Alex Alvarez是好莱坞Gnomon特效学校，the Gnomon Workshop，Gnomon Gallery, SketchTheatre，还有Gnomon Studios的创办者与校长。在过去的15年里面致力于教授来自全球的学生与专业人士。Alex帮助改变了电脑图形设计与设计教育的面貌，他出现在很多杂志，网站与书本中。他一如既往的参与了个人与专业项目的制作，最近又以生物设计师的身份参与了阿凡达，星际迷航，绿灯侠，普罗米修斯的制作。在GNOMON之前，他是Alias|Wavefront的一名顾问与培训师。Alex毕业于宾夕法尼亚美国艺术中心设计学院设计系。

Founder, Director The Gnomon Workshop Gnomon School of Visual Effects

Alex Alvarez is the founder and president of the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, the Gnomon Workshop, Gnomon Gallery, SketchTheatre and Gnomon Studios. Having dedicated the past fifteen years to educating students and professionals around the world, Alex has helped change the face of computer graphics and design education. He has been published in industry magazines, websites and books, plus he has taught workshops at several major trade conferences. He continues to work on personal and professional projects, recently as a creature development artist on Avatar, Star Trek, Green Lantern and Prometheus. Prior to Gnomon, Alex worked for Alias|Wavefront as a consultant and trainer for studios in the Los Angeles area. Alex is an alumnus of the Art Center College of Design and the University of Pennsylvania.

在本DVD中，Alex讲解了如何使用MAAY,Paint Effects，还有Menral ray来创建逼真的草，同时为大家分享他制作一个完整的自然环境的技术。我们先从查看Paint Effects的基本的grass library开始，讲解了如何通过一些基本的调整来让草看起来更加自然，通过曲线与实例化来让大块的区域被草覆盖。通过使用实例化，粒子， 表面发射器，Alex告诉我们如何在一个很大的场景中布满草的几何体，并且使用最小的内存来渲染上百万的多边形。里面使用了一个基于表达式的技术，根据表 面来决定被实例化的对象的方向，这是一个对植物与树来说不太重要的问题，但是对于草来说却是相当重要的。当我们需要的各个元素被交互式的，并且精确的放置 了，Alex为我们讲解了如何使用一个免费的几何体绘制代码，还有如何将实例化的粒子bake到几何体上。教学深入的讲解了如何创建忒图，mia材质，还 有使用物理真实的sun/sky。Alex还讲解了如何渲染与应用zDepth层来添加后期的景深与雾效，如果渲染真实的体积雾特效，还有如何在AE与 PHOTOSHOP中通过使用色彩校正与像Magic Bullet, LensCare，还有Sapphire这样的插件来提升真实感。

In this DVD, Alex covers how to create realistic grass using Maya, Paint Effects and Mental Ray while also sharing his techniques for developing a complete natural environment. We begin by evaluating the default Paint Effects grass library with discussion on the basic adjustments needed to make grass more natural. Techniques for covering large areas with grass are then explored via curves and instancing. Through the use of instancing, particles and surface emitters, Alex shows how to populate large scenes with grass geometry, rendering millions of polygons with a minimal RAM footprint. Included is an expression based technique for orienting instanced geometry with the normal of the generating surface, an issue less important for plants or trees but often very important for grass. When elements need to be interactively and precisely placed, Alex also demonstrates the use of a freely available geometry paint script, as well as how to bake particle instances to geometry. Generating textures, miaMaterials and workflow in conjunction with Physical Sun/Sky is thoroughly discussed. Alex also demonstrates how to render and utilize zDepth passes to add post depth-of-field and fog effects, how to render true volumetric fog effects, as well as Photoshop and After Effects post techniques to increase realism through the use of color correction and plug-ins, including Magic Bullet, LensCare and Sapphire.

Gnomon Workshop是全球娱乐业与设计工业设计师的顶级专业培训机构，它是由Alex Alvarez在2000创建的。它原本是为那些无法参加加利福尼亚GNOMON SCHOOL好莱坞特效课程的学员提供一个分享专业技术的平台。在过去的9年时间里，GNOMON教学系列DVD已经提供了超过60多位专业讲师的教学系列，涉及到了各种不同的工具，软件与媒介，包括了设计，绘画，雕塑，建模，贴图，动画，特效与合成等各方面。

Gnomon以提供最顶级的教学为己任，不但教授了知识，还激发了学员的灵感，帮助学员实现他们的个人目标，不论你感兴趣的是数码抠像，还是角色建模，数码场景设计，汽车设计，生物渲染，雕塑，这些DVD都能帮助艺术家从顶级设计师那里学习到专业的经验，节省自己的时间，并且增加应用技巧。这些技术都是需要作为教师的艺术家通过多年的时间才能掌握的。

Gnomon位处好莱坞的核心地段，已经发展成为顶级专家培养下一代设计专家的枢纽，Gnomon school的教学设施包括了17000平方英尺的教室，工作室，实验室与办公室，制作间。每学期有70个教室教授250个学生，在这个行业，没有哪个学校能提供如此高端的教学服务。GNOMON的创建者ALEX本身就是一位设计师，保持着与这些行业的沟通，确保GNOMON保持行业培训的核心地位。

Welcome to The Gnomon Workshop, the industry leader in professional training for artists in the entertainment and design industries. Founded by Alex Alvarez in 2000, The Gnomon Workshop was launched as a means to share professional techniques with artists who could not attend the hands-on courses offered at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, California. Over the past nine years, the Gnomon Workshop DVD library has expanded to offer training by over sixty professional instructors on a diverse range of tools, software and media including design, drawing, sculpture, painting, modeling, texturing, animation, effects and compositing. Shipped to literally every corner of the globe, our DVDs can be found in countless libraries, studios and universities... and on many thousand bookshelves.

Gnomon's mission has always been to provide the highest caliber training that both educates and inspires, in order to help artists achieve their personal goals. Whether your interests are digital matte painting, character modeling, digital sets, vehicle design, creature rendering or maquette sculpture, our DVDs help artists learn from the experience of others in order to save time and improve skills. Techniques that have taken our instructors years to master are available to artists in a format that is unparalleled in art education history. Our customers range from high-school students who are just discovering the career opportunities that lie ahead of them, to seasoned professionals with decades of experience.

Located in the heart of Hollywood, Gnomon has become a hub for many of the industries top talents who come together to help train their peers and the next generation of artists. The Gnomon School and The Gnomon Workshop facilities comprise of over 17000 square feet of classrooms, studios, lounges, labs, offices and production space. With over 250 students and 70 instructors every term at the School, no other training provider is as immersed in the industry and it's education as The Gnomon Workshop. Our founder Alex Alvarez, himself an artist and instructor, maintains a constant dialogue with the industry to ensure that Gnomon maintains its position as a critical industry resource. As the demand for artists increases and the quality of visuals in games and film continues to mature, education is the foundation of our industry's future.