TUMO Tirana

OUR
PROGRAM

Our Program

The TUMO learning program is made up of self-learning activities, workshops and project labs around 8 learning targets. Teens combine these into personal learning paths that adapt to their evolving preferences and rate of progress.

programming

animation

game development

graphic design

filmmaking

robotics

music

3D modeling

learning streams

At TUMO, teens begin their journey with self-learning activities before leveling up to workshops in TUMO’s 14 different learning targets and project labs led by specialists from all over the globe.

Self-Learning
during all time

Self Learning activities are short, interactive exercises designed to inspire and build up skills. Coaches help with activities by getting learners unstuck, offering advice and providing encouragement. There are hundreds of activities to choose from, and most are prerequisites that lead to workshops in each learning target.

Workshops
minimum 2-3 per year

Workshops are led by specialists across TUMO’s 8 learning targets. They range from beginner to advanced and culminate in individual or team projects. Each project is published to the participant’s portfolio and is occasionally submitted to competitions and festivals or published online or in app stores.

Project Labs
2 times in a year

Project Labs are offered on a rotating basis by top technology and design professionals from all over the globe. These instructors arrive at TUMO each year to lead advanced labs and to work with TUMO teens on real world projects. Labs last anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months.

the TUMO path

TUMO’s innovative Path program combines activities, workshops and labs into a personal learning plan, a constantly evolving timeline that can span two or more years. It suggests the best route for each learner to take through the TUMO program and dynamically adapts to their pace and preferences over time. As teens progress through the timeline, completing projects and leveling up, they build a portfolio of results that becomes their living diploma.

student portfolios

At TUMO, there’s no such thing as a diploma. Instead, by progressing along their TUMO
Path and leveling up in workshops and labs, students add results to their personal portfolios, a living, breathing body of work that students can show to their friends, family, employers and universities.

more

Want to control the world? Wanna be a cool hacker, a famous game designer, the creator of the next social platform? Students learn how to control variables, to create and manipulate functions and everything in between that’s needed for the wonderful world of code.

Students will learn how to create server-based applications, understand the notion of version control and implement tools such as Git/Bitbucket. They’ll also go through hard programming, in which they need to give different solutions that occasionally involve math skills when creating their own “Game of Life”.

Level I Workshop
Kicking off their programming education, teens in level 1 develop their analytical thinking, the most important skill for completing the levels in this focus area. Students are introduced to JavaScript, which is the basis for learning other, more complex languages like C++, Java and SQL.

Level II Workshop
Moving on to the second level, students complete practical assignments aimed at familiarizing them with object-oriented programming, a programming approach that comes closest to human thinking. Rounding out their tech skills, students are acquainted with HTML canvas; the concept of libraries; learn how to use documentation, and are introduced to the basic functions of the p5 library. Using all this new knowledge, teens finish off the level by creating The Game Of Life, an artificial intelligence game fully developed by students at this level. What objects and characters end up in the game depends solely on the limits of students’ imaginations!

Level III Workshop
In this workshop, students will level up their programming skills. Students will be introduced to the concept of inheritance in object-based programming and utilize it in their work. Learning to work with a server, students will be introduced to node.js and work with a variety of modules, for example, express and socket.io. They’ll also learn to work with GitHub and the terminal to build programs ready to be run and viewed on servers.

Animation is all about fun and hard work. Students will learn to create characters and bring them to life. Learning the principles of animation, they will discover the nature of how we move, talk, and act in different situations. As Glen Keane once said: “Animators are the actors but with the pencil.”

After passing 3 levels of the animation workshop, students will have a strong base to continue animating and further improving their skills. They can use all of this knowledge in 3D animation, stop motion animation… all types of animation.

Level I Workshop
It’s here that students first become familiar with the history and various types of 2D animation, learning about the principles of animation used by every working animator today. This includes screening examples in anticipation of what teens will soon be creating.

Throughout the remaining workshop sessions, students become fully immersed in learning Toon Boom (the new industry standard) and finally create movement with a character of their own design.

Level II Workshop
It’s during Level 2 that TUMOians discover and learn to utilize additional principles of animation. Throughout this level, the student becomes an animator, learning to communicate their character’s thoughts through their walking style e.g. sad characters walk droopy-like and happy characters with a little pep in their step.

Level III Workshop
This workshop isn’t so much about learning animation, as it is about developing their skills as both an animator and a director. Using what they’ve learned about the animation process and its principles, students will create 10-second animated shorts. Each student will develop their own story and will need to take into account the storyboard, planning their short’s individual shots and decide on the overall style of their animation.

Experiencing games as a player is easy, building a game for players is a wholly different experience. The entire point of our game development workshops is to create a new gaming universe from design to programming and everything in between.

By the end of the three levels, each participant will be able to design and develop their own 3D video game using the Unity Engine. What they learn here can be applied to most industry-leading game engines.

Level I Workshop
This is where it all starts. Workshop leaders begin by showing students the classics. Though many of the teens are gamers and already familiar with the classics, showing them these examples always helps to inspire them on their journey through the three levels and encourages them to start imagining the creative possibilities. Students will discover the foundations of level design as they learn to work in Unity and build their own game worlds.

Level II Workshop
With a full level design already under their belts, students in level two move on to coding basics through Unity. Here, the focus shifts from design to programming. Students program an entire world including doors with key functions that allow a player to walk between rooms, or they might program a portal and skip the door entirely.

Level III Workshop
They’ve designed levels and worked with code, now it’s time for students to develop their own 2D or 3D game. Moving more towards the programming side of game development and taking on the role of a game designer, students will focus on increased interactivity, animation, AI, enemies, menus and advanced level design. The students themselves will develop the overall look of their games, free to decide the genre, the music, the sound and the mood. Put it all together and each student will have created a fully playable level.

It is about designing simple, beautiful and, at the same time, complex design projects, by combining simple forms, colors, lines, and text.

Through Graphic Design we can explore how the world communicates visually. This workshop will introduce us to the world of Graphic Design; with baby steps we will be able to widen our visions and the horizon of possibilities within the creative market.

Graphic Design is a profession requiring a set of skills in order to create successful and effective projects. Hence, we will be exploring the fundamentals and the elements of design before students work to create cool designs and branding using industry-standard tools: Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.

Level I Workshop
The seeds of curiosity related to graphic design are first planted here. In level 1, students learn how to use Illustrator and explore 2D graphics, becoming familiar with the field’s jargon as well as how to interpret reality through graphics.

Level II Workshop
It’s only fitting that students in level 2, already armed with a basic understanding of graphic design, dive into the world of app and interface design, itching to learn more. Working in grids and layouts, they start to understand what impact the right typeface or image can have on the overall product while experimenting with different styles to communicate their ideas.

Level III Workshop
Each student will play the role of a graphic designer by designing a logo for that business. Starting with a design brief that they create, students will research the business and develop a visual concept and sketch for the logo. Using industry-standard software, students will turn that concept into a refined final design. At the end of the workshop, each logo is accompanied by a logo presentation, highlighting the logo, the business and its identity alongside the typography, color and other elements used in the design process.

What is the Filmmaking workshop? It is where you will learn the basics of producing a film. Whether the films students want to make are Fictional or Documentary, Art-House or Blockbuster, Short or Feature-length, this workshop is where to get started. And by the end of it, students will have conceived, produced, filmed and edited their own short film.

By the end of the three levels, students will have gained insight and hands-on experience with the foundations of filmmaking; Planning, Shooting, Editing. In short, telling a visual story.

Level I Workshop
This workshop is an introduction to the overall concept of Filmmaking. It begins with a deep dive into non-linear editing. Students learn to work with various footage and analyze it to understand the best approach to the edit. All the while they’ll uncover the elements and techniques involved in the world of film production.

Level II Workshop
Working as a group, students will further develop the skills learned in Level I. The workshop will highlight the importance of rhythm and tempo in film with groups directing short scenes with dialog, utilizing various camera angles and advanced editing techniques.

Level III Workshop
In this workshop, students come together to form a production team. Learning the ins and outs of film production, they choose their own story, scout their own locations and cast their actors before taking on the role of a film crew. Each student will rotate through the various roles, getting hands-on experience as a sound designer, editor, cinematographer, actor and director. By the end of the workshop, they will have a fully-produced 1-minute short film ready for screening.

New tech isn’t the priority for TUMO’s robotics workshops. Then what do students learn from robotics? Students learn life skills that are relevant, like creative and analytical thinking, problem-solving, team-work, and stepping out of one’s comfort zone.

Students learn visual programming, creative and analytical thinking, problem-solving through teamwork and hands-on work building and programming robots that can complete a set of tasks determined by the students themselves.

Level I Workshop
To start everyone off on equal footing, students in level 1 build Lego robots from basic kits while working in teams. While each robot is derived from the same kit, the learning process occurs over the journey: Students solve the problems required to get their robot up and running while learning the basics of programming, working with sensors and motors to scratch the surface of AI to create robots that move themselves and make decisions – because a robot isn’t just a machine.

Level II Workshop
Now it’s time for some creativity. Teams are formed around original robot ideas and students design, build, and program their robots. No idea is too big or too small. What’s great about robotics is that it doesn’t only encompass the STEM fields but incorporates art and design as well. Using different engineering solutions and programming structures, teens create, build, test and present a new LEGO robot model by the end of their second level.

Level III Workshop
By now, students know how to engineer robots that can follow commands and make decisions, but what if we said these students could build robots that can communicate with other robots? It might sound like science fiction, but it’s true. By the end of the workshop, students will present robots that can communicate over wifi in order to carry out tasks. These robots can be engineered to communicate with other robots, with a computer, or with another device.

“How do we listen to and create music in the 21st century?”

The fulfilling path of studying music, exploring its genres, learning to play various classical and electronic instruments, songwriting, and composing is what our three levels of music workshops are all about. Students will learn the insides and out of creating music using the industry-standard Logic Pro software suite.

Level I Workshop
At this stage, students receive a foundation in different musical genres, instruments and singing techniques while learning skills like layering sounds and tracks. To edit their tracks, workshop participants learn how to use Logic Pro X software, which they continue using as they climb the workshop levels. Teens create rhythms and beats with a MIDI keyboard and, by the end of the level, produce their very own one-minute-long track.

Level II Workshop
Students will advance their knowledge of music creation and production. In this workshop they will work on their own tracks, composing with their newfound knowledge of notes and scales before taking on the role of sound engineers where they will get their tracks ready for release, sounding as clean and professional as possible.

Level III Workshop
In this workshop, students will play the role of music composer and producer. It’s a full plunge into music theory, where students will learn to compose melodies and harmonies with scales and chords. Each student will create their own tracks, working with specific styles of the rhythm of their choosing, before moving on to mixing and balancing.

Aside from its more obvious uses in film visual effects and video games, 3D modeling plays an important role in advertising, architecture, medicine, jewelry, and product design. Students will learn the basics of 3D modeling: how to create hard-surface objects by manipulating polygons, edges, and vertices.

After passing all three levels, the students will have a strong foundation to create just about any 3D model… yes, really, anything! They can use 3D modeling skills in 3D games, animation, sculpting, medicine, science or just for fun.

Level I Workshop
The first level challenges students to work with new tools, but once they really understand the basics of 3D, learning the rest gets a whole lot easier. You could say it’s a lot like riding a bike. Fittingly, teens in level one learn the ins and outs of Maya and work with quads—a mesh used in modeling—to create a 3D mini bike.

Level II Workshop
Students in level two get to bring their mini-bike models to life by painting on skins, a process called texturing. The best part is that students have the creative freedom to texture their bikes any way they choose. Workshop leaders are on hand to recommend color palettes and textures, helping students achieve their best results—and the advice is fully customized based on what students are interested in.

Level III Workshop
With this workshop, students will be introduced to digital sculpting and the professional workflow needed to unleash their creativity. Starting with the collection of reference materials, students will utilize industry-standard tools, time management skills and uncover new techniques in a production cycle that will lead to the creation of full 3D models of characters of their imagination.