Hossein focuses on refining the base-mesh and sculpting the landmark anatomical features including those of the head, such as the ears and nose. He then begins to work out the secondary forms as he refines muscle shapes, facial anatomy and the detailed analysis of reference in order to finish the facial likeness. Tertiary detail is then added using alphas and different brush techniques to create the small skin wrinkles and pores which add the final element of realism. With the sculpt complete, Hossein demonstrates how to use Fibermesh to create facial hair as well basic texturing with Polypaint. Lastly the character is posed with Transpose Master and a presentation render is produced using ZBrush render passes that are composited in Photoshop. Artists of all levels interested in realistic 3D character creation will be inspired by this masterful demonstration by Hossein Diba, who generously shares his experience, thoughts and technique.

The Gnomon Workshop is pleased to announce the release of "Developing Storytelling Skills from Life", with April Connors

Working with a costumed model, April Connors demonstrates how to use traditional media to experiment with the concepts of characterization, storytelling, tone and mood. April begins with short poses that focus on warming up the arm and mind, feeling her way through gestures and actions with media suited for speed. She then moves on to longer poses where ideas can be developed, consciously choosing media that reflect the goal for each pose, whether it is a five-minute story scenario in marker, a bright and colorful character expression study, or a moody and brooding black and white charcoal sketch. The demonstration prioritizes the influence of story on character design using body language, expression, mood and costume. April explores various media such as permanent media, pastel, dry and wet mixed media, texture, brush pen, charcoal and water color. For those interested in developing their skills with characterization in the context of a narrative illustration, this title offers a variety of inspired and masterfully executed techniques, thought processes and workflow.