2023 Fall Best of Term Winners Announced
We are thrilled to announce the winners of our Fall 2023 Best of Term (BOT) competition, showcasing the exceptional talent, commitment, and creativity of our students at Gnomon.
This competition recognizes the outstanding work produced by students across our full-time programs and individual courses, both online and on-campus.
Congrats to our grand prize winner Matt Sasieni, who won "Best of Term – Matte Painting" with his impressive sci-fi project! Matt created this piece in Gnomon's Demo Reel 1 course, utilizing software including Maya, Houdini, Nuke, V-Ray, and others. The piece is based on his own concept art, rooted in a dystopian industrial city and inspired by Bernd & Hilla Becher's industrial architecture photography.
“This Sci-fi Matte Painting is the final piece from Miguel Ortega’s Demo Reel class at Gnomon,” Matt shared. “While exploring shape language, I drew inspiration from blast furnaces, resembling Giger-like functional organisms without skin, and beetles for the silhouettes of the ships and trains. Using a live-action plate by Kelly Malcy, I projected the base plate onto geometery in Nuke to have precise control over the camera movement. For the water, I used Houdini's Ocean spectrum and imported all my geometry from Maya and Nuke into Houdini.”
Our students never fail to impress us with their growth; each term, they elevate their work by incorporating elements that extend beyond the realm of technical skills.
"Matt’s winning piece is a great example of blending the technical processes of CG with powerful storytelling,” Max Dayan, Gnomon’s Director of Education said. “The image is beautiful to look at and leaves you wanting to know more about the world he created.”
Our students demonstrated their distinctive artistic styles and applied skills learned in class to various aspects such as body mechanics animation, stylized scenes, game characters, and lighting and rendering in their submissions. As we celebrate this term’s winners, we're reminded of the incredible talent and passion that thrives within our community.
"Watching the progression of our students' projects is fascinating," Dayan shared. "It's incredible to see how their skills and passions just skyrocket over a 10-week term."
Be sure to follow Gnomon on social media so you can see more artwork and learn a little bit about the creative process of our student artists! We invite you to explore the full list of winners below and view their amazing artwork on our Best of Term page.
FALL 2023 BOT WINNERS:
Matt Sasieni - Matte Painting - GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Po Hsuan Lin - Animation Body Mechanics
Joshua Lewis - Animation Dialogue
Reo Lavertu - Animation - Previz
Peter Yesayan - Character - Games
Bennett Rhee - Character - Hardsurface
Kwabena Kyei - Character - Realism
Rain Rouhani - Character - Stylized
Yifan Wang - Creature Modeling
Josh Karlin - Effects - Animation
Karin Pond - Effects - Liquids
Sasha Honcharova - Environment - Exterior
Flynn Tierney - Environment - Interior
Can Sarac - Hardsurface Modeling
Santiago Forero - Lighting & Rendering
Christian Ray Lanni - Mechanical Rigging
Evgenie Magovski - Props & Weapons
Liz Chua - Scene - Stylized
Yuko Hwang - Texturing & Shading
Conlen Breheny– Tool Development