Last week, we hosted our annual Staff Party that brought MTM’s faculty and staff together to celebrate the end of another successful school year. Held at our campus, we honoured the team’s hard work and support in guiding students toward creative excellence with a wholesome potluck!
Here’s a look at some of the amazing artwork from our students this 2024-2025 school year:
Artwork by 2nd Year Animation Student Karleigh Hollands – Intermediate Character Design
Artwork by 2nd Year Animation Student J’nia Brown – Animation 2A (Background Design)
Artwork by 3rd Year Animation Student Trinity Stephens – 2D Short Film Production
Artwork by 2nd Year Concept Art Student David Gu – Portrait Painting in Oils
Artwork by 3rd Year Concept Art Student Kay Lui – Advanced Props and Objects
Artwork by 4th Year Concept Art Student Vlad Craciun – Advanced Creature Design
Artwork by 1st Year Student Isabelle Albanese – Design and Composition
Artwork by 4th Year Illustration Student Rafael Fernandez – Illustration 2
Global Education Fair
On Saturday, April 26th, we were invited to the Global Education Fair at the atrium of our campus at 95 Moatfield Drive. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth!
MTM Instructor Dave Ross holding up a live drawing at the Global Education Fair.
MTM Instructor Dave Ross drawing at the Global Education Fair.
1st place Entry for Ubisoft NEXT 2021 from Sergi Iranzo
Sergi Iranzo, Year 4 Concept Art for Animation & Video Games Program student, has been awarded the 1st place Finalist for the Ubisoft Toronto NEXT Awards 2021 competition.
Ubisoft Toronto NEXT is an annual competition designed to display the talent of video game development students in Ontario, and to kickstart their careers in the industry. With paid apprenticeships in hand, winners of each category receive the opportunity to learn from top talent and further hone their skills.
The 1st place Finalist winner receives a paid 3 month Apprenticeship position at Ubisoft Toronto studio and a $300 prize package. The apprenticeship is set to begin at the end of May 2021.
A compilation of all Finalists and their work from all Categories can be seen here:
Branko Bistrovic, Team Lead Concept Artist – Concept Art Department – Ubisoft Toronto and a former Max the Mutt student, who has been a part of the NEXT competition since it’s founding had this to say about Sergi Iranzo’s submission for the competition:
“For the competition, Sergi Iranzo’s entry for Concept Art category, execution-wise, knocked it out of the park. A ‘Space Opera’ on a grand scale.
An interesting design, solid composition, simple yet striking lighting, that’s very important for a space scene, thanks to the intelligent use of the clouds along with the leading angles of the ships and the actual structure. This still image of a docking bay in the thermosphere has a strong sense of motion and energy which is very impressive. The scale is also exceptionally well-handled. It feels as if the structure is absolutely vast. Well done Sergi! You are our number 1 pick for all of those reasons. Be proud. You earned it!”
Sergi Iranzo had previously entered and had been awarded the 3rd place Finalist for the 2019 Ubisoft Toronto NEXT Awards competition for Concept Art category. Since he was only in Year 2 of the Concept Art program, at the time for the competition, his 3rd place standing was very impressive.
Check out Sergi Iranzo’s Student Profile to see more work from him.
Congratulations to all Finalists for this years competition. There was some amazing work for sure!!
Tiffani Brown always knew that she loved art. So when she decided that she wanted to pursue a career as an artist, she thought that animation was the only way to go. “I thought Concept Art was for Video Games, I didn’t know!” Once Tiffani was enrolled at MTM, that’s when she discovered that a concept artist can do much more than video games. And so, her concept art training began!
A Career As A Concept Artist
Tiffani works as a background painter for the hit show Esme and Roy, season 2, at Nelvana Studio in Toronto. “I get to paint the world that they run around in!” she says of what she does for her job. “The company wasn’t even on my radar”, explained Tiffani in our interview with her. She thought she would have to start off small and work her way up. To her surprise, she was hired straight out of graduation. Proving that her concept art training was a success!
How did MTM help her achieve her dream of being a concept artist at a company that she loves?
“I love Max the Mutt because of how they push you into art.” It is this focus on traditional art skills, coupled with instructors who push you to do better that got her to the point where she was making art without even thinking about it; it helped build her confidence as an artist.
When Max the Mutt College first decided to develop a Concept Art Diploma Program, we sought advice from top Concept Artists within Canada and the USA about how we should structure the program, and what they felt we should include in our curriculum. We wanted to ensure we were preparing people for not just a job, but a full Career in Concept Art.
Meet Goran Bukvic
Goran Bukvic is an internationally recognized Senior Concept artist who has worked on major AAA titles as well as animation and film projects, including:
Jurassic World 2 – 2018
The Legend Of Tarzan – 2016
X-Men: Days of Future Past – 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy – 2014
Gears Of War 5 – 2019
Gears Of War 4 – 2016
Halo 4 – 2012
Tron: Evolution – 2010
Tomb Raider
Character by Goran Bukvic
He has supported Max the Mutt from the start, including a visit earlier this year to speak with Max the Mutt Concept Art students about the industry and how he built his career in concept art.
He was part of our original consultation process in 2009. As part of our conversation, I asked how much our Concept Art students would need to learn about animation to be successful. Curious about whether he thought things had changed since then, I recently sent Goran a copy of the advice he gave me back in 2009 – and he confirmed that it is still exactly what he would say today! Check out Max the Mutt’s Concept Art Curriculum, and you’ll find that our program is still firmly rooted in traditional representational art skills.
Here’s my candid conversation with Goran. I hope you enjoy reading along and find it as insightful as I did!
What would you want a Concept Artist to understand about animation for classical, 2D computer & 3D animation?
It’s all about motion. Chances are that, if you are hired as a Concept Artist on a project, you will be involved in the very beginning, bringing ideas to the table; however, your work will not be the final product. The final product will be something that’s moving, one way or the other. In other words, your conceptual designs should inspire the animators down the pipeline, making sure that it stays consistent throughout the whole process.
Concept Art and Animation have a lot in common, especially when it comes to Character Design. A Concept Artist’s job is to take a particular character through a range of poses and emotions that best describe their personality and their role in the story/gameplay. In animation, “key poses” play a crucial role in “selling” the character, much the same as when designing it. You will want to make sure that it is as expressive as possible in the early stage, so the more familiar with animation you are, the more fluid and believable your designs will be.
Are there special concerns Concept Artists should consider when designing for 2D/3D games?
Not really. It’s more about the idea and concept, no matter what medium will be used for the final product.
How about when designing for animation versus designing for a game?
Animation is “set” and a game is interactive, however, the design approach is the same. They both contain animated assets as a final product. You will want to provide modellers, texture artists and animators with as much information as possible so that, when the initial design is approved, it will be easier for them to follow through and stay on the right track.
Anything to consider when designing for 2D versus designing for 3D?
Again, it is about the idea and concept first and foremost, however, designing for 2D may require a simplified design philosophy because each frame has to be drawn over and over by hand. This is in order to save production time and cost. In 3D, this process is much easier and more effective due to being able to build the model only once and have it rigged, textured and ready to be animated in any way needed.
The importance of storyboarding skills for Concept Art
Other than the above, I think it might be difficult to incorporate a “bit” of animation into the Concept Art program. As you know, learning to animate is a very long and hard process, and it probably should be exclusive. It starts with animating a simple bouncing ball, through flower sack and so on. By the time students get to learn something, the focus will shift away from Concept Art.
In terms of being trained as a concept artist and keeping the focus on that, I think Storyboarding courses would be much more fitting. They may actually have to do storyboarding at some point on a job. It can be structured so that exercises contain some principles of animation that are important in design, like key posing, heavy action scenes, exaggeration and so on.
What should Concept Art training focus on?
The most important part of Concept Art training is focusing on realistic drawing and painting, anatomy, architecture and colour theory.
Cool and original ideas won’t come until students acquire the skill to seamlessly project from the brain to the image. This will take a long time. I feel that the focus should strongly remain on that so that once they graduate, they can show enough “specific” potential to get hired in the industry.
Recently, Max the Mutt (MTM) was pleased to welcome Kat Curwin (Production Manager) and Jack Carr (Creative Producer) of YOWZA! Animation for a visit.
Kat and Jack gave a presentation on life at YOWZA and working in the industry to our Fourth Year Animation and Concept Art students. Students then got the chance to pepper our visitors with questions, which they took full advantage of! Since Kat graduated from MTM four years ago, it was exciting to catch up with her and hear about her career journey since then. It was also pretty neat to hear how many of her YOWZA Animation colleagues are former MTM students as well.
After the presentation, all the students in attendance were offered the opportunity to have one-on-one interviews with Kat and Jack, to show them their work, and get individual feedback and advice. We heard from several of them about what a valuable experience this interview was, and we’re grateful to Kat and Jack for all the time they spent with us.
Animation student Kate Reid sharing her demo reel with Jack Carr (upper photo) and Concept Art student Jayesh Naidu sharing his work with Kat Curwin (lower photo).
We have to say that YOWZA sounds like a wonderful place to work! Since they are a smaller studio, there is a lot of room to showcase your individual talents, and the company works hard to ensure there is are opportunities for artistic growth. In some cases, this environment might mean you get to explore career opportunities you never expected!
One of the important elements to career success stressed by both Kat and Jack was having a great attitude and being a good team player. How you work with others can have a big impact on how well you and your team do, and how far you go in your career in the creative industries. It was a great message for everyone to hear, and something we all should strive towards, regardless of where we are in our careers!
Thank you so much, Kat and Jack for taking time to meet with us!
Tina Seemann and David Huynh with Kat Kurwin and Jack Carr from YOWZA! Animation.
Remember when you were a kid and someone asked you “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Two things are likely true about the answer you gave. First, you probably weren’t thinking along the lines of a job that’s in high demand. Instead, you might have said something you were more familiar with, like video game developer, teacher or musician. The second truth about the answer of what you wanted to be when you grow up? It is highly unlikely that you said “concept artist”.
Even people who work in traditional and digital arts can have a difficult time in saying just what is a concept artist and strictly define what a concept artist does.
This is What a Concept Artist Does
To start getting a better understanding of the role, it can help to expand the name to “conceptual artist”. From there, it’s not such a large leap to understand that concept artists design and illustrate the look and feel, or concept, of a film or game. But, right away, that definition doesn’t fully explain everything that might be part of a concept artist’s work, which can include the following, among other roles.
Design & Illustrate Environments – The setting of a game or film is crucial to the story. Can you imagine “Avatar” in a desert? As an integral part of concept design, concept art is often the first visual representation of the specifics of that environment, and how characters fit within it.
Design & Illustrate Characters – From Halo’s Master Chief, to Hiccup in “How to Train Your Dragon”, the visual development, design and rendering of a character can not only convey the character’s personality, but help tell the story.
Design & Illustrate Props – The scene isn’t fully set until the props are designed and created.
Concept artists may also be called upon for cover design, poster design, colour keys and storyboards. In developing a mobile game, they may need to 3D-model an environment to be game-ready.
How to Become a Concept Artist
Of course, computer animation for films and games continues to grow in leaps and bounds. Every year, new technology and techniques open up new horizons of what’s possible. And the demand for concept artists grows at least as quickly. After all, not a single frame is created until the design and look of it is confirmed.
To compound the problem, there’s a shortage of people with the rare combination of creativity, education, traditional art skills and computer skills that a successful concept artist needs.
Even if you’re an artist and you feel you have the right combination of skills for the job, you face yet another hurdle. How do you learn to be a concept artist?
Learning Concept Art
Concept art is an element of some art and animation courses and programs. But, to our knowledge, Max the Mutt’s Concept Art Diploma Program is the only program in Canada that teaches you concept art in depth and gets you ready for a career in concept art.
As we mentioned above, concept artists need a rare and varied skill set and our concept art program is designed to train you in all of them.
Illustration
Traditional, representational drawing and painting
Animation-related skills such as storyboarding, film language, location design and layout for animation
Concept specific courses including research and idea development, character design, environment design, prop design, creature design,
Photoshop
3D computer software
Employment-level 3D modelling for game artists
Matte Painting
Additional skills that you’ll learn include background painting for animation; layout for animation & video games; and storyboarding for animation, games and live action.
Thursday, May 9/19 was a great evening at Ubisoft Toronto, and a great evening for Max the Mutt’s 2 finalists.
In a year when none of Max the Mutt’s year 4 Concept Art program students entered, Sergi Iranzo, who just completed his second year, came in third, and 2018 Concept Art graduate Adam Homonylo came in second for the Ubisoft NEXT Awards competition Concept Art category.
Adam Homonylo – 2019 Ubisoft Toronto NEXT Awards Entry – 2nd place Finalist
Sergi Iranzo – 2019 Ubisoft Toronto NEXT Awards Entry – 3rd place Finalist
Ubisoft Toronto NEXT is an annual competition designed to display the talent of video game development students in Ontario and to help kick-start their careers in the industry. Winners of each category spend the summer learning from the studio’s top talent with a paid apprenticeship at Ubisoft Toronto.
Max the Mutt year 2 student and third place winner, Sergi Iranzo, here with Max the Mutt 2018 Concept Art Grad and second place winner, Adam Homonylo with friend at the 2019 Ubisoft NEXT Awards
Sergi Iranzo, a friend, Adam Homonylo, Maxine Schacker -Max the Mutt Co-Director-, and Hilary Phillips- Concept Art Co-ordinator-, at the 2019 Ubisoft NEXT Awards
One of the best things about social occasions like this is networking and, for students, getting encouragement and feedback from the pros. Sergi really appreciated getting a chance to speak with Patrick Ingoldsby.
Patrick Ingoldsby, UbiSoft art director, with Max the Mutt year 2 student, and third place winner, Sergi Iranzo.
Max the Mutt will be hosting a First Year Student Art Show, an exhibition of first year student art work from all programs, on Saturday, April 27th and Sunday, April 28th from 11 am to 3 pm !
Our semester is ending, and soon we’ll be setting up this year’s show! Below are photos from last year’s preparation ……
All are invited! So save the dates and come help us celebrate our students’ extraordinary achievements that came from their dedication, hard work, inspiration, and the great instruction they received from MTM faculty!
Where you will enjoy representational drawings, paintings, design, perspective drawing, and classical animation too!
We look forward to seeing you!
And for more information, email us atadmissions@maxthemutt.com or contact us if you have any questions. Make sure to check out our newest art workshops and upcoming dates.
Current year 4 Max the Mutt Concept art student, Dayna Griffiths introducing Zabi and Dhenzel (only year 1 students didn’t know them, of course!)
Students stayed on after classes last night to meet with Zabi Hassanand Dhenzel Obeng, 2018 Max the Mutt Concept Art for Animation & Video Games graduates, who are both working as Concept Artists at UbiSoft Toronto. They were introduced by Dayna Griffiths, year 4 Concept Art student and Tiffani Brown, another year 4 student, took the photos and sent this report:
“Some of what was discussed:
-Transitioning to workplace from school. Leaving ego at the door and understanding you’re working to achieve a whole. -What to expect on the job – problem solving and collaboration. Many art directors. Communication is key. You have awesome people with great knowledge at your fingertips. Use them. -Exposing yourself online and in a community (events, “meetups”,etc) outside of school. Getting comfortable with being vulnerable with your art. The importance of being open to critiques. -Understanding that even now, as students, you’re making connections. Value them.
Of course they shared tons more and the students were very engaged. It was a great evening!”
