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, Â 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!
Max the Mutt College of Animation Art & Design will celebrate the work of 2016 graduates, as well as undergraduates!
2016 âConcept artâ graduate Harrison Smith (Camelot)
Acclaimed independent Toronto college of animation, art and design holds popular annual âIndustry Eventâ on May 18, and celebrating its 2016 graduates, gives the public a behind-the-scenes look at âYear-end Exhibition and Weekend Open Houseâ â with free workshops â on May 21 and 22
âA lot of potential talent here and we actually had two people working with us in the past. I would recommend it for students looking for a place.â â Mark Maia, creative director at Big Blue Bubble (Canada’s largest independent mobile gaming company)
âReally impressed with the student work. There are really talented people.â â Robert Anderson, supervising producer at 9 Story Media Group(world leading creator, producer and distributor of award-winning animated and live action content)
Toronto, ON, April 8, 2016 â Torontoâs Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art and Design (2944 Danforth Avenue, M3C 1M5) holds much anticipated annual âIndustry Eventâ for animation, gaming and publishing professionals on Wednesday, May 18 (2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.), and gives the public a chance for a behind-the-scenes look at their year-end open house exhibition (free workshops with top industry pros) on Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, 2016 (detailed open house schedule below).
Max the Muttâs industry only event, represented by top companies including Entertainment, Big Blue Bubble, Drink Box Studios, 9 Story Media Group, Moovix Media, Corus/Nelvana, Portfolio Enterntainment,  Toon Box,  Yowza! Animation and more, gives the opportunity to students and graduates to display their work and for industry pros to scout for new recruits. Works to be on view include; children’s books, animation reels and slide shows, prop and character design, comic book pages, figurative and portrait paintings and much more.
Max the Mutt founder/director Maxine Schacker states, âOur year-end events are almost here! We’re happy to hear from so many companies that they will attend our Industry Event â it seems every year gets bigger! And we also look forward to welcoming the public to our weekend Open House, where weâre again providing free workshops on both Saturday and Sunday!â
OPEN HOUSE 2016 SCHEDULE:
Open to the public Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22. The main reception is on the second floor (enter through the side door, elevator is available). Year-end student and graduate exhibition, curriculum information, school tours and free one-hour workshops on both days.
ĂÂ Saturday, May 21:
10:30 a.m. â Doors open.
11:00 a.m. â Information Session; school philosophy, the curriculum for the three diploma programs, workshops and certificate programs. Followed by group school tours.
1:30 p.m.â Free workshop; âComic Book Layoutâ with head of Max the Mutt’s Illustration for Sequential Arts diploma program Kent Burles. Burles has worked with Malibu Comics on creating a series of Planet of the Apes comic books, and a series called The Adventurers. He also worked on many role playing games by Fasa, Steve Jackson, White Wolf, and recently on Anvil Galaxy and Rifts for Palladium Books.
5:00 p.m. â Doors close.
ĂÂ Sunday, May 22:
11:00 a.m. â Doors open.
11:30 a.m. â Free workshop; âCartooningâ with MTMâs animation director Tina Seemann. Seemann is the head of classical and computer animation, and a cartoonist. Her work has appeared on TVOâs childrenâs shows including Polka Dot Door and Bookmice, she designed the âMax the Muttâ mascot and is currently working on a childrenâs book. Seemann has also taught animation at Sheridan College andthe Bell Centre for Creative Communication.
2:00 p.m. â Free workshop; âCharacter Designâ with MTM instructor Greg Beettam. He is a veteran comic book/graphic novel artist, freelance illustrator, graphic designer, writer and visual storytelling expert with more than 20 years experience. In addition to his work in comics, graphic novels and cartooning, he has worked in advertising as a concept artist, specializing in storyboards, story development, scriptwriting and presentation design.
3:30 p.m. â Doors close
Summer Programming: Workshops and Camps
Max the Mutt summer programming offers students an opportunity to upgrade skills or develop new ones. There are workshops and camps in drawing, painting, computer animation, cartooning and comic books and a new certificate program for Fine Art Skills & Portfolio Development. They are taught by the same industry professionals who teach in the diploma programs and they run on different dates starting from June 25 to August 2, 2016. See the website for full schedule: https://mtmcollege.ca/workshops-camps/.
ABOUT:
Founded in 1996 in Toronto, Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art and Design provides in-depth training via workshops and three programs of study; Classical and Computer Animation and Production diploma, Concept Art for Animation and Video Games diploma (only of its kind in Canada) and Illustration for Sequential Arts: Comic Books and Graphic Novels diploma (only of its kind in Canada). Max the Mutt prepares students for careers in animation, concept design, advertising, art direction, comic books and graphic novels.
 Jim Macaulay was the most revered Animation instructor in the original Sheridan Animation program. Under his guidance people like Charlie Bonifaccio and Scott Caple, both of whom did great  animation work for Disney, Chuck Gammage (one of Canada’s top classical animators) and many, many others got their starts and developed their skills. He was also Tina Seemann’s teacher, mentor and friend. Below is Tina’s  homage to his life and work. At our 2015 Industry Event, Max the Mutt will have a special presentation in Honour of Jim’s legacy. This event will take place on May 27th at 6:30 PM and will give those who want to speak about him the opportunity to say a few words. We will also share a video of Jim in his workshop, and display all the wonderful models he created for the school.
“On Saturday of the Easter weekend, Jim Macaulay passed away, aged 91. Â His family told me that he passed away peacefully in his nursing home.
I had always referred to Jim as our school’s “personal “Gepetto,” and how lucky we were to have him! He believed in what we were doing from the beginning and it was his ingenuity that allowed us to get our animation program started.
In 1997, I worked with him in his workshop to create the portable light tables that enabled us to teach animation in a one room school house .
Even though we didn’t have a rotating disc, each came equipped with  a small light and a handy ‘beach-chair’ type angle adjustment feature.  It was important that that these tables be portable because we couldn’t have permanent work stations. Jim created a beautiful prototype in miniature to start with- itself a work of art, complete with a metal peg bar! The light tables fit onto the drawing horses that we were already using to teach life drawing, a very necessary skill for animators.
Jim believed in what we were trying to accomplish and was their to help whenever we had a question or a need,
It was Jim who assembled our animal skeletons for us, two dogs and a cat, as well as various wooden models for teaching both animal and human  anatomy. It was Jim who repaired a donated human skull so that we could use it to teach students how to draw heads, and built the stand to hold it and a second skull in place.
He built beautifully designed and crafted  wooden boxes to house everything he made for us – which has helped to protect the treasures inside over the years, even through our recent move.
Apart from this, I had his permission to share many of the wonderful handouts he had created, images from his sketchbooks showing how he handled anatomy, figure drawing as well as simple things students had trouble with; shoes, hats, hands & feet. Add to this the sizeable number of inbetweening exercises which he created to help students improve their drawing skills.
Just recently, I distributed a handout he had written in his beautiful script on ” Seeing and drawing well”. He mentioned how important it is to take one’s time to accurately copy images well, to deconstruct the original in order to appreciate the effective choices that had been made. Such valuable advice!
Jim was the best of what good teachers strive to be, a generous and kind individual who was patient and encouraging to us  all. It’s a testament to him that he touched so many lives in a positive and caring way.
 May the same be said of all of us!
We’ll miss you, Jim.”
Tina Seemann and Jim at his 75th birthday party.Jim Macaulay with Tina, Maxine and dog skeleton he assembled for Max the MuttJim with Maxine and the portable light table he designed and created for us!
