Discover 16 Amazing Student Projects: Gnomon’s Best of the Winter Term 2021
Each quarter, Gnomon holds a Best of Term competition to award and recognize the best student work created at the school during that individual term. Each Best of Term features artwork displaying a wide range of technical skills from full-time program students, extension students, and individuals enrolled in the Foundation in Art & Design course of study, as all students enrolled in that term are eligible to submit their work for consideration.
“Best of Term is always a highlight of the quarter, when we go through all the amazing submissions to pick the stand-out pieces in different categories. It’s never easy, because there’s so much great stuff, but it’s extremely rewarding to see all the work that our students do quarter after quarter. I love seeing students submit each term and watching their skills grow as they progress.” Josh Herman, Gnomon Chief Creative Officer.
As part of the Winter 2021 semester, discover 16 standout student works:
Jae Won Rim – Grand Winner
Project: Antique Photostudio
“Antique Photostudio was created as part of the Demo Reel class taught by Miguel Ortega, and took 6-7 weeks to finish. The camera model was made in the Hard-Surface Modeling class taught by David Mooy. Miguel’s weekly feedback was very helpful to increase the quality of the work, and I learned how to make a smooth lighting transition and how to make a scene pretty.
Managing the schedule was the hardest part since I had a limited time to work on this project. I downloaded a couple small assets from CG Trader as fillers, but most of the prominent assets were created from scratch. Also, I had a hard time learning Substance Designer on my own because I was not used to it. However, after continued practice, I found it fun making custom materials for my models.”
Adam Velazquez
Project Title: Deer Boi
“This was a fun experience. I’ve always wanted to learn how to make an animated character and integrate it with a live action scene. My classmates and teachers helped a great deal with all their feedback on the monster’s texturing, animation, fire effects, and compositing. The live action footage was made with good friends from my previous college.”
See the animation on Gnomon’s web gallery >
Anna Cavasos
Project: Rat Cook
(Concept by Chris Kintner)
“This piece was created for my demo reel at Gnomon. The concept was super adorable and a great way for me to dive into grooming fur.”
See the project on ArtStation >
Project Title: Butterflies
(Concept by Lena Richards)
“Trying to balance beauty with creepiness was the goal for this piece. I had a lot of fun with the skin texturing and hair groom specifically.”
See the project on ArtStation >
Connor Lee
Project Title: Japan 2041 – NIGHT
“I have gotten used to making things look destroyed, ruined, and overgrown. I wanted to push myself to make something that felt used, loved, and with tones of personality (with just texture alone). It was a good challenge and a fantastic learning experience trying to find that balance. And the constant feedback I received from Christophe Desse and my good friend Chin Fong was invaluable.”
David Eisenstadt
Project title: The Classic White Tiffany Coupe
“In my Hard Surface Modeling 2 class taught by Jay Machado, I had the opportunity to model any vehicle I so desired. Faced with endless possible options, I decided upon a car that I grew up admiring—my Papa Thomas had a classic white tiffany coupe with a built-in handset and horns that played the theme from The Godfather. My mom and dad almost bought it, but it was 19 feet long and was quite seriously longer than our garage—I thought if we couldn’t own the car, I might as well model it! Over the course of 7 weeks, I gathered all of my reference, modeled everything in Maya under the invaluable tutelage of Jay and one of my tutors at Gnomon, Tran Ma, textured it procedurally in Maya, and composited it in Nuke with some fantastic guidance by Miguel Ortega. Thanks to their instruction, I was able to create a piece that garnered a Gnomon Best of Term for Hard Surface Modeling!”
David Kwahk
Project Title: Kid and the Hyenas
(Concept by Xiaoyu Huang)
“This is one of the pieces I did for my demo reel. I first saw this concept on ArtStation over a year ago, and it’s left such a lasting impression on me that once it came time to decide on a project to do for demo reel, this piece immediately came to mind. Although I don’t feel I did the original painting justice, it’s really rewarding to see it finished and a part of my portfolio.”
Devon Rush
Project Title: The Escape
“This shot was inspired by a few of my favourite movies, Raiders of The Lost Ark, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Jurassic Park. I wanted to make an epic establishing shot that could be the opening or ending of my own adventure film. I also have to give a huge thank you to Miguel Ortega for all his advice and encouragement.”
See the animation on Gnomon’s web gallery >
Isabella Omohundro
Project title: The Christmas Jackalope
“This little jackalope girl is the main character for a Christmas short I hope to be able develop someday. She was my final project at Gnomon, and a lot of love and care went into her development and character design.”
See the full project breakdown >
Coraline Lyu
(Concept by Tian Gan)
Project Title: Abandoned factory
“This project was my first time learning how to use Unreal. Everything is new and attractive. I was inspired by The Last of Us and the original concept by Tian Gan. Controlling the atmosphere of the entire environment was the biggest challenge for me.”
See the animation on Gnomon’s web gallery >
Justin Greenstone
Project title: Lucifer’s Bane
(Concept by Jone Lane)
“Since the return of Doom, I have been really inspired by the amazing art the ID team has put out and wanted to bring to life one of the alternate concepts for the Super Shotgun made by Jon Lane. This project was made for my Props & Weapons for Games class at Gnomon with Sukru Gilman. Created with Blender, Substance, and Photoshop, and rendered in Cycles.”
Pom Intakul
Project title: Soldier
(Costume concept by Yintion J)
“My goal is to practice sculpting likeness and optimizing the model for games.”
Sasoon Nazari
Project Title: Jinji’s Grotto
(Concept by Connor Sheehan)
“I picked this project to see how fast I could complete an environment while making sure everything looked pretty. The entire project lasted 2 weeks; one to sculpt, uv, retopologize, and texture my custom assets, and one to put the shaders and foliage together. I also created a master shader to randomize the cracks, moss growth, dirt, and colors on the cat statues to add a level of realism.”
Taron Petrosyan
Project Title: Set Extension
“This was both challenging and time consuming. I am glad I could bring all the pieces together. This is my first set extension project done during my study at Gnomon. Shot is from the movie “Drops of Light.” Huge thanks to my lecturers at Gnomon Nick Da Silva and Arman Chilingaryan for allowing me to have the RAW footage and experiment as I see fit. I was responsible for Layout, Look Dev, Lighting and Compositing.”
Thomas Proux
Project title: Animated Fight Sequence
“This is a re-animated fight sequence from the live-action movie Undisputed 3. Animating a fight offered its load of challenges, but it was a ton of fun to work on kicking those down.”
Zhouli Tan
Project title: Gashsaurus
“I did this concept in Jared Krichevsky’s creature modeling class. This piece was inspired by the Monster Hunter universe. It was a fun project and thanks to Jared for all the help and guidance bring this piece to live.”
The application deadline for Gnomon’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree and Certificate in Digital Production program is June 30th. Speak with a Gnomon advisor today for free one-one portfolio feedback and a personalized plan of action for your individual needs. Apply Now.
