Gnomon Online School - 55 courses

slipsius

Hey everyone,

Just give you all a heads up, gnomon opened up an online school with a whopping 55 courses!!!! Check them out! It has a huge range of stuff!!! I am not enrolled, but they seem to do live classes, which i can tell you is AMAZING. Hands down, the best way to do it. In iAnimate, they do live classes, and Ive learned so much from it, especially being able to ask questions. So good. So this is definitely the way to do it. The fact that they have 55 differnet classes, from all aspects of the pipeline. I may just have to try the concepting ones later on.

http://courses.gnomonschool.com/courses/online/

It looks like its about $1200 - $1500 for 10 weeks.

And this is how it works.

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WarrenM

This sort of thing looks great but having to be there at specific times for classes kind of rules out anyone with a job ... doesn't it?

ZacD

If you have a job at a studio and want to take a course to expand your knowledge, they should want to do all they can to help with that. I also think this is largely for students that might be enrolled at a non 3d school.

WarrenM

Ideally, sure. The reality is that you're probably working on something that has a related deadline attached to it.

But, yes, I get that this is aimed at students and people who currently don't have jobs. I guess I'm just bitter because it looks awesome...

slipsius

I do agree about the job thing, but if you live in the western world, most the courses are after work, or on weekends. Unfortunately that's just the nature of the beast though. If you want to be trained by people working in the industry, you have to work around their schedule. They work too, so it wont be during the day. Even if youre in the eastern world, the courses will just be at like 4am for you or something like that. Guess it comes down to how much you actually want it. I know I have people in my iA class that come to class at 5am for them. 1030pm for me. 730m for my instructor.

Rockley Bonner

I was tempted at first but be sure to check the prerequisites as well. I decided it being more effective for me to just go at it alone sense I am past the begginner stage and taking prerequisit classes for a modeling package im unfamilliar with would slow my learning curve.

Besides, you can ask for advice and critique on polycount for free.

Hang10

If only this came out a year sooner hehe. Thinking back how much time I used to put in, class times wouldn't matter much depending on your dedication. 10 weeks of quality learning with a 1200$ price tag seems like a great deal to me.

Maybe if I ever find myself with some cash burning a hole I'd do it.

Messiano

This comes out, at the right moment. I will take modeling and animation courses for sure.

Barbarian

Pay special attention to the details. If you miss more than two classes (out of 10) you automatically fail. If you do not turn in a weekly assignment on time you get a failing grade for that assignment. In their previous system you watched pre-recorded videos, but there was a discussion forum and you could ask questions. You received recorded critiques of your weekly assignments that were generally quite good.

Escape Studios has also moved to live-interactive online delivery ("mentored courses").

CGS workshops have added webinars (two to three per 8-week course) with live interaction (except only the instructor uses a live mic). CGS workshops do not have "grading" as does Gnomon. The norm is that 32 people will start the workshop and only thee to six will finish with a final work (and usually those few will be the only active people on discussion boards).

I wonder how many people that buy DVDs or use Digital Tutors actually complete a project? Gnomon online always required completed assignments and projects in order to pass, they, like Escape, realize that the material becomes dated too quickly and that live interactive is the solution. But it also has its issues. A pre-recorded session can be edited and if a bug or issue arises it can be edited out. In live sessions I'm predicting that the content detail will be less (especially if students get to ask lots of questions during a session). I'm not sure how they will handle students that learn at different rates and keep the pace going. Also, Gnomon has had some good instructors, but they have also had some tech-savy instructors that are not the best teachers. It would pay to investigate carefully before enrolling.

Messiano

What if i miss, and can't make to give assignment on time? I don't care about grade, i want to learn slowly, because this is new for me, confusing and i need time to get used to it.

TrevorJ

Barbarian wrote: »

Pay special attention to the details. If you miss more than two classes (out of 10) you automatically fail. If you do not turn in a weekly assignment on time you get a failing grade for that assignment.

That's pretty much exactly how it was at my school, something like four max missed classes out of the semester, and 30% off your grade every day an assignments late, granted i'm of the thought that grades are mostly irrelevant, but it did teach you to scope your projects correctly and manage many deliverable in many classes.
I think its very fair, there are plenty of learn at your own pace resources out there already. It teaches time management/estimating and project scope. which is incredibly important, even if no one wants to learn it.

Kot_Leopold

Do instructors even review portfolios before people get accepted? Or can anybody with any skill get in just because they can afford it? If that's the case, those newer to 3D will hamper down those more skilled during lectures. And about the lectures - 3 hours and only once a week, really? I wonder how much you can really learn during those 10 weeks online than if you were at their campus in Hollywood.

It's probably worth it if the limit of students is 4 like shown in the video. But if it's 10+ people, which is more likely the case, then I wouldn't bother. I like the idea but this type of education needs more refinement imo.

Barbarian

No portfolio review (unless recent change). They do post prerequisites and note beginning, intermediate, or advanced. They have counselors you can call.

I guess you can take a course and "fail." If you still get something out of it for the price that is a personal decision.

I remember watching some of the pre-recorded videos several times before I grasped some of the tough concepts. It seems that now you can ask the instructor in a live session if you don't get it. Too many questions will make the pace sluggish.

I agree that three hours a week interactive appears problematic, especially if you cannot review a recorded session of the class. If they are counting on discussions to help that is also iffy because most people just don't get active on the forums.

slipsius

Well, they released their first batch of student work. The work looks really good actually... But, the presentation of it all is horrendous. Camera cuts are way too fast. They dont finish turn tables or fly bys. The break downs happen so fast you cant process whats happening. But ya. the work looks good.

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HardBaller

Damn to me it still looks awesome and so far away. I do agree they could have slowed it down a bit. Looked at the class schedule again and still the same times. Really hope they'll even start online classes that non us student can also take advantage of this class system. But atm it's still all 1am + so a bit early or late depends on your view. So it's still old fashioned dvd's for me now