This is a three DVD set of from Gnomon Workshop, the DVD publishing arm
of the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood. It includes
everything you ever wanted to know about creating cool urban
environments including some sci-fi stuff except how to build actual
detailed structure models. Some attention to simple modeling is given.
But this is a very large subject and Hanson details parts of it you may
not have considered.

Eric is both a well known Adjunct Professor at USC School of Cinema/TV
and instructor Gnomon School of VFX, as well as a hands-on VFX designer
with a long list of major film credits. His specialty is creating
digital film environments.

Eric started out as an architect with a strong interest in 3D
visualization. While working for a firm in LA, he developed an interest
in film visual FX, especially digital sets. Because of his talent and
training he went on to senior positions at Digital Domain, Sony
Imageworks, Dream Quest Images, and Walt Disney Feature Animation. Eric
is a very busy guy and actually produces some of the Gnomon Workshop
titles in addition to his own. He's also currently involved with his
Imageworks/Gnomon colleague, Greg Downing developing a massive 8
gigabyte spherical environment that we’ll hear about in due time.

Eric isn’t the liveliest host I’ve seen on Gnomon DVDs but he does
improve in each progressive volume. His teaching approach is academic.
At times his voice comes across as a bit bored and his presentation can
be a bit narcotic. I didn’t care for his extensive use of point by
point PowerPoint slides to display key points. I would have much
preferred to see his face and pictures as he talked. During the slides,
he’s clearly reading notes to us rather than talking with us, which I
find distracting. On the plus side, those excellent notes are available
as documents in the extras folder. Some people may like this approach
because it makes his key points clear. I found myself wanting to skip
the static slides completely. At times he also has a tendency to _ to
my mind _ skip around topic-wise, in ways I found disconcerting.

Don’t get me wrong, Eric has a great deal of very useful information to
teach us, and most of it is extremely clever, but his teaching approach
is not. Overall I found it difficult to watch these DVDs in long
stretches, but generally found the content to be worth the effort.

This set contains a complex mix of elements from architectural
reference to hard core CG work. Although it teaches many general
principles, it is not for the casual observer. Geared to the studio
professional the user should be well versed in the tools that Eric
uses, including the highly technical Boujou. He spends no time teaching
you how to use the tools, but does present nifty techniques to employ
when creating digital sets. In this first DVD, he spends useful time
providing an architectural retrospective, illustrating the influence of
important architects and trends of the past. This helped me develop a
better vocabulary of architectural style. The time spent becoming
familiar with important principles like the uses of symmetry,
asymmetry, rhythmic repetition, additive and subtractive form, and
industrial deconstructivism; is well spent.

He then emphasizes the importance of preliminary sketches from various
POVs and assembling a scrapbook that has a range of architectural
images to use as reference. You'll need to have this ability already.
Gnomon has other DVD training sets to address these techniques. Eric
shares with us his picks for the very best architects to learn from
when designing digital sets. His choices are excellent.

Next, he goes into using reference plate footage and Boujou tracking
data in Maya, in designing digital architecture to be integrated into a
scene. Again, he assumes you're thoroughly familiar with these concepts
and applications. No casual user is going to have access to some of
these expensive assets. Some project files are included on the DVD, but
not all. Nevertheless, if you work with these high-end assets on a
regular basis, or want to, you’re going to find invaluable information
here.

Next, Eric goes into an enlightening comparison of NURBS vs polygon
modeling discussion giving pros and cons for each for various
situations. You'll find very helpful information here.

He then delves into simple but very effective 3D extrusion techniques
for creating blocks of structures. Using Photoshop he shows how to
create black and white block images which are converted to work paths
which can then be exported as .ai files to Maya for extrusion. The base
images are created using various filters and techniques that are
extremely quick yet impressively effective. He also goes into handy
techniques like transparency and bump mapping to fake various
architectural elements.

After talking over a number of general principles he quickly assembles
an intricate city complex of buildings and bridges from his personal
library of building elements and parts. He explains that he has built
up a library of buildings in various architectural styles over the
years, from which he draws. I found this part of the DVD to be
disappointingly vague. I expected more actual instruction on exactly
how to build a sky scraper or two. I think a little more time spent on
developing one complex high-rise model would have been well spent.

City models get very heavy, so Eric explains how he eliminates
sluggishness by using low poly proxies. He then explains that you need
to write some sort of custom Mel script to accomplish this. Not having
a team of TDs leaves me at a serious disadvantage, but the information
may be enlightening to someone working at a studio with scripting
resources at hand.

Although I strongly recommend this DVD for pros wanting to be inspired
and to expand their box of techniques, I feel Eric assumes we know more
than we do through much of this DVD. Although individual presentations
are usually well organized, the overall course seems a bit jumbled at
times. I prefer training DVDs that take you through the process step by
step, not skipping critical steps because it is assumed you already
know that stuff. On occasion, Eric tells you what he did (a complex
task) and why in Maya, but not how he actually did it. I generally
found this frustrating and sometimes aggravating because my knowledge
of Maya is a bit different from his and I couldn’t always follow.

That said, I still learned a lot and I believe this is the most
advanced and comprehensive course in digital set design you're going
to find on DVD.

If you’re working in a production environment and want to tweak your
knowledge and understanding of various aspects of digital set design,
this DVD will be extremely helpful. Most of it is not geared to the
beginner or intermediate who is working at home, as it focuses on
resources you’re unlikely to have. I like many of Eric’s clever ideas,
like building up a library of elements and using work paths from
Photoshop. I have several such libraries including space ship nurnies,
castle elements, hero trees etc., and they are useful for rapid
development. However, I wish Eric had spent some time describing how he
goes about building some of the more complex and beautiful models in
his collection.

This may not be a fair criticism because, from the series title, I was
expecting to learn all sorts of tricks for creating actual buildings
and interiors. But this Series is more about overall digital set
design, surfacing and rendering. I would have liked an entire DVD
focused on clever, detailed construction techniques.

Is this DVD worth the money? That depends on your needs. I’d say
generally yes, my overall rating of 7 indicates there is much clever
and useful material here for the studio pro or aspirant.

Peter Plantec's Review of the Volume II of Digital Sets – Urban Environments with Eric Hanson

Volume III of Digital Sets – Urban Environments with Eric Hanson

______________________________________