I think everything looks great Alex. Don’t worry about the haters. I know there are tons of people who are really impressed and are just too stunned to comment. Some of the best work on this forum gets the harshest criticism because I think people want to make sure you know that they caught a “flaw” that you the great artist didn’t. 
On another note, I’m just hoping this guy doesn’t haunt my dreams - his eyelessness makes me get all shivery!
Alvarez name says it all. Excellent work! Wouldn’t expect less anyways.
Thank you for sharing your workflow / images.
This is MIND BLOWING!!, fantastic master piece Alex!, it’s amazing the feeling of horror that the environment irradiates, the animation!! it’s like if i am truly in hell!, that’s scary but extremely cool!!, total inspirational project, thanks a lot for that!.
Exceptional work like always Alex. You are an inspiration to me and many others out there.
Thank you so much for sharing your work and your knowledge. I can’t wait to purchase the tutorials that go with this new piece. Any idea of when it may be available?
Ignore the haters. They are a dime a dozen.
Much respect!
lol I know u were joking (hopefully :P) but careful some people might take this the wrong way! 
Wow those WIP images really show just how much work went into this!! Great stuff across multiple areas! Part of the frustration from getting negativity in replies is that it doesn’t appreciate all the long tiresome hours put into a piece of work, just to be torn apart in minutes.
Great work, love the WIPs too, I gave u a 5 already tho 
Those WIP shots really show off the work that went into this! Kudos to you Alex. Very detailed, you must have allot of patience 
Can’t wait to see your next piece of Art.
Awesome work alex! top raw well deserved!
5 * from me
Wow, what a huge project. Very cool!
Congrats on top-row.
I’ve already posted once but man i can’t quit looking at this.
I hope one day we will be able to walk into Art museums and
see this kinda of stuff hanging on monitors, looping all day
instead of seeing still art/paintings. That would be a place
i would love to go to.
Alex is there any possible way you could post a link for me to download this video?
This would be so awesome to me as a DreamScene Wallpaper.
How do you get the looping animation to play on a monitor all day?
Is it like quicktime,a screensaver,or am i way off?
The feeling i get from this art is what sucked me into the 3d-world from the
start and i haven’t felt that in a long time.
Thanks
That looks really inspiring, Alex! Kind of a fantasy giger thing without the mechanics. The details are elegant and fitting. I still think you have all the assets there to make something truely memorable!
So many gorgeous details on the Character (Sauronesque?). I think the front of the chest, when it goes into the shoulders, looks a little immobilising, like the muscles would somehow lock rather than flow around each other. Oddly enough I could imagine that you have it more “correct” there than I ordinarily deal with that area… hmmm… great stuff, though.
I really wish very much that you consider doing a 2.0 on this one! Maybe even a different kind of composition altogther. Drawing inspiration from your still of the motel. Maybe you could think of an architectural counterpart to the character, something like etiher an altar or a sinister vending machine?! ( 
)
The WIP’s are a riot!
I certainly enjoyed it. Nice music and scene really brought me into that world… Ive always thought a simple animation to show off a scene was a good idea. It looks really nice man. Do another one!
i like the feel of it, could really use some material variations tho.
I enjoyed this. It’s not a great animation. The comments regarding subtle changes to breathing, depth of field, etc. would improve it.
What I did like, when the character moved, was the dance of shadow across the form.
I thought you missed an opportunity to really focus the viewer’s attention on the head. I think it would be really cool for glowing orbs to appear in the eye sockets, with subtle variations in the amount of glow. The eyes of course would follow the camera. it’s almost impossible not to focus on eyes looking into a camera, that’s why fashion models do it.
However, movies are all about movement! If I were animating this, I’d try several different camera moves and edit together. Perhaps a wider shot that zooms towards the character or a steady-cam move around the character that incorporates the environment.
If you took the time to play with different POV’s I’m sure you’d create a way cooler version. Do overs are where animators really start to discover the possibilities.
Most animation sequences are only for a few seconds before there’s an edit. Ten seconds from the same point of view is a long time. That’s why before the days of digital film making, matte elements rarely were viewed for more than eight seconds in establishing shots. A rare and excellent exception to this is the closing scene of “Raider’s of the Lost Ark”. I think that goes on for nearly 30 seconds. An excellent matte painting for sure!
WooowWWWwwWW Amazing work !!!small_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamond
yep wips are a riot…very cool :D
I just have to say… WOW! Great stuff Alex! I like the whole mood to it! Kinda reminds me of Diablo… I guess being a demon and all haha! Keep posting WIP stuff! Don’t be afraid! Know that tons of people here appreciate the posts and your work with Gnomon! Keep up the good work and gratz on your top row!!
Alex. are you? 
haha omg , awesome work, u’re my Idol dude! u Rock!
your work is inspiration to me in the last years!
about the work, is freaking awesome! -
congratz
alex, if you don’t mind, could you please post your UV layout? i’m curious about how you distribute the uv space. Thanks in advance!
and by the way, thanks a lot for taking the time of answering to everyone…
BuendiaCG: Heh… OG, nice. I guess that flags me as old. Heh. Thanks Alvaro! You know I love your stuff, so your compliments are very much appreciated!
Joecyriac: Thank you so much… it is really amazing and wonderful to hear that Gnomon has helped people. My educational experience was really a mess of well intentioned teachers and schools that really failed to inspire or truly educate me on a meaningful level. I created Gnomon hoping to create something that would allow me to continue on what has clearly become a lifelong pursuit of growth, not just for myself, but in hopes of offering others a more meaningful and valuable educational experience. Thanks for the encouragement and feedback.
KillahPriest. Heh.
chrisbielecki: Nope, didn’t record it… as I was venturing into uncharted territory with this project, I simply wanted to have fun and learn. But I think I learned a bunch of things that will definitely make their way into my classes and future DVDs… we’ll see!
sandpiper: Thanks… yeah, eyelessness is always creepy. I have some amazing posters in my office by a Polish poster artist named Walkuski… kinda like Beksinski and definitely awesome.
CGicore: Thank you.
manzarek123: Thanks so much!!
SirRender: Thanks! No immediate plans for a tutorial… need to take a break from this for a little while, but maybe later.
Darukin: Heh… no doubt. But thanks so much for the kind words!
INFINITE: patience is definitely part of it. haha. But it was fun and I didn’t have a deadline of course, so I just cruised along listening to Pandora. 
abe_Tamazir: Thank you!
Moni-Poroni: Thanks!
Xsmoke: Very kind of you to say all that… as far as the anim, I have it playing as a quicktime set to loop and fullscreen on the 30" monitor, but we also made a screensaver. Link is here: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/freebies/screensaver/dirge_ss.html
Taron: Glad you like the wips! Well, the idea of a 2.0 is something that I usually avoid as it is more fun to start something new. And as I’ve said before, I think it is important to enjoy what you do cuz once that stops, so does inspiration and motivation. In the end, look what Lucas did to Star Wars. Oi!!! Haha.
Stellios: Thank you!
Banned: Yeah, I agree I got a little lazy with that. Again I think it is an issue that once the urge comes to move on and start another project, we can rush the final stages of a piece to its detriment. If I was to go back to it, I agree that material variation, character animation, lighting… all are things that need work.
willbrown1: Well, I really am no animator, so I take any animation criticism to heart and know that this is an area that I need to work on. As far as the eye orb idea, I actually did experiment with that, but ended up preferring the lack of them. As far as camera moves, as a looping anim on a monitor, I intended to have the hanging screen be more of a window into a world, which intrinsically implies that the camera shouldn’t move. With that said, rendering camera moves in that environment at 2560x1600 would involve some serious render times. Heh. So my lack of render power at home kinda limited that idea… But if there is anything I’d like to do next with this, camera moves are it.
tokio: Thanks!!
-FoOD-: Thank you.
3DNoobish: Thanks… appreciated!
B4rT_: Thanks!!
manusito: You mean for the character? The head/torso are in 0-1 and the arms/legs are in 1-2, so two UV regions. This way I can export two 4k maps from Zbrush for Normal and 32bit Displacement. One map wouldn’t be enough resolution for the render sizes I was dealing with, and Maya doesn’t like 8k maps.
-Alex
BuendiaCG: Heh… OG, nice. I guess that flags me as old. Heh. Thanks Alvaro! You know I love your stuff, so your compliments are very much appreciated!
lol it just sounds cooler that way, but not in age, you just have been doin 3d considerably longer than me and many other artists, and still going at it, so I consider u one in that sense. I just remember using ur early tutorials when I was starting to take 3d classes years ago.