Inspiration Archives - MTM College

The 2D Animation Artist is definitely not a thing of the past – Interview with Josh Hill

An Interview with Animator and MTM Graduate Josh Hill by MTM Outreach Director, Natalie Kauffman

It’s a good thing Josh Hill didn’t listen to people’s advice when he was considering what kind of animation to focus on when he started at Max the Mutt (MTM) in 2014. At that time, a lot of people outside of MTM were saying 2D animation also known as traditional hand-drawn animation, was dead. Well, they were wrong.

Josh’s Journey Through Traditional Hand-Drawn Animation

We caught up with Josh, a 2018 Animation Program grad, who discusses getting his first job at YOWZA! Animation for the Netflix Series, Green Eggs and Ham, as a 2D animator. He landed this job while still completing his last year of school. He found out about the job from one of his instructors at MTM who knew that he loved traditional hand-drawn animation. Josh applied for the job by submitting a demo reel, and he got it! “I was on a high kinda after that…’cause I scored my dream job!”. It’s this kind of small community where instructors, who are working professionals, really help our grads to land the job of their dreams, that makes MTM special.

Take a listen to hear Josh’s story and find how he’s adjusting to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and other interesting anecdotes. Images of Josh’s drawings and video clips are also played throughout the interview so you can get a good glimpse into what he does. For any students currently in or considering a career in animation, particularly 2D animation or traditional hand-drawn animation, this is a great interview of someone who pursued what he loved doing and made it work!

Interested in pursuing a career in Animation? Check out our Diploma program! Just want to give Animation a try? We have a series of Traditional and Digital Animation workshops that anyone can enjoy!

You can also view the video on Instagram, in Part 1 and Part 2.

Thanks Josh! We look forward to hearing what’s next for you!

Interested in hearing what our other alumni are up to? Read some of their amazing stories or check out a selection of their artwork from their time at MTM.

What Does a Character Designer Do?

Even if we do say so ourselves, that’s a great question! If you’re interested in character design, you may have designed lots of your own characters. But you’ve probably not come close to doing what a character designer does.

What is Character Design?

It’ll help to talk about character design itself before we get into what a character designer does. Generally, character design is the development of new, original characters for a computer or traditional illustration or animation. Character designers may also be used to design characters for toy manufacturers.

Character designers work from a character definition that might be part of a story outline or script for a film, TV series, video game, graphic novel, or book illustration. Character styles can range from very graphic, like ‘Stewie’ on Family Guy, to photorealistic, like ‘The Incredible Hulk’.

What a Character Designer Does

Character design is firmly based in 2D drawing. Whether by hand with pencil and paper, or with digital drawing tools, a solid ability to draw, particularly human and animal anatomy, is key to being a character designer.

Among other details, the following are some of the steps a character designer takes to design a character from scratch.

Immerse themselves in the story or script to understand the character’s role in it.
Research anatomy, costuming, physical settings, time-related references (past, present, future), specific to the script and character.
Review concept art to understand the look and style of the project
Draw. And draw some more. From initial impressions of the general look of different versions of a character, to showing each character version ‘in action’, there’s lots of drawing to be done.
Give the character personality and believability. While not a separate step in character design, each layout must be more than a visual design of a character. Even if it’s done in stages, a believable personality must be conveyed in the design layouts.
Once characters are approved, the designer may be tasked with creating a model sheet of the character that shows the character from different angles
Some projects may need other layouts showing the character in particular poses, or expressing different moods and emotions.

This is a just a brief explanation of what a character designer does. To learn more, get in touch with MTM College today.

How to Begin a Career in Animation

Maybe you started animating stick figures on a notepad as a kid. Maybe you love playing video games and would like to experiment with animation software. Or the idea of seeing your characters come to life really excites you. If so, a career in animation might be for you!

In any case, you’re in luck. There are lots of opportunities for people like you to make a good living doing what they love. Except the reality is that talent, skill and passion are usually not enough for you to start a career in animation. So what does it take to get a toehold in the animation industry?

The Benefits of Animation Career Training

In addition to artistic skills and dedication, animation studios look for people who understand what it takes to survive and prosper in the business of animation. Among other elements of what is needed to work in animation, animation career training will help you develop the following:

Develop Your Foundation Skills

Young people are often surprised to discover that in this era of 3D films that old-fashioned drawing is still required. Software can manipulate objects but imagination is what drives everything! Begin your artistic education with a strong foundation of perspective, composition, still-life/object drawing as well as plenty of life drawing. From learning more of the basics of drawing and cartooning, to exploring character design and studying both classical, 2D software-based as well as advanced 3D animation, an in-depth education will help throughout your animation career, wherever it takes you. And a broader range of skills opens up more possibilities for finding a position as well as keeping it.

Learn to Be a Professional Animator

The perceived wisdom in the industry is that it takes about 10 years to become a really good animator. When you finish college, you cannot expect to be an expert but you can be ready to have a professional attitude. Being professional in the workplace means being punctual for work and for meetings, being prepared to take criticism and be ready to redo your work and following directions. Having good professional skills and being a good communicator makes for a better team player. Animation is a team endeavour not unlike an effective and winning sports team.

Build a Solid Demo Reel and website

Studios looking to hire will be interested in seeing what you can do; your website and a demo reel will showcase your skills. Firstly, the studio reps will want to see that you can draw and your demo reel will show off your animation skills. If you get called in for an interview, then you can be assured you have the job as far as your skill level is concerned.

A personal interview so that they can assess your professionalism comes next!

Getting ready for the interview

If you have a solid foundation of animation training you may apply for a variety of different jobs that an animation studio may be offering. Before you even apply for a specific posting, do your homework! Research to become familiar with the production work the studio creates and consider whether you will be a good fit for the company. That way, when they ask you why they should consider hiring you, you’ll be ready with a good answer.

The Animation Diploma Program at Max the Mutt not only teaches you all the artistic and professional skills you’ll need for a career in animation, it prepares you for the realities of that career and will help you develop the necessary skills you need to help launch your dream!

To learn more, contact Max the Mutt today.

3 Sources of Inspiration for Artists and Animators

It’s bound to happen sometime. You might be the most prolific artist ever; you might have the best creative brief ever authored. But you simply can’t seem to get a start on your illustration, piece of art or the first frame of your animation storyboard.

First, you’re not alone. Creative blocks are common for creative people. If and when one strikes, the first thing to do is reassure yourself that you’ll get around it.

Sources of Inspiration for Artists and Animators

Back in the day, like the last century, artists and illustrators kept physical ‘idea’ files. These were stuffed with magazine clippings, the work of other artists, brochures from gallery openings, photographs, and more.

Idea files were a place for artists to store anything they found inspiring. Then, when they sat down to put pencil to paper and drew a blank, they could look into their idea file for inspiration.

Of course, today everyone can have access to the largest idea file ever, the internet. But the internet is so vast with so much inspiration, you may not find all the places where your particular inspiration lurks.

Here are just a few of the different places you can find inspiration for your work, beyond doing a straight google search.

1. Blogs

Sure, you probably follow a few blogs you like, but if you look more closely, you find inspirational blogs in some unexpected places. In addition to artists’ blogs, and those from design agencies, Adobe offers a graphic design blog that highlights artists, trends and news.

2. Podcasts

It might seem counter intuitive to get graphic inspiration from an aural medium but podcasts, like The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast, can help point you in directions you might not have thought of before for inspiration.

3. Other Artists

Websites, YouTube videos and social media are great places to display your art and that makes them great places to find inspiration. And, again, in ways you may not have thought. Can you pick up any pointers for concept art and/or illustration from graffiti artist Omen514’s Instagram feed?

Here’s one more. You can always visit Max the Mutt’s Alumni Portfolio page!