Animation – Page 3 – MTM College

The Case for Storyboarding & Animatics Being Crucial in Creating a Successful Animation Project

Imagine trying to verbally explain to someone exactly how the story you want to animate will unfold from start to finish.

There, now you’re starting to get an idea of the importance of storyboarding for any animation project. Storyboards show “shot by shot” where the camera will be, and how the visuals will tell the story. The camera can change perspective, change angle, the camera can pull back for a long shot or truck-in for a close-up. All of this effects how the audience feels, and what is visually communicated. Storyboards are perhaps more important in classical and computer animation than in live-action projects: while capturing even a single angle can be costly in either medium. The implications of correcting even a small character action in animation can be far more complex than in live action. Once there is a storyboard, all the shots are linked together with a dummy soundtrack to create an “animatic.” The animatic gives a better idea of how the visual storytelling is working and hopefully identifies problem areas.

Why is Storyboarding, and Subsequently Creating The Animatic so Important in an Animation Project?

If you look at all the benefits of storyboarding for either a live action project or animation projects, the implications, as previously mentioned, are more profound and important for animation than for live action. An effective animatic is a proving ground.

Proof of Concept

Concept art helps to clarify a vision. The “fun pack” includes character designs, locations and props. These are needed in order to create the storyboard. The storyboard helps us envision the film shot by shot. Next comes the animatic which includes the soundtrack and timing, and confirms that the plan for the film will work.

Will the Action Work

Once we have the animatic, very often areas that need to be revised are identified.

Storyboard Revisions are then made, and a revised animatic created

Followed by another meeting for final approval from the producers, the director and the animation director.

Confirming the Budget

It’s one thing to prove the concept and determine the animation will work, but can it all be done within budget? Storyboards give a clearer idea of the complexity of the final product, sound and vision, and that makes for more accurate budgeting.

Streamlines the Entire Production

In summary, storyboards are useful in every stage of animation production.

This is why Storyboarding is an important component of the Classical & Computer Animation & Production Diploma here at Max the Mutt. Contact us to learn more.

5 Skills a Concept Artist Needs for Creature Design

From the earliest days of film and digital animation, including the Ray Harryhausen classic films, and digital games, like 1993’s Doom, creature design has been a central process on which the success of the entire project can hinge.

If there is anything in common with Harryhausen’s Cyclops, Doom’s monsters and even the Clickers who prowl in ‘The Last of Us’, it is that, despite being unlike anything we’ve ever seen, they are believable, relatable and potentially real.

That means a concept artist for creature designs needs a fairly wide-ranging skill set to create thoroughly realistic, yet previously unimagined creatures to capture the audience’s imagination.

Among many others, that skill set would include the following.

1.Ability to draw both humans and animals, and an understanding of basic anatomy and structure for both

Audiences will only fear or fall in love with a fantasy creature they can relate to. That means, to be both realistic and relatable, fantasy creatures should be inspired by real-world creatures.

2.A Practical Imagination

Designers are usually brought in early in the story and script development and their designs may influence the storyline. Concept artists need to be able to take verbal directions and come up with designs. Sometimes the artist is given a story or character brief that may only be a few sentences long. Where does he or she go from here?

3.Research & Reference Gathering

If the direction was to create a creature that lives inhabits a rocky terrain. An understanding of that terrain. And the physical attributes the creature would need to live there is needed before design can begin.

4.The Process

Now the artist starts doing rough thumbnails of as many creatures as come to mind. From here, the concept artist narrows down the possibilities to a few ideas that he/she develops further. At this point. The 2 or 3 choices may be shared with the Art Director for approval and/or suggestions before settling on a final design that will be fully developed.

5.Traditional Drawing Skills

Traditional drawing and painting skills help give understanding and direction to what you’re trying to accomplish on digital 3D platforms.

Creature design is just one element of the Concept Art Diploma program at Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art & Design.

Why Concept Art is So Important

Even if you’ve heard about concept art, it can still be difficult to understand why it’s so important for animation and video game projects.

What is Concept Art?

It might help to start with what concept art is not. It’s not a simple illustration of a concept. It’s not a sketch or layout of an illustration. It’s not a promotional illustration used to sell a video game or animated film.

Concept art helps to convey the look, feel and mood of a design idea. It is used to capture and convey the overall design vision of a project before anything goes into production, versus trying to express everything in specific terms at the very beginning of design development.

Concept art can be used in animated or even live-action films, video games and comic books. It is particularly helpful in introducing new ideas into existing projects, or even to help quickly convey the direction of an entirely new project.

Why is Concept Art so Important?

This is a great time for artists, animators and video game designers to be alive. Why? For the first time in history, just about anything you can imagine or envision can be expressed visually. Any new world, any re-imagination of the laws of physics, any lifeform; if you think it, you can probably create a visual representation of it.

But if you’ve ever had a hard time telling someone about one of your wildest creations, you can begin to get an idea of how and when concept art can help. Think about the tough time you’d have explaining your idea of a new world, it’s mood, and even potential story arcs that can take place in it, to your grandmother.

Now what if you could show her a single image that would express the thousand words needed to get her to really understand what you have in mnd.

That image would be a piece of concept art.

And its ability to give your grandmother a clear idea of your vision is why it’s so important.

And if your grandmother was the head of Disney Animation Studios, or Konami, well, it could just make you a rock star.

Is that All There is to Concept Art?

No. Concept art isn’t just about pitching overall concepts to grandma. Let’s say she really was the head of an animation studio and you got the gig. Now lots of cash gets plowed into getting hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, in locations around the world, to make your idea come to life in a film or video game.

But your initial concept art only helps to convey the setting, mood and tone of the overall story. Typically, to help fill in the rest, you’d carefully create a game design document, including painstaking descriptions of characters, for the entire project. Cool. Now everyone has a single reference point for designing not just characters, but settings, features, gameplay elements and so on.

But any two people can read the same physical description of a character and develop two very different looking and functioning beings. If no one is able to capture what you mean from a written description, the development of your character goes back to square one and your project goes way over-budget. And then you’ve upset your grandma.

So concept art can be a mood shot, or the schematic of a vehicle, or any artwork created before the real work begins to make sure everyone works towards the same vision. It might be a single image, a series of images or a mosaic of images that will all together communicate ideas quickly and clearly.

An increasing level of concept art proficiency is required in the video game and animation industry to help streamline the production process. To learn more about how you can earn your Diploma in Concept Art, get in touch with us here at Max the Mutt College of Animation & Design.

Classical Animation Isn’t Dead!

Any rumors, or even statements of fact from ‘experts’, that classical animation is dead proves the truth of they old saying “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

In a curious repetition of history, every time a new medium comes along, claims that the old media are dead seem to come from anyone with a voice.

Here are some examples of what we mean.

After commercial radio took to the airwaves in the 1920s, doomsayers announced the death of newspapers. Today, 100 years later, not even 24-hour, on-demand online news has managed to entirely kill off traditional newspapers.
When televisions became common after World War II, it was considered the death knell of radio.
And then the internet was supposed to kill television

Yet, with all those lessons from the past, we see the same thing happening with classical animation. The ongoing development, availability and ease of use of computer animation, CGI and 3-D animation, has lead to news of the death of classical animation coming from almost every corner.

What is Classical Animation?

Classical animation includes two-dimensional cel animation and stop-motion animation. Traditional animation can include some digital processes for movement, scaling, morphing, soundtrack matching, special effects and editing. But the animation itself generally involves hand-drawing, hand-inking and/or hand-painting of individual frames on paper and/or cels. Classical stop-motion animation is done by manipulating physical models and objects and capturing each step in the animation on camera one frame at a time.

On the surface, the demise of traditional animation seems to make sense. Digital animation takes the art to new levels and forms, including games and ultra-realistic movie animations. At the other end of the process, with that much animating power at their fingertips, who would want to take the time and make the effort to layout backgrounds and painstakingly draw individual animation cells to appear over them?

But traditional animation is alive and kicking, and will be so well into the future for two basic reasons. First, it’s an integral part of most 3-D animations in movies and cartoons, especially in storyboarding and other pre-production processes.

Second, while computer animation speeds up the process, it does so at the expense of the idiosyncratic styles, charm and personality that can make every traditional animation unique. Many different computer-animated works can have a similar quality, depending on the characteristics of the system on which they were produced.

Why It’s Important to Learn Classical Animation

Many millennials and generation Z’s have grown up with little or no exposure to or understanding of traditional animation. For them, it’s crucial importance as an art form itself, and as an integral part of 2-D and 3-D computer animation, can be lost.

Classical animation is alive and well as a profession too. With an explosion in the animation industry based on dedicated television networks, like the Cartoon Network, and the popularity of animated movies, there are more animation jobs available than ever.

Many current animated cartoon series are still produced largely based on the techniques of traditional animation.

Disney studios have probably produced more animated films and television series than any other company. They still stipulate that their animators, even those who work entirely with computer animations, must take life drawing classes and traditional animation techniques. The idea is that a better understanding of how to capture and express anatomy, motion, emotion, gestures, clothing, etc., improves even computer-generated animations.

In fact, considering the Disney program has been in place since the 1930s, it’s interesting to note that it has recently been expanded and is more popular than ever, even as computer animation has come to the fore. If you would like to learn more about learning classical animation, contact us here at Max the Mutt.

Year 4 Animation Student Josh Hill’s Dreams Are Coming True: He’s Animating Classically On A Production!

“This is where I have to be!” Josh Hill announced after he toured our Queen St. W. premises back in 2014.

He found out about Max the Mutt through a local art supply store in his home town, Orangeville Ontario. After finishing a one-year college program, he was working retail and still drawing in his spare time. One of the employees at the store handed him a pamphlet and the rest, as they say– is history!

Josh began his first term at Max the Mutt in the fall of 2014. He acknowledges the importance of the foundation year, and said that although life drawing wasn’t new to him, he really learned how important it was to animation at MTM.

“Life drawing is crucial, when I pose a character, I’m thinking about line of action, silhouette, and most importantly, the story. All of the things we learned in life drawing.”

And what does Josh think about the animation program at MTM emphasis on traditional techniques?

“It’s great,” he said. “Pencil and paper, it’s just the best! Simple and direct. Max the Mutt’s curriculum includes more classical animation than any other program in Canada that we’re aware of!”

It was clear that Josh was in his element here, but Josh understood that to make it as an animator in today’s industry, he had to learn 2D software and take on the challenges of 3D animation. Josh values the fact that his 3D animation instructor, Adrian Hansen, presented the 3D process using 2D tricks and techniques. This has been a tremendous help: “He taught me how to approach 3D as if each frame was a drawing, which was so useful….”

The class was also taught to create thumbnail drawings quickly, “sometimes we would just do ‘thumbnails’ for the entire class time- or however long it took to get the ideas out.”

The computer lab where Josh and his classmates are currently working on their final year’s film project is a testament to the importance of the classical animation approach, no matter the medium of the final product. The bulletin boards are covered in concept art, location designs and character turnarounds, many of which Josh has drawn himself. The film’s hand-drawn storyboard is on another wall in the lab, allowing the group to revisit the progression of the film, and make sure everything flows smoothly story-wise.

The fourth year film features a young ghost character, named Sam. For this project, Josh will be integrating his 2D skills into the film, by animating Sam traditionally. To do so, Josh and his classmates will first be animating the 3D elements of the scenes, and then Josh, using Harmony, will draw Sam on top of the existing 3D animation. While integrating 2D elements into a 3D film will be challenging, Josh and his classmates feel the addition of 2D elements will give this project a unique flair.

Josh feels, “it’s more satisfying to put your all into a single shot and to make it awesome even if it’s only for 5 seconds rather than animating a minute of “okay” footage.”

In December, Josh responded to an ad looking for classical animators. The position turned out be a project for a major USA company, being produced here in Toronto. Now Josh is working both as a busy 4th year animation student and in his first professional job!

Josh hopes to one day work as a 2D feature animator. He certainly has what it takes to make it in the industry. Having watched Josh struggle, grow, and succeed, his instructors at Max the Mutt would no doubt agree that Josh’s dreams will one day come true.

Our Praised Cartooning Workshop with Tina Seemann

Our Cartooning workshop with Tina Seemann was a huge success according to Tanya Gerber, Rosanna von Sacken and Carolyn Ellis, three members of the class that ran the week of July 10th -14th. The three ladies are all professional ‘whiteboard artists‘- those people who draw ‘live’ at conferences such as the ‘Ted Talks’ you can see online.

Workshop Students praise MTM's Cartooning Tina Seemann — Tina Seemann giving one-on-one instruction to Tanya Gerber, Cartooning workshop student

” That’s gutsy work ” Tina says, ” as you cannot erase what you’ve done, you just have to carry on as the person giving the ‘talk’ cannot wait for you to get an image ‘right’.

The ladies were adept at drawing simple people and concepts and being good at calligraphy is important. ( Rosanna’s handwriting was especially beautiful!! )

Even though this workshop introduces novices to the art of cartooning, beginning with a simple stickman and builds upon that, the ladies were pleased that Tina was able to impart cartooning tips that were especially useful to them.

Max the Mutt’s “Industry Night 2017” Event Brings Graduates and Recruiters Together!

Our Industry Event was a huge success! From 3:30 pm until 9:30 pm on Wednesday, May 23rd, Max the Mutt was filled with visitors, including art directors, recruiters, and industry professionals, all visiting to see the work produced by 2017 graduating students from Animation, Concept Art, and Illustration for Sequential Arts and meet the graduates in person.

This year’s event was electric! The video interviews we are happy to share with you here, reflect what seemed to be unanimous amazement at the level of 2017 graduate work!

If you would like more information about this unique college, Contact us at admissions@maxthemutt.com to ask for more information about our diploma programs. A very few openings are still available for Sept. 2017.

For summer “workshops” to sign up directly through the website right now!

MTM Student Kate Reid’s Animated Film “Afraid” an Official Selection at NIFTY in Seattle!

All of us at Max the Mutt send congratulations to Kate Reid on the continuing international success of her short animated film “I’m Afraid” – a collaboration with her Unionville High School classmates testtest.

Before Kate had started year one at MTM, this film had been accepted into TAAFI – Toronto Animated Arts Festival International, Toronto Youth Shorts, Scout Film Festival in Stowe, Vermont, Animaze – Montreal International Animation Film Festival and the Teen Truth Film Festival and Santa Monica International Teen Film Festival in California.

We spoke with Kate’s family at the opening of Max the Mutt’s show of work by 2016-17 year one students. Kate couldn’t make it! She was in Seattle attending the NFFTY Film Festival (National Film Festival for Talented Youth) at which her film was an official selection. https://www.nffty.org

“I’m Afraid” demonstrates amazing storytelling instincts and will bring a tear to your eye.

You’ll find more about Kate at www.katereid.com.

Max the Mutt Grad Lorraine Alvarez & Family Visit from Capetown!

Max the Mutt graduate Lorraine Alvarez, at that time from Zimbabwe, was an early international student. This is a small college and we all get to know each other very well. One of the joys for the professionals who teach and run the college is remaining in contact with graduates:Tina Seemann,who hosted the family’s visit, reports that it was exciting to see Lorraine again and to meet her husband, South African animator Darryn Posen, accompanied by their 8 mos old daughter, Arianna.

Lorraine has lived and worked in animation in Capetown,South Africa for some time. This is where, while they were working at the same animation company, she met animator Darryn Posen. The family is now touring North America to promote his newest undertaking, a website that offers professional critiques to aspiring animators, “Animation Critique.“

They both addressed Max the Mutt animation students. Lorraine spoke about her animation career since she graduated more than 10 years ago, a career which has taken her to many places, and about the fact that Africa is in her blood and where she discovered she needed to live. She also spoke about the changes in her career. She finds her interest lies more and more in concept art. Happily the depth of training Max the Mutt gives our graduates provides the skill base to make transitions.

Darryn spoke about”Animation Critique.” This is a site where students may send in their animation tests and have their work critiqued by top industry professionals. It was conceived as a supplement to college studies.

As a Max the Mutt graduate, Lorraine also enjoyed visiting one of our Illustration courses, Traditional Colour Illustration for Comics & Covers, taught by Jock MacRae. Our students still draw, but they also use computers, something that wasn’t being done when Lorraine was a student. Seeing the students working away, now years later, on their laptops was quite a difference from her time at Max the Mutt!

Lorraine Alvarez visiting MtM illustration class

Tina Seemann hosted the Posen family during their visit and writes: ” It was so nice to see her again and have her and her family see our new premises. Both Lorraine and Darryn were very impressed by the quality of student work displayed in our halls.

I do so hope that our animation students will keep their animation muscles supple over the summer!

Want a professional critique ?

Contact Darryn at:

》www.animationcritique.com《 “