This application agnostic class will cover matte painting techniques for digital and traditional artists. Professor Xue jun Shan is based in Shanghai, China and creates concept art and digital matte paintings for films and games. We met him at a conference in Shanghai and were immediately impressed with his talent, enlisting him to take part in our Background Fundamentals course for an episode. Based upon the positive response from fxphd postgrads, we've brought him on for an entire term. Starting out covering a history of the matte painting   art, the course quickly dives into analyzing shots where matte paintings are needed, concept design (including composition, lighting and color), software choices, and building several matte paintings. The Matte Painting course is one of the courses which will be collaboratively working on the Zombie project, creating the designs for the compound and distant ruined city.