Gnomon looks interesting to me only from people's reviews. By the way people talk about it, seems like something I'd enjoy. Challenging, like how Book of the New Sun was challenging. But from the blurbs and summaries I've read, it does not look very interesting....if that makes sense.
Looking for more perspectives on it before commiting to this massive book.
I'm currently setting up a portfolio, and have talked to an admissions advisor once and am setting up another one soon. Are there any dos or don'ts to getting accepted? I'm partway done with my Animation Mentor program, so I feel like my work from there plus some other stuff might give me a one-up in my portfolio, but since I want to become a generalist I'm not sure what they want to see. I want to show a little bit of everything, if that makes sense.
However I've heard they care a lot about sketchbook stuff as well. I feel somewhat confident in that as an illustrator, but how important is it? To what ratio should I have drawn artwork vs 3D work? And for my 3D, how thin should I spread myself? I want to show my character animations from Maya, and some modeling/texture/lighting projects from Blender. How much do they care about FX stuff, since I'm interested in that too. Would they care if I added a halfway-decent water sim? How many anatomy studies should I add, and in what range of subjects? Do they care about texturing as much as sculptures? I know these are all hyper-specific questions but I'm really curious bc I want to apply soon ha.
I'll post my portfolio up for review at some point but I just want to know what to keep and add. Any thoughts on Gnomon as a school would be appreciated as well, since I haven't set anything in stone. I'm hoping for the 2-year program but I'm gonna apply to both that and the BFA for the hell of it.
Any advice would be appreciated, thank you! :)
Hello everyone!
My goal is to complete a CGI short film within two years maximum (Pixar or Disney vibe, hopefully!). Which school do you recommend between Gnomon and the Academy of Art in SF? At first, I was more interested in Gnomon but it seems that they're more specialized in video games (and the look of their shorts looks darker than Pixar or Disney). Conversely, I saw some great shorts from alumni of AASF.
Thank you so much for any insight you might have!
There was a thread on here some time ago (months I think) where someone recommended Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. Based on that recommendation, I read a synopsis of the book, and then months later I kept wondering about that synopsis, so I bought it. I just finished it today and it's probably one of my favorite books of all time. So if it was you who recommended Gnomon, thank you very much! And for everyone else reading, definitely check it out. It blends PKD-style sci-fi with Western esotericism, Jungian psychology, and some very interesting philosophy. I can absolutely promise you there will be many points where you go, "Oh. Well that totally changes the scope of what I thought this was about."
This year I'm trying to do two bingo cards, at least one all on hard mode. Today I'm reviewing my selections for the genre mash-up square. This was a difficult square for me. Not because I dislike genre mash-ups, but because I felt like I should be picking books where one could see big chunks of different genres floating in the stew that is the book, but I am so often drawn to books where the genres have been pureed together on the highest setting.
Anyway.
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway.
Hard Mode?: Yes, this is most obviously a mystery/near future dystopia mash up, which is a classic blend. It's also metafiction with tinges of classical mythology, litfic, and far future sci-fi.
Other squares: Mystery (HM), catsquasher, various subjective.
How did I choose this: It showed up in the big rec thread with an enthusiastic rec and an interesting brief pitch, and when I glanced at the Goodreads page my favorite reviewer I follow and Max Gladstone had both left glowing (spoiler free) reviews.
The overarching narrative that frames this book is an investigation into a death in a dystopian near future Britain. A nigh omnipresent surveillance AI operating under the directives of an AI mediated democracy runs a society utterly infiltrated by data and technology. One of its human agents is tasked to look into the death of woman who was in its custody, starting by reading a record of her memories.
And then the book gets interesting. I really don't want to spoil too much because one of the great pleasures of this book is the mystery that unfolds as we get sucked into the unexpectedly disparate narratives in the woman's mind. To paraphrase that favorite reviewer I mentioned, the term puzzle box gets thrown around a lot talking about books, but this is genuinely a complex and satisfying puzzle box to try and pry open.
I highly recommend reading this as an ebook or with a dictionary available. I don't mean that there's lot of long words used in descriptive passages (usually context can let you get over that hurdle), I mean that there are very precise mythological/theological/philosophical terms deployed and repeated throughout the text, and it really helps to be able to call up a definition (although many will eventually be explained in text).
Regardless, this was one of my favorite reads of the year.
Overall rating: 5/5
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Hard Mode?: Yes, the substories range from literary fiction to horror to military scifi to noir, and the
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Hello people!
I'm interested in attending Gnomon to study VFX .
My goal is to work in commercials or in a small studio as a generalist .
But would like to focus on FX & COMP.
Are there any graduates or students from gnomon in this community?
What was your experience like at Gnomon and after graduation?
Do you believe that Gnomon was the right choice for you and do you think it had an impact in starting your career in the VFX Industry?
Thank you!
