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

Breakdown

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

    8. Upload Assignment #1

    1. Rough Layout Continued

    2. Simple Geometry into a Heighfield

    3. Houdini 101

    4. Houdini Solaris and USD

    5. Houdini Solaris Setup

    6. Houdini Solaris Material X shader

    7. Houdini Import Geometry and access elements

    8. Heightfields in Houdini

    9. Heightfields in Gaea

    10. Houdini Heightfield Project

    11. Heightfield Masks and Karma Texturing Material

    12. Heroing up Asset

    13. Simple Lighting setup

    14. Assignment #2

    15. Upload 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 Solaris Instancer and Scatter

    10. Houdini VDB Clouds

    11. Projection Setup

    12. Assignment #3

    13. Upload Assignment #3

    1. Continue Heroing Up

    2. More Scattering and Scene Management

    3. Fine tune settings and Render Overview

    4. Physical Sky - Maya/Arnold and Houdini/Karma

    5. Square Projection Camera, Physical Sky, and Brighten Materials

    6. Final Touches

    7. Final Assignment #4

    8. Upload Assignment #4

    9. Congratulations on Completing the Course!

About this course

  • 46 lessons
  • 10.5 hours of video content

Video

Use Industry Standard Software:

Photoshop, Maya, Nuke, Houdini and more

  • Learn, Build, and Create

    Follow the recorded lessons in our courses. Learn the fundamentals of being a matte painter/3d Generalist/Environment artist. Upgrade your skillset.

  • Interactive

    Monthly Zoom sessions, interact directly with your Instructor with live demos and feedback. Upload your assignments and receive personal feedback on your work. Zoom and Assignment Feedback are recorded for you.

  • Community

    Access our Community Dashboard. Here you can post, ask questions, and interact with all the members of Matte Mentors community and with your Instructor

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

“Would you recommend Eric's mentoring? ---------------------------------------------- Absolu-freaking-lutely! I think anyone regardless of their field would benefit from learning matte painting and working with Eric on creating an awesome shot. He's always willing to give a helping hand and really went above and beyond for all of the students in my class, and was also really supportive throughout the whole process.”

Student from MP4ANIM PT2: Establishing Shot

Jordan Osborne

Student Works

See some of the Students work from the Class