Max the Mutt is retooling the animation program to put more emphasis on acting, storytelling, and character animation. In fact we will specialize in character animation. The culmination of this, is the fourth year: students not only deepen their knowledge of Maya, they work under a professional director on a real film project in which they are the animators.

In today’s world knowledge of 3D, married to a solid drawing and classical background and good timing and acting, will get good jobs for animators. in addition to the plethora of video game companies that will be looking for animators, we now have Pixar in Vancouver, and Starz in Toronto. The following article will be of interest to all current and incoming animation students.

by: Etan VlessingNov 24, 2009

I’ve copied and pasted this article because it shows just how rapidly changes are happening!  Classical and 2D computer animation are both options for hand held screens.
Written by Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks on November 19, 2009 – 9:14 pm -

The man behind SpongeBob SquarePants is testing out a new business model: launching an animated franchise on the iPhone -
instead of TV or film.

Hecht’s four-year-old independent studio, Worldwide Biggies, will debut Bigby, a new cartoon character that — rather than premiering as a half-hour weekly animated series on television — will make his first appearance as an iPhone game app.

Produced in partnership with online gaming giant Addicting Games, the Bigby game is based on an 8-year-old crime-fighting genius, who wears a bear suit, fights off pirates and dragons, and only eats chicken parmesan. 

As Head of the IT Department at Max the Mutt, I find that adding new software to our digital environment and introducing it to faculty as well as students can be trying - especially when the list of new programs needed continues to grow each year.  It is very rare when something comes along that is intuitive and simultaneously feature-rich without being overwhelming.  This is what makes ConceptShare such a welcome addition to the Max the Mutt staff and student body.

The software is a collaboration tool that will enable faculty to view student work via the internet - suggesting ideas, clarifying concepts and developing a dialogue between student and instructor.  Essentially, ConceptShare enables users to upload work for review - both in its original format and as generic converted media (images are converted into .jpeg and video to .flv).  This allows instructors to view a student’s workflow and the finished product to generate feedback in a variety of methods.  This includes the instructor’s ability to draw directly onto a student’s work - whether it be a digital painting or an individual frame of animation - and make notes suggesting alternatives to reach the required result.  The instructor may also attach reference images to a student’s work to provide a different perspective that may not have previously been considered.

The fact that ConceptShare is browser-based goes a long way in terms of not having to upgrade software, while at the same time providing students and staff with ability to access work and notes from outside of the classroom.

IT-MTM Niall Dowdell.

Whatever the magic is, the Concept Art Diploma Program students (we have 5 in year 3, 15 in year 2, 11 in year 1 with 4 more starting in January who will join them for year 2 next September)  are everything an educator could ask for.  How could it be that group after group exhibit the same passion, work ethic, kindness, and generosity of spirit towards each other?  It won’t be long now until I can post some of the  work they’re doing this semester.  In fact, I’ll try to add some of it to this column by next week.

I’m happy to announce that Alex Ahilov has had an excellent experience with the year 3 students in Advanced Environment Design and Painting in Photoshop, and will return to teach it to year 2 students in January.  Sasa Radosavcevic will be teaching Drawing Props & Objects, a follow-up to Structural Drawing, to year 1 students. I’ll b teaching Figurative Painting once again to year 2 students,  Roksolana Tchotchieva will be teaching Sustained Figure Drawing, using the Russian Academic approach, to year 3 students. There’s too much  to list everything.

When the students are serious, and eager to learn, it motivates instructors to give more than is required. We have passion for the subjects we teach, and it’s exciting to share what we have learned over the years with younger people who share that passion. That’s when teaching generates energy and creativity.

Thank you all, staff, instructors, models and students for contributing to this really unusual learning community.

Maxine

Th study of animation now includes a deeper skill base than ever before! To be equipped to work on the most interesting projects, incoming Max the Mutt students must have the primary goal of animating, and must think in terms of four years. More than 4 years, really, because our Advanced Diploma in 3D Computer Animation and Production starts early and ends late, and now we are giving serious thought to allowing students to stay on until the end of July to add more to demo reels, and get mentored , with graduation and industry evening scheduled for late August.

We are rededicating ourselves to character animation, adding an animation course to year one, adding hours to classical animation courses in years two and three, and, for those students going on to year 4, introducing 3D computer animation in addition to 2d computer animation in year 3.

There will also be more acting, and more drawing for animation. We are very excited about all the new ideas that are being incorporated into the program, and grateful to all the professionals who are contributing their time and energy to rethinking animation education at Max the Mutt.