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.

本DVD告诉了大家如何将Onyx Tree suite集成到MAYA与MENTAL RAY的工作流程中，并且讲解了适用于任何对自然环境感兴趣的场景布局与渲染技术。我们先从Onyx Broadleaf讲解，它是一个快速创建各种不同的物理上正确的树木的工具。在讲解如何输出几何体到MAYA中的时候也讲解了它的用户界面，还有风力动 画，以及一个导入ONYX动画的自定义的MEL代码。除了Onyx动画，我们还讲解了如何使用softbody lattices来手工的让树叶动起来。接着深入讲解了physical sun/sky，final gather，还有mia材质，还深入详细介绍了如何通过扫来创建自定义的树叶。我们使用Broadleaf技术来制作了一个植被繁茂的公路，这是使用 AE合成的4K大小的渲染结果。包括了beauty，Zdepth，fog等层，还使用Lenscare，Magic Bullet与Sapphire等插件得到了后期特效。接着我们就研究了Onyx的Conifer, Palm与Bamboo，详解讨论了library与每种树的渲染技术。最后我们讲解了Mental Ray的proxies技术，这个技术允许艺术家在一个场景中拥有数十亿的多边形。

This DVD explores how to incorporate the Onyx Tree suite of programs into a Maya and Mental Ray workflow, while demonstrating scene layout and rendering techniques that apply to any artist interested in natural environments. We begin with Onyx Broadleaf, an invaluable tool for quickly creating a diverse library of physically accurate trees. The user interface is explained while demonstrating how to export geometry to Maya, including wind animation and a custom Gnomon mel script for importing Onyx animation. Beyond Onyx animation, we also look at how to use softbody lattices to manually animate tree leaves for quick turnaround animation. A thorough demonstration of physical sun/sky, final gather and miaMaterials for trees is then provided including a detailed review of how to create custom leaf textures from scans. Broadleaf techniques culminate in the creation of an overgrown Highway scene with a final 4k composite in After Effects that includes beauty, Zdepth, fog passes and post-process effects with the Lenscare, Magic Bullet and Sapphire plug-ins. Moving on, we then explore Onyx Conifer, Palm and Bamboo in equal detail discussing library and rendering techniques for each type of tree concluding with a photorealistic bamboo forest that introduces final gather techniques for deep shadow environments. We wrap up the DVD with a demonstration of Mental Ray proxies, allowing environment artists a methodology for populating scenes with billions of polygons. Suited to both students and professionals, Alex shares his in-depth knowledge hoping to inspire artists to delve further into the world of natural CG environments.

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.