Earlier in the summer I spent time with Roksolana Tchotchieva looking on line at a seemingly endless sampling of amazing student drawings done in Russia at one of the two major academies. The work bristled with energy. The difference between these drawings and what I usually see coming from the new “realist” academies here was the difference between surface realism, and work inhabited by conviction and life force.  Sharing this with Roksolana, and then with Tina as well, I was overcome.  I had a real art experience.

When you have a real experience in front of a work of art  it isn’t detached or intellectual.  It’s exciting, and it’s visceral  and you never forget it. These experiences become part of the real moments that live on forever in your consciousness. They are what being a lover of fine art and/or a fine artist is all about.

Sometimes it seems to me that we’ve  lost sight of  the potential the arts hold to enrich our lives in positive ways. Are we still able to really inhabit the moment, to exclude everything but the experience we’re in, both as viewers and as creators?  This is the very definition of  transcendent experience,  the required condition of all great art: presence.  To find your self and your real potential as an artist, you must be entirely present and to do that you must learn to have and maintain focus. Focus is the ability to direct all of yourself into the moment, into what you are doing, with no distractions, no part of your consciousness engaged elsewhere.  No matter how good you may think you are at something,  you will have a more profound experience if you are able to entirely immerse yourself  in your work than if part of you is distracted. This is the essence of profound experience, and this is what fewer and fewer people seem wiling to attempt in this age of multitasking and perpetual interruption.

Rembrandt, Vermeer, Velasquez, Goya, Degas, Turner, Sargent…one could go on. You feel them as they completely inhabit their work. Their work touches us now the way it touched the viewer in its own time, the way it will touch the viewer a hundred years from now. They inhabit their work. That is the real miracle.

Now I have to hope that all our faculty and students will continue to understand that the path is learning to focus, bringing your self entirely to whatever it is you’re doing, and patience, for the path is long and we will have to try and try again on the road to knowledge and skill.

This is why we ask for silence in classes. This is why we don’t permit head phones and cel phones. We are trying to create the conditions that will allow you to discover and actualize your own powers.

If silence frightens you, breathe deeply, close your eyes, see yourself working happily and well.  I promise that you’ll learn to treasure silence as part of the pathway to your own magical, inner, creative world. In attempting to draw  a jug, a cup, a nose with integrity (that is, with full attention), as Hawthorne says, you will find your self!

The greatest gift we can give to our students is the discovery, through the cultivation of discipline and focus, of their own innate powers. That’s something that once found will be yours forever, and is priceless.

Every year I try to communicate to students how important it is to their success to eat well, drink water, and get some exercise every day ( even if it’s just walking part of the way to school).

Unfortunately, over the years nutritional habits have declined!  So much of this is habit that young people tend to close their ears to the scientific facts about how body and mind work together.

The programs at Max the Mutt are rigorous. The dedication has to be there, which means doing everything possible to help yourself  succeed. This includes good organizational skills, and a real love for what you are studying, but all of that can be sabotaged by poor nutrition. Junk food lowers resistance to disease, can lead to mood swings (the sugar blues), and denies the brain what it needs to be creative.

I’ve cut and pasted the articles below in the hope that you’ll read them and take them to heart.

From a post by Peter Moore on EduBlog:

Nutrition and Creativity

Nutrition and creativity?  This might sound like an odd fit, but just logically think about it for a moment.  If you are in poor health, how creative do you think you will feel?  In order to be creative you must have a sharp mind and body.  If you are filling your body full of chemicals and pesticides you are not going to be performing at optimal levels.

If, for some reason, you doubt this, look at it from a different perspective.  Would you eat two large steaks just before running a marathon?  How about four cheeseburgers?  You get the point; you need the right fuel for the job.  Your brain is largely fat, but healthy fat.  Omega-3 fatty acid foods such as flaxseeds, flaxseed oils, sardines and Alaskan wild salmon are brain foods.  Many of us are lacking omega-3 in our diets, and so this is one way to jump-start your brain.

Eating as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible is another way to make sure that your brain and body is at optimal performance.  With many fruits and vegetables it is only slightly more money to buy organic, which means that you are drastically reducing your exposure to harmful pesticides. You are paying more, but you are also getting more.  Numerous studies have shown that organic food is higher in nutrients.  Smart shopping will also allow you to find many organic foods that are only slightly more expensive than their non-organic counterparts.

Exercise and Creativity

Exercise, in any form, increases blood flow to the brain.  The more blood flowing to your brain, the better it works.  A simple brisk walk can be enough to get the job done and it’s an easy way to help you be at an optimal setting to be creative.

User-Submitted Article

How to Feed Your Brain and Increase Your Creativity

Member

By WritingNag, eHow Member

Article Rating:

(8 Rat

I want to do this! What’s This?

Feed Your Brain; Increase Your Creativity

http://www.writingnag.blogspot.com

Science tells us that every person with a healthy brain has the ability to be creative. And while there are many self-help books on the market on increasing creativity, the art of creativity and the creative brain many do not address the science of the creative brain. There are many ways to increase your creativity if you have the tools; good nutrition and foods for your brain, enough water, the desire to increase your creativity and for some people supplements will increase your creativity. Feed your brain!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

• A healthy brain
• Good nutrition
• Water
• Desire to increase creativity

1. Ask yourself if you are taking care of your brain by getting enough sleep, eating good nutritious food, adequate water and getting exercise. Often when we are stressed many of the things we know to do for proper self-care fall out the window. The brain needs glucose and oxygen to function properly. If you are on a low-carbohydrate diet you may experience a fuzzy feeling in the brain. Eating protein with a healthy carbohydrate provides much needed glucose and will help you think clearly and create.
2. Although drinking 8-glasses of water a day is suggested, you probably know what the proper amount is for your body. If you’re exercising or drinking a lot of caffeine you will probably need more. Water is needed by the brain to help lubricate the brain tissue and is essential to brain function. It is been proven that adequate water will make you more alert and capable of learning.
3. Get more exercise. We have become a sedentary nation. Exercise floods the brain with oxygen, so if you’re sitting at your desk uninspired, consider taking a brisk walk, run or even use your Wii. Recent scientific studies have shown that exercise also keeps your brain young and may prevent degenerative brain diseases.Eat brain food on a regular basis. There are foods that are known to keep your brain healthier. They include cold water fish, blueberries, and walnuts. Also don’t skimp on the carbohydrates. While carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap, carbohydrates provide fuel for the brain. For optimum brain nutrition eat smaller nutritious meals every few hours.
4. Eat brain food on a regular basis. There are foods that are known to keep your brain healthier. They include cold water fish, blueberries, and walnuts. Also don’t skimp on the carbohydrates. While carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap, carbohydrates provide fuel for the brain. For optimum brain nutrition eat smaller nutritious meals every few hour
   Read more: How to Feed Your Brain and Increase Your Creativity | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5609043_feed-brain-increase-creativity.html#ixzz0w172NOBF

The new academic year is almost here. Max the Mutt has gradually grown from an informal studio into a school with international standing. As an artist founded facility, we’ve had to keep changing our administrative methods and procedures to keep up with the growth, and we’ve gone through growing pains. We’ve spent these last months reorganizing to be more efificient and reduce costs, which will help us to control tuition.

We’ve also spent time thinking about education and how to help students maximize their time at Max the Mutt. It’s been an exhausting but meaningful time for us, as we clean and clear, work on a new web site, and add an online student centre!

We ‘ll have surprises for Noelle when she returns.  She sends her best to to all of you. She always sounds upbeat and she’s a fighter.  We all miss her very much and hope that she’ll be back with us sometime during second semester.

Last but not least, one of my heroes is Stephen Hawking. This is the advice that Stephen Hawking gave his children:

“One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away.”

That’s good advice for all of us to take to heart, don’t you think?

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Maxine

The mandate of a career college is to prepare  students for careers. I value general, liberal arts education but feel that to teach the skill base necessary for careers in animation, sequential arts and concept art, as well as liberal arts subjects, we would need a longer program. We would also be weakened by the inability to have the best instructors available teaching: in a degree program in Canada, the instructor must have a higher degree than the one the students are trying to acquire. We would therefore lose some of our best and most qualified instructors, most of whom are outstanding working professionals. They know what the industries are looking for and how the industries are growing and changing.  we constantly benefit from our ability to respond quickly to their input and make adjustments to the curriculum without having to go through lengthy procedures.

As a career college,  we also have the freedom to create a serious, focused community environment that prepares individuals for the realities of  the workplace. Skills are only part of this. Professionalism and the ability to be a team player are equally important. Our students are expected to take direction, meet deadlines, get to class on time, be inclusive, and treat everyone with respect.  Any behavior that would not be acceptable at work, is not acceptable at Max the Mutt.  These are not just words for us. We have a commitment to protect every student’s right to an optimum learning environment, and every instructor’s right to teach respectful, serious students. The intensity of the course of study in all our diploma programs, means that we aren’t the right school for everyone. Quite honestly, not every student is interested in having to work as long and hard as these programs demand. We need students  who are excited by learning, are self motivated,and appreciate high standards. For these individuals, there’s palpable excitement as skills grow.

Our graduates tell us  they had no difficulty making the transition to the work world, and employers tell us that they consistently find our graduates great to work with.

The article below was published in Perth, Ontario.  Jim was Tina Seemann’s teacher and mentor and has helped Max the Mutt from the beginning.  Max the Mutt began as a one room studio school , and it was Jim who designed and built (with Tina’s assistance) the  portable light tables that enabled Tina to teach classical animation in the same studio that was used by Maxine to teach life drawing!

Thank you Jim for all your generosity to us and your unflagging commitment to passing on drawing skills!

Jim worked with bones provided by Dr. Jack Gerwater to assemble the dog and cat skeletons our students have been working from for the last 10 years. Now he’s working with donated bones of another dog to provide Max the Mutt students with a second dog skeleton. We can never thank him enough.

Retired animator keeps artistic skills sharp

Posted Mar 4, 2010 By Chris Must

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Chris Must, Perth EMC

A true renaissance man, Jim Macaulay keeps his artistic abilities sharp by sketching every day.

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Chris Must, Perth EMC

One of Jim Macaulay’s current project’s is assembling the skeleton of a dog, to help animation artists learn to draw animals correctly.

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With help from Perth resident Doug Manning, Jim Macaulay built this sailing model of explorer Henry Hudson’s ship Discovery for the 1964 National Film Board production ‘The Last Voyage of Henry Hudson’.

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Jim Macaulay’s last commercial project was preparing a storyboard for a 1993 Pink Panther cartoon. The storyboard turns the written script into pictures in a process originally developed at Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s.

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Chris Must, Perth EMC

Jim Macaulay has made many finely-detailed ship and boat models, including this sailing dinghy. Every detail on the original boat is featured, including a rudder held in place by authentic pins and hinges.

EMC Lifestyle - A visit to the home of retired animation artist and professional model maker Jim Macaulay is like stepping into a fascinating miniature world.

Various-sized models of ships and aircraft compete for space with tools of the model maker’s trade, memorabilia from his long career, and the sketches he does every day to keep his artistic skills sharp. One proudly-displayed model is a replica of explorer Henry Hudson’s ship Discovery, made by MacAulay and fellow Perth resident Doug Manning for a 1964 National Film Board production called ‘The Last Voyage of Henry Hudson’. Both the Discovery and a nearby, smaller, model of a tug boat appear authentically weathered. “I like to make it look like the real thing,” said Macaulay. “That’s why it looks a little used.”

Another work of art with a strong connection to Macaulay’s Scottish roots is a fantastically-detailed model of the Clyde paddle steamer Duchess of Fife. Every part was made by hand except for the radio which controlled the boat during its miniature voyages. The paddle wheels actually work. The model features a planked wooden deck. The planks, made exactly to scale, are only about an eighth of an inch wide, but the finished project required about 250 feet of miniature planking to finish.

A resident of Perth since 1991, the native of Glasgow started his working life as an engineering draughtsman, like his father before him. The opportunity to enter the field of animation came about in the late 1940s thanks to J. Arthur Rank, whose Rank Organization owned two major cinema chains and several large film studio complexes. Rank brought over four ex-Disney animators to teach classical animation techniques in Britain. “They were given the task of training people from scratch,” Macaulay recalled. “There was animation in Britain, but not to the standards of Disney.”

Macaulay learned how to produce that standard of work - “None of the shortcuts you see nowadays: the real thing.”

Later, Macaulay’s aunt offered him a free house in Scotland if he would move back. Looking for freelance work, he said, “I did all sorts of artwork, anything I could find.” He became the principal animator at a small studio in Glasgow that was doing animation work.

Macaulay then went to work in New York City for academy award-winning documentary filmmaker Hilary Harris. After a couple of years in New York, he was invited to come to Canada and work for the National Film Board. The first major NFB project Macaulay worked on was ‘In the Labyrinth’, the NFB’s entry for Expo ‘67. The project was a ground-breaking multi-screen presentation produced for Canada’s centennial exhibition in Montreal. There was a four-hour wait time to get in to view it, MacAulay recalled.

Macaulay spent the last 14 years of his career teaching animation at Sheridan College before retiring in 1988. “Sheridan laid a very good foundation of trained people to encourage the animation business,” he said. Both his daughters also have a strong interest in art, and teach at community colleges.

Macaulay’s last major commercial project was producing the story board - turning a written script into pictures - for a Pink Panther cartoon made for television in 1993. Today he said, “I try to avoid commercial work because it puts pressure on me that I don’t need any more.”

Although retired for many years, Macaulay still finds the time to help out budding artists, however. He is currently sorting out and assembling the bones of a dog skeleton gifted to a company called Max the Mutt Animation School, a private college located in Toronto, founded in 1997 by Maxine Schacker and Tina Seemann. The dog skeleton, which will be held together with wire, will be used to help students “learn how to draw animals properly.”

One highlight of Macaulay’s varied career came in 1958 when he had the opportunity to help design Britain’s entry in the annual America’s Cup sailing competition. The opportunity came about because the boss of the animation studio where he was working at the time was also the manager of the boatyard where the yacht, named Sceptre, was to be built. “My job was to draw the stuff,” he said. “My designer friend had to think out the design of the stuff, do the calculations - and manage the yard.”

The bid to win back the cup from the Americans was unsuccessful - they won the annual challenge every year from 1857 to 1983 when an Australian boat won. “That’s because the Americans are very good at this,” said Macaulay. He said losing the race is never an overwhelming defeat, because the winner came in two or three minutes ahead at the end of a race lasting three hours.

The talented model maker said he first picked up some of the techniques from his father. Describing his dad as “a traditional father,” he said the old man’s highest praise was “not bad.”

Considering the number of models Macaulay has made in his lifetime, he has kept just a few. Aside from the problem of having enough space to display them, he said, “the fun is in making them, not keeping them.” Making miniatures from scratch rather than from a kit requires careful planning and the challenge is in “trying to find ways of making it happen.”

I’m writing this in answer to questions I’m asked on a regular basis!

There seems to be confusion about the difference between Video Game Design and Concept Art :  they are very different. The confusion is increased by the fact that many schools indicate that they teach both when in reality they are essentially teaching game design,  and offering a few concept art classes as part of the curriculum.

Video Game designers conceive and program games. Concept Artists design the environments, props,  and characters. To become a Concept Artist you will need more than one or two concept art courses.  This is a position that requires very developed art and design skills. Take a look at the curriculum of our four year diploma program in Concept Art for Animation and Video Games. Every course listed is part of the knowledge base required for this profession!

Although studying illustration in a degree or diploma program will teach you some of the skills required, they will not all be covered. Concept Art is really a mix of illustration, traditional fine art  skills, product design, animation and applied computer skills. It took us a year to work out our curriculum and we’ve been fine tuning it ever since.

I hope this helps!

Maxine

I’m happy to write that first year animation students are having a really exciting time in their first classical animation course, and Tina Seemann tells me  their enthusiasm makes it a joy to work with them.

Twenty year one students have signed on (pending successful completion of the first diploma) for the Advanced Diploma in 3D Computer Animation and Production. We’ll be introducing this group to 3D with workshops during years 2 and 3.

The current year 3 animation students are working on  the animatics for their film projects under the direction of award winning director Jean Pillote. The  films will be completed during a 3 week intensive at the end of this academic year. I’m looking forward to seeing them !

Carla Drmay,  Tina Seemann, James Miko, and the third year animation students recently visited Cuppa Coffee, a prize winning Toronto animation company, well known for stop motion animation, but also involved with computer animation. Three ‘09 graduates are working there, as well as some graduates from former years, and the company is very happy with their professional attitude! The report is that Cuppa Coffee is expanding and has added many computer stations.

In fact, the animation industry in the GTA seems to be rebounding from a very slow fall.  The spring should see many companies ramping up.

Sequential Arts: Comic Books and Graphic Novels and Classical and Computer Animation Basics students who are slated to graduate in the spring, will be using Blog Spot to post their blogs very soon. Year 3 Concept Art for Animation and  Video Games students will also post. There will be links to all their blogs on our gallery page. Since all graduating students must put up a blog as part of their portfolio development course, everyone  who wants to will be able to see the full range of work produced by all Max the Mutt’s senior students.

That’s all the news for now. I’m hoping to have the time this week to get some recent art work from Concept Art students posted!

In any art form what matters is what you have absorbed during your education, what you understand deeply enough to give you the resources to use your past experiences to meet the new challenges you face. For hopeful animators this includes a deep understanding of animation basics. There never will be a better way to do this than studying classical animation first.

What I like about programs outside the academic system is their ability to be professional schools, to dedicate all the student’s time to hands on courses.  I’m old enough to remember when if you wanted to be a fine artist you went to art school, if you wanted to be a classical musician you went to music school, if you wanted to be a dancer you studied at one of the schools associated with a dance company. If you wanted to be an animator, once you had art skills you’d get hired and be trained on the job by an animation company.

With the advent of computer animation, there is simply so much for the student to absorb that I’m hard pressed to understand how a degree program can do it in less then six years. I’ve been watching as Tina, in consultation with some top retired animators and animation teachers, has redesigned Max the Mutt’s animation program to enable students to start animating sooner, concentrate more on character animation, and take those skills into 2D and 3D computer animation. Even with all of our curriculum directed towards the career the student is aiming for, we find ourselves short of time (which is why year 4 has become so essential).

The big news at Max the Mutt is that for the first time the year one students, in addition to their Visual Arts Literacy courses, are taking Intro to Animation and are having a great experience in that course. We are also working to introduce 3D animation earlier to those students who have committed to the Advanced Diploma. The plan is to offer them  3D workshops in years 2 and 3 so that they’ll  walk in to the Advanced Diploma program already familiar with Maya.

Our current year 1 students are the first students who will experience the new animation program in its entirety. However, Tina has been offering summer animation workshops, and this year students will also be able to submit work for review through Concept Share, so current year 2 students will also get additional training. Those going on to year 4 will take a 3D workshop during year 3 to give them  preparation.

Any art form takes practice, practice, practice. One needs first to understand the principles, but that’s a long way from being able to use those principles well.  Animating is no different than any other art. It takes passion, dedication and lots of hard work to develop as an artist.

It also takes passion and dedication to work to keep Max the Mutt, in the face of all obstacles, as good as it can be!

Hats off to all our hardworking students, staff and instructors. The dream lives on.

This past  Saturday our friend and publicist Pat Christmas  lost a battle with cancer we never knew she was waging. My first reaction was regret: I hadn’t had a real talk with her in a long time, and I wished I’d had the chance to thank her again for all her support, advice, and generosity.  I’ll always regret not having had that last conversation.  Pat had an upbeat personality and a love of life.  The last time we saw her was at our industry evening in May 2009.  We never knew anything was wrong.  Pat believed in what we were trying to do and was always excited by the student work.  Her contacts in the world of publications trusted her- she was a publicist who worked for causes and companies she believed in, many of them non-profit.  It was her enthusiasm about us that brought a reporter from the Toronto Star to Max the Mutt. We ended up with a feature story about us and half a page of photos of student work.

We will all miss her, and in her memory we will establish a scholarship, the Patricia Christmas Memorial Scholarship. The first award will be announced this spring. We are in the process of working out the details.

Pat, it’s hard to think that we will really not see you again. Thank you for all you gave us.

We were told that she spent her last week with her husband and best friend watching her favorite comedienne, Lucille Ball, in old episodes of I Love Lucy. She left this world with the same positive spirit that energized her life. She will be missed.

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