2024 Fall Best of Term Winners Announced
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Gnomon is excited to announce the winners of the Fall 2024 Best of Term (BOT) competition, celebrating the exceptional talent and dedication of our students.
This quarterly event honors outstanding projects from both full-time programs and individual courses, spanning disciplines such as character design, visual effects, environment modeling, and more.
Grand Prize Winners: Byron Encarnacion and Kevin Gao
This term's grand prize was awarded to the duo of Byron Encarnacion and Kevin Gao for their project in the Animation Cinematic category. Their submission offers a fictional reimagining of the Battle of Tuttlingen during the Thirty Years' War, drawing inspiration from historical paintings and cinematic works like Alatriste (2006).
Byron and Kevin's project highlights their comprehensive understanding of the CGI pipeline, encompassing previsualization to post-production. They developed innovative techniques, including procedural crowd layering, multi-layer rendering with Renderman Solaris, and seamless digital matte painting integration. The pair used a variety of software tools such as Houdini, Maya, Blender, Renderman, Nuke, and Adobe Premiere Pro, among others.
While Byron and Kevin spearheaded the project, they collaborated with fellow Gnomon students who contributed their skills:
- Arnav Yadav – FX Elements
- Jimmy Lim – Shot Animation
- Cassidy Tran – Crowd Rigging
- Anton Alejandro – Voice Acting
- Kaitlyn O’Connell – Performance Capture
Max Dayan, Gnomon's Education Lead, shared his admiration for the grand prize-winning project: "Kevin and Byron’s cinematic is a testament to how hard work and dedication can lead to something truly amazing. And when vision is coupled with collaboration, something truly fantastic can be created. I don't think anyone who sees their cinematic, can deny how outstanding this project is. It’s also rewarding to see other Gnomon students listed in their credits. This teamwork gives us a peek into how they’ll collaborate in the industry, sharing skills to create something bigger than themselves."
The Fall 2024 BOT competition received an impressive array of submissions, reflecting the creativity and technical prowess of our students. The competition was as strong as ever, and we applaud all the students who submitted their work. This term also introduced new categories, including Urban, Temple, and Mountain Environments, showcasing even more incredible artistry. We can’t wait to see what next term’s Best of Term brings!
Winners/Credits
Byron Encarnacion and Kevin Gao — Animation | Cinematic GRAND PRIZE winner
Original Concept
Byron Encarnacion — Previs, Layout, FX, Rendering Pipeline, Mocap Cleanup, Crowd Pipeline, Props, Environment Lookdev, Animation, Lighting Rendering, Compositing, Editorial.
Kevin Gao — Previs, Character Modeling, Lookdev, Rigging, Metahuman pipeline, Animation, Lighting Rendering, Cloth CFX, Compositing, DMP, Editorial.
Contributions:
Arnav Yadav — FX Elements
Jimmy Lim — Shot Animator
Cassidy Tran — Crowd Rig
Anton Alejandro — Voice
Katiyln O’Connell — Performance capture
Yu Xiao Bai — Animation | Characters
Original concept
Manav Gala — Animation | Effects
Original concept
Credits:
Rig and model: Tyrant Dragon from TruongCG
Animation: Gnomon student Jimmy Chien
Buildings: Kitbash3D
Background cliff/shrubs/textures: Megascans.
Knight model and animation for the crowd: Mixamo.
Manav was responsible for the layout, FX, lighting, and compositing.
Alice Chui and Nat Bishop — Animation | Look Development
Original concept, inspired by 'Brambly Hedge' by Jill Barklem
Mateo Reyes — Animation | Realtime Effects
Original concept
Credits: Engine content assets used, Megascans assets used
Mandy Huang — Character | Stylized
Concept credit: Gu Zheng Wei (Guweiz)
Yanina Perez-Masud — Character | Creature
Concept credit: yang qi917
Claire Sorvala — Character | Design
Original concept
Griffin Gotts-Alvarez — Character | Fantasy
Original concept, inspired by “World of Warcraft”
David McMullen — Character | Games
Concept credit: Kirill Belous
Sasha Honcharova — Character | Realism
Inspired by a painting by Mikhail Ryasnyansky
Moya Hoard — Environment | Urban Interior
Concept credit: Wanxing Wang
Terry Dong — Environment | Rustic Exterior
Concept Credit: Zhupei Fu's Woodman Village
Santiago Forero — Environment | Rustic Interior
Original concept
Yanely Villanueva — Environment | Temple Jungle
Original concept
Artur Artinian — Environment | Temple Mountain
Original concept
Xingchen Yi — Environment | Urban Exterior
Original concept
Evgenie Magovski — Lighting and Rendering
Original concept, inspired by Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”
Jeffrey Kressin — Matchmoving
Original Concept
Droid design from “Return of the Jedi.” From collaborative short film with Conlen Breheny.
Adrian Darrow — Props and Weapons
Responsible for all aspects. Music from “Goldeneye.”
Victoria Kim — Sculpture
Concept credits: based on Tsireya from “Avatar: The Way of Water.” Concepts both from the film and from “The Art of Avatar The Way of Water” book by Deborah L. Scott.
Sinjin Mendenhall — Texturing and Shading
Concept credits: Hammer & Shield — Blizzard Entertainment, John Goblin — Jonathan Fletcher
Natalie Tran — Tool Development
Original concept
Ngan Hoang — Visual Storytelling
Original concept
Book models: Megascans, responsible for all other aspects.