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

Lubomir Arsov attended  Max the Mutt directly after high school and holds diplomas from both the 3 year Classical & Computer Animation Basics Diploma Program, and the  Advanced 3D Computer Animation & Production  Program, which he completed in  2006.  Since then he’s been steadily employed as  a character designer by  CORE Digital, House Of Cool Studios,  and , currently,  Starz Animation. Lubomir also freelances as a character designer. His designs are part of many current animated series!  His newest freelance work is visual development artist for a potential feature project.

It’s been a pleasure to watch Lubomir evolve not only into a first rate character designer, but a first rate, genuine and generous human being.

Lubomir recently published Deviations: Lubomir Arsov- Explorations 2006-2009. Some pages are shown below.

Deviations' cover image

a page from Deviations

a page from Deviations

The book  was inspired by encouraging words from friends and colleagues, and a desire to share his private process with a wider audience.

Max the Mutt Animation School  congratulates Lubomir Arsov on the publication of his book and  wishes him every success in his future endeavors.

Max the Mutt has recently been in contact with Chris Leung of Powie Studios. He and his business/ creative partner Jesse (Sondang), both former  Max the Mutt students, have opened their own studio, Powie Studios, a multimedia entertainment company currently focused on children’s entertainment.

Chris and Jesse introduced their new comic book series, The Misadventures of Mal & Lot, at the Wizard World Toronto Comic Con 2010. They plan to continue creating fun and exciting stories suitable for audiences of all ages.

Chris told us that they first decided to do  their own comic  because they were so often disappointed in their search for fun and exciting material.

“The Misadventures of Mal & Lot”, owes much to the books, comics, movies, and cartoons they had enjoyed during their childhood,  specifically the works of the Lucas Film, Disney, and Bluth studios with a dash of manga and bande dessinee thrown into the mix. The story itself was inspired by tales of action and adventure in the vein of authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne,  and Mark Twain. Chris  told us,  “… Max the Mutt Animation School’s strong efforts in developing our good all around drawing skills  has given us the fortitude to make our dreams of self publishing a reality.”

Max the Mutt Animation School would like to congratulate both Chris and Jesse for the successful self-publication of their comic, and wish them every success in their future projects. You can find more information about future projects at the Powie Studio website, www.powiestudios.com.

Here are the cover and some pages from “The Misadventures of Mal & Lot.”

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.

We are in the midst of redesigning our website, and have also been incredibly busy with Industry Night and graduation,  so please excuse our being behind in updating information on the website!

Both evenings were positive events  and  graduates have many job opportunities. Megan Leonard was tested the next day for a job animating for 9 Story…and starts work Tuesday! Congratulations, Megan.

Former Max the Mutt students and graduates  Tess Tolmatchev, Matt DiLallo,  Matt Mozgiel and Kelley Conley attended as representatives of their companies!  It was great to see them again.

Maxine Schacker and Tina Seemann with former graduates Tess Tolmatchev, Matt DiLallo, Matt Mozgiel and Kelley Conley

We’ll let you know as other graduates start working. Of our 14 animation graduates, 4 are international students returning to their own countries and 5 are returning to Max the Mutt in September to do the Advanced Diploma in 3D Computer Animation and Production.  Of the 4 remaining graduates, one is a competitive rider and is considering taking a year to be with her horses. That leaves 3, and we think the chances are very good that they’ll be employed very soon. Animation jobs in Toronto, after a hiatus, have opened up.

The Illustration graduates are entering a different kind of field. They will be freelancing, speaking with editors and art directors, going to comic book conventions to show their work. Art editors from several Toronto publishing houses were very impressed with the work they saw and plan to contact graduates. One graduate is already working with Ty Templeton. We’ll try to keep on top of their employment success and report it.

Thanks to Justin Gabrie from Marvel who took the time to fly up from New York City, address students in the afternoon, and attend Industry Night. We really appreciate your joining us, Justin, to celebrate the first graduating class in Illustration for Sequential Arts.

Dave Ross and Justin Gabrie (MARVEL)@ Industry Night

Justin Gabrie (MARVEL) and Dave Ross having fun posing with Te'Shawn Dwyer, a Max the Mutt student

Have a nice weekend everyone! Photos will come soon….

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 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.

We have a new Admissions Director, Julia Ma.   Julia is smart, generous and she found us!  She’s worked before in admissions and had heard about Max the Mutt. She wanted to find out if all the good things she was hearing were true.

At the time I didn’t know Lisa Mamers was going back to school, so I thanked Julia for her interest but told her we didn’t have an opening.  Call it fate.  Julia asked if she could have a tour anyway, and a few days after her visit Lisa announced that she wanted to return to school herself !  Being around art had made her realize that she was moving in the wrong direction: she wants to be a fashion designer.

Julia stepped right in and has been with us since the end of August. She’s piloting our first January start, and much to our surprise  it looks like we’ll have a full class!  These students will join the current year one students in September 2010 to begin year 2.   Since there seems to be a need for this option, we will offer it again for January 2011.

The magic of Max the Mutt from the beginning is that somehow what we need, the person or people we need, seem to find us just as we really need them! i can include so many people in that…Carla Drmay, who is our Secondary School liaison, Workshop Director and so much more… I’m thinking of many more, mainly instructors who found us…the list is too long!

The school is feeling very good to me these days. We have a solid core philosophy.  All the year one groups seem very focused and hardworking.  I work with the Concept Art students, so I’m more aware of what’s happening in their classes.

The second years are busy with all the intro CA courses: Intro to Environment Design, Intro to Animation, Intro to Concept Art, Background Painting ( a double course that starts with the brush and then moves into Photo Shop), Cartooning 1, and of course Intermediate Life Drawing (not an intro course but introducing new concepts).  The third years are taking Portrait Painting, and a full day of Advanced Environment Design and Painting in Photo Shop. They also have Advanced Life drawing and a course called Hands and Feet, which stresses anatomy.

The animation students have several new faculty members, including James Miko. He had an extensive career working for major studios, and learned the craft at a time when you learned  at a studio by being mentored, not at a school.  With that vantage point, he’s bringing some new approaches to learning animation to his year 3 students. (If we were degree granting, by the way, we couldn’t have seasoned professionals like James Miko teaching! We’d be required to hire those with the right “academic” qualifications, most of whom have very little real life experience).

Tina Seemann and I are working hard to get all animation students to realize that they need the fourth year of animation. In fact, we’d like to make it mandatory, a 4 year diploma that includes 3D.  To do this, we’ll need to go through the government and that will take time. In the meanwhile, I hope they’ll all be savvy enough to understand that as the studios -  unlike Mikko’s day- do less and less mentoring and want entry level animators to be at a higher and higher level, the necessity of spending more time in school is becoming a reality.

We’ve already introduced one beginning animation course into year one, and next year, animation classes will be longer in both years 2 and 3.

We are now asking all animation applicants and current students to think in terms of 4 years of study. The changes in the industry demand that everyone take 3D as well as classical and 2D computer animation.  We can help students to fund that fourth year, but, to state it again, everything we are hearing from companies in the industry leads us to feel that year 4 is essential for our animation graduates to remain competitive for jobs at the top companies.

The Illustration for Sequential Arts Program has really blossomed!  Thanks to Kent Burles, with an assist from Dave Ross, the year one and year two students are off to an excellent start.  The year three students, who will be our first SA graduates, have developed beyond expectations and are doing great work!  I really look forward to seeing their graduate show at our first industry evening showcasing both Animation and Sequential Arts!  We’ll have to wait until 2011 for the first Concept Art graduates.

I’ll try to post work from all three diploma programs when we get a little further into the first semester.  I’ll also try to write more for the blog.

Which reminds me, thanks to one of the threads on www.conceptart.org,  I found out about anatomy DVDs that show the body in dissection!  They were done for medical students, but I know they’ll be invaluable to all students at Max the Mutt, whatever their diploma program.  If these things had only been available when I was young… They should arrive soon.

Please post comments if there are subjects you’d like us to cover.  If I don’t have the answers, I’ll gt someone who does have the answers to write!  In fact, I really think Kent and Tina should start writing….in the meantime, keep drawing everyone!

This has been quite a ramble.  I hope you feel up to date.