Interactive Course with weekly Zoom Sessions and Individual Critiques on your Assignments

Recordings of both Zoom and Critique sessions uploaded to Google Drive for students

SUMMER Semester Starts August 4th

RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW!


Pre-recorded Class Only

No ZOOM sessions and No Individual Critiques

Begin Learning Now

Work at your own pace


Use Industry Standard Software:

Photoshop, Maya, Nuke, Houdini and more

  • Learn, Build, and Create

    Following the lessons in the courses, you will learn the fundamentals of being a matte painter/3d Generalist/Environment artist

  • Interactive

    If you choose Zoom classes, you will interact directly with your Instructor and receive feedback on your work and recorded critiques. ZOOM Sessions are Thursdays 7pm PST

  • Community

    All courses give you access to our Community Dashboard. Here you can post, ask questions, and interact with all the members of Matte Mentors and Instructors

Breakdown

Expand Your Skills

Delve into more complex workflows on a single complex project

  • Concept your ideas into fruition

  • Craft a complete shot from start to finish

  • Take your skill to the next level with a deeper focus

Video

Course Content

    1. Overview of the Portal

    1. Creating an Establishing Shot

    2. Breakdown of 4 weeks

    3. Composition and Movie Reference

    4. Concept Key to final overview

    5. Classic Castle concept

    6. Classic Castle Rough Layout

    7. Assignment #1

    1. Rough Layout Continued

    2. Simple Geometry into a Heighfield

    3. Houdini 101

    4. Heightfields in Houdini

    5. Heightfields in Gaea

    6. Houdini Heightfield Project

    7. Heroing up Asset

    8. Simple Lighting setup

    9. Assignment #2

    1. Assets needed

    2. Shaders - Maya and Houdini

    3. Speed Tree Intro

    4. Assets Prep and Library

    5. Maya Scattering with Mash

    6. Maya/Houdini scene setup and scattering

    7. Houdini Scattering

    8. Scattering with painted mask

    9. Houdini VDB Clouds

    10. Projection Setup

    11. Assignment #3

    1. Continue Heroing Up

    2. More Scattering and Scene Management

    3. Fine tune settings and Render Overview

    4. Final Touches

    5. Bringing it all together

    6. Assignment #4

About this course

  • 34 lessons

Meet Eric

Instructor

Eric Bouffard has been a Matte Painter in the Animations Industry for nearly two decades. Currently, he works at Walt Disney Animation Studios and was previously at Dreamworks Animation. Eric has taught various Matte Painting classes for several years at various institutions. Some films that he worked on are: Wish, Strange World, Frozen 2, Encanto, How to Train your Dragon2, Kung Fu Panda, and many many more. He has worked as a Matte Painting Artist, Lead, and Supervisor. Check out Eric's work: www.ericbouffard.com

Eric Bouffard

Matte Painter

Student Testimonials

“Eric really takes the time to demonstrate a variety of methods that can help you achieve what you want with your project. His demos can also inspire you to take you project steps further. He's such a knowledgeable, kind teacher who that makes the learning process fun and easy. Definitely would recommend this class to anyone wanting to learn about matte painting and creating establishing shots. Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced, Eric always shares something new to learn. Rated 5 out of 5 ”

Student from MP4ANIM PT2: Establishing Shot

Ashley Ayeri

“This course was great! Eric covered a wide variety of matte painting techniques both in 3D and 2D. Most valuable was the individual feedback from a veteran artist and I watched as my shot improved in leaps and bounds. I would highly recommend this course.”

Student from MP4ANIM PT2: Establishing Shot

Torrance Hurd

Student Works

See some of the Students work from the Class