Alan's USA Trip - Part 5: Gnomon

The Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

The Gnomon School of Visual Effects has been in operation since late 90's/2000's. Founded by Alex Alvarz and Marcel De Jong its function is to train students in high end CG skills. Something that wasn't available at the time in US universities. It started life as one room of Silicon Graphics computers and slowly over the years its grown into a world leader in vocational CG and Art education. Now offering cetificate programs (both specific and generalist) to a worldwide audience.

When I studied there it was still in the early stages and had an excellent 'family / community' feel. Many of the staff, students, and tutors are still my friends today. Here is a quick tour of Gnomon today...



This is the main entrance to Gnomon. Glamorous huh? Like most things in this world its whats inside that counts. Gnomon is part of the 'Television Center' building which also houses, sound stages, processing labs, dance classes, and a gym (see images below). In fact its belived that Ray Harryhausen made some of his films early here early in his career.



These are some of the key rooms and computer labs at Gnomon. Over the years extra rooms have appeared to house and facilitate the growth in student numbers. This has included a gallery and workshop (for DVD production)...



...and a 'dirty' studio for life drawing and sculpting.



Here are a couple of friends of mine from my Gnomon days. Charlie and I studied together, whilst Kristen gave us important advice on curriculum choices and still remains one of central hearts of Gnomon. Unfortunately, Alex was out at Siggraph (as were many of the staff that week) giving a talk on his role on Avatar.



As, I mentioned before Gnomon is surrounded by other key buildings. The sound stage is used for small shoots as well a presentations by Gnomon. In my time there I saw, Ray Harryhausen, Sid Mead, Sony (Spiderman), Pixar (Cars), David Arquette, Snoop Dog, Jessica Alba and many more. Infact that list was all in one 10 week term if I remember correctly.

Finally, on a funny note. Its always seemed ironic to me that Gnomon shares a building with a big gym (Gold's Gym). On one side people spend all day sitting down whilst on the other running and lifting weights. I suggested that they connected all the bikes and machines to a generator to power the computers. Kind of makes sense if you think about it.

Ok, thats it for now. I have one final trip to make before leaving. To see my good friends (and ex-landlords) Pam and Michael Hogarth. Pam was one of the heads of Gnomon until this year when she moved to Look Effects. Michael is an artist who used to work with David Hockney and now teaches at Gnomon. Michael's late father was the famous artist Burne Hogarth best known for Tarzan.

For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burne_Hogarth