The purpose of the 4 week MODO PORTFOLIO course is to prepare a 30 second 3D animation for your portfolio. The course will appeal to those who are starting out on modo and to those who have prior knowledge of another 3D animation package, such as Maya, XSI or 3D Studio Max, and are making the transition to modo.

We will be discussing a scripted storyboard, planning shots, discussing techniques and solving problems using modo's advanced functions.

You will model, texture and animate a fully animatable character in an architectural environment.

All aspects or animation, lighting, texturing, clothing, hair, props will be covered.

The secret of modo is not so much in knowing all the tools and their functions but in combining them in creative and practical ways. Knowing what to do with what- and why and when- is the real key to knowing modo.

You will be working on a highly specified multi-processor Apple Mac or BOXX PC.

The first 10 days of the MODO PORTFOLIO course will cover the following topics:-

Day 1. The interface and modo's unique modelling paradigm. Essential mesh creation, sculpting and keyboard shortcuts, a look at the complete tool-set and the construction of custom tools.

Day 2. Advanced mesh creation, re-modelling existing geometry using background items, organic versus mechanical.

Day 3. Deformers and weight maps. Typically those used for shape creation and animation. Replicators and instancing, Giving character and life to a model using deformers and sculpting tools

Day 4. Lighting and texturing. How shaders are constructed in modo. UV maps and texture locators for positioning textures, bumps, specular highlights, transparency and masks on model surfaces. Lighting and shadows, camera animation

Day 5. Animating hierarchical models and setting keyframes.

Day 6. Hair, fur and advanced layered textures and masks. Advanced UV maps, unwrapping. Global illumination, environments, volumetric and indirect lighting.

Day 7. The MDD deformer. Importing and exporting data. Weight maps. Replicators

Day 8. Constructing an object for a pack shot or creating and organic life-form.

Day 9. Developing your pack shot or organic life-form. Adding textures and rendering a final output.

Day 10. Final render settings. Alpha channels, stereoscopic movies, and Z-buffers, depth effects and compositing layers using AfterEffects.

Days 11 to 20 of the MODO PORTFOLIO course will cover storyboarding, character building and animation, set design, timing and choreography as well as the study of animation in both 2 and 3 dimensions.

During this period you will be principally focused on a 30 second production for your portfolio. We will be offering the possibility during week 3 of the course to learn Maya's animation functions. These including skeleton rigging using Advanced Skeleton, deformers and character animation in general. This will involve the use of ModoMotion (www.modomotion.com) and modo's MDD deformer.

Although the second part of this course focuses primarily on animation you may wish to cover other specialised 3D animation areas such as architecture or industrial design. Please feel free to discuss this with us.

Training starts at 10 in the morning and finishes at 5 in the evening. There is a one hour break for lunch.