Max the Mutt Archives

Interested In Becoming An Illustrator?

Is art one of your passions? Are you interested in turning your drawings into a rewarding career?

Then becoming an illustrator might be the path for you!

– By Emi –

What is so appealing about the illustration field, you may ask?

Illustration can be a broad term, so let’s break it down. You get to be creative on the daily, while working on projects that require your imagination to run wild; and seeing your finished product after hours of hard work is an extraordinarily rewarding feeling. You often work on a wide range of projects, working with clients from all over the world on anything from children’s books to magazines! Some of the other projects you may work on include:

Manuals
Advertising
Educational illustrations for textbooks
Narrative illustrations for a variety of literary forms
Comic Books/ Comic Strips/ Graphic Novels
Book & graphic novel covers
and anything from Greeting Cards to Album Covers

Who are Illustrators?

An illustrator is someone who creates images to give a visual element to an idea, narrative or text. These images can be used to provide clarity to advance written or spoken ideas by providing a visual aid. These illustrations will work with the concept, rather than distract from it. Illustrators work on a wide range of projects from comics to personal stand alone pieces! They can also be artists who bring stories and imagination to life with their work. They are often commissioned on a freelance basis or hired by companies to create illustrations for everything from commercial ads to cover art for novels, graphic novels or even art for album covers. Often, an illustrator will specialize in a particular field, while also selling personal work of their own. Many work to publish their own graphic novels and comic series! Illustrators even work in the education field, creating images for textbooks and other educational works.

MTM College (MTM) Graduates go on to have successful careers in the illustration industry, many work as freelance illustrators, some publish their own comics/graphic novels, while others are hired by large companies and publishing houses.

Here are some of MTM’s Illustration graduates and what they are working on now:

Andrew Kwan, graduated from MTM’s Illustration for Sequential Arts program in May 2014, and has gone on to make his illustration dreams a reality. Andrew Kwan writes, illustrates, and publishes his own comic series, “The Work and Gel”, a post-apocalyptic tale about an Earth where humans are no longer at the top of the food chain. He also works as a character designer for Nanomyte Studios, on their multimedia series, “Injection”, another post-apocalyptic tale.

Neiva Mateus, graduated from MTM’s Illustration for Sequential Arts program in May 2014, is now working as a freelance Illustrator for various children’s books. She has illustrated for a children’s book, written by Rachel Vander Veen, called “A Journey Down the River”. This book has been published in multiple languages and encourages children to count, and look for hidden creatures at the turn of each page!

Ana Jaimes graduated from MTM’s Illustration for Sequential Arts program in May 2018. Ana currently works as an art director at NerdyCity, a company that specializes in making board games and tabletop RPG’s that capture the imagination and transport you to a whole new world! She will be teaching a Clip Studio Paint workshop here at Max the Mutt over spring break! This workshop will introduce students to the various illustration and comic focused features the Clip Studio Paint software provides their users such as unique page formatting options, speech bubble features, unique shortcuts, and even how to utilize built-in 3D models to shortcut and strengthen your digital artwork.

Why choose MTM College of Animation, Art & Design to study Illustration?

MTM College (MTM) is a college that simulates a realistic work environment for its students so they are prepared to enter the workforce. MTM now provides a 4-year Illustration & Storytelling for Sequential Arts diploma program with a focus on visual storytelling that teaches students the fundamentals of drawing, and trains students to work with industry standard programs like the Adobe Suite. MTM even offers a 2-semester graphic novel development course that will provide its graduates with a package that can be pitched to publishers! Other benefits of choosing MTM College include:

Smaller class sizes which offer instructors the opportunity to provide more one-on-one time with students and the chance to get to know them personally
Instructors work in the Illustration & Comics industry, who want to help their students build the skills they need to start their own Illustration careers.
Like Dave Ross, who has worked with Marvel and DC Comics as a writer, penciller, and cover artist. Dave Ross teaches Structural Drawing, Penciling, and Constructive Figure Drawing for Illustration students.
Paris Alleyne is a MTM Illustration 2013 graduate and another instructor with industry experience having worked as a colourist for comics such as Mutant Teenage Ninja Turtles and GI Joe. He teaches MTM Illustration students a Digital Media course. Paris has won an Eisner Award for Best Colourist on a Comic Book Series.
Curriculum designed in consultation with Industry professionals. Our current 4 year Illustration & Storytelling for Sequential Arts diploma program was updated from a three year Illustration for Sequential Arts diploma program, to meet the demanding requirements of working in the industry. We constantly consult with experts in the industry to ensure our students are receiving the most up to date skills and training.
A fun and engaging work environment that is supportive of everyone and provides unique learning opportunities. While the curriculum at our college can be demanding, we also want our students to enjoy themselves! Our college has a collegial and friendly atmosphere.

MTM College’s Illustration program has core skills as part of their curriculum. You will gain skills in penciling and inking comics, storytelling and scripting for comics, and children’s book illustration. You will also dive into topics such as graphic design and illustration for advertising skills and storyboarding for film and advertising. You will graduate from the MTM Illustration & Storytelling for Sequential Arts Diploma Program with a solid portfolio, a web page, the skills needed to write an excellent cover letter and resume, and the confidence to perform well in job interviews. MTM College will prepare you to be the next generation of freelance illustrators, comic book, and graphic novel artists.

If you are unsure whether studying illustration is the right fit for you, check out some of MTM College’s Workshops! They are a great way to get a feel for what you will be learning while attending MTM.
To learn more about MTM workshops, contact workshops@maxthemutt.com

To learn more about MTM College’s Diploma Programs, contact admissions@maxthemutt.com

Hope to see you there!

4 Traits to Look for in an Animation School

As one of the leading, private animation schools in Toronto and the GTA, we’re quite proud of the education and training we offer our students. But it’s not just our pride that speaks when we tell potential students about what to look for in a design and animation college.

We’ve been in your shoes too. We constantly doodled. We couldn’t pass up an opportunity to download free versions of the latest animation and graphics packages. And we didn’t just laugh when we watched The Incredibles, we wanted to create and animate characters like Edna too!

With that perspective, we know what students want from a formal animation education. And our experience as professional animators and artists tells us what students need.

Look for These Traits in an Animation School

Whether you choose to enroll in one of the programs at Max the Mutt or at another school, identifying the following characteristics will help you know that you’ve made a good choice.

The Faculty – Who you learn from is just about as important as what you learn. Animation is constantly changing as new technologies and techniques emerge. Instructors should be currently involved in the industry as working professionals if you are to learn according to current industry trends and demands.
The Curriculum – Similar to the idea that faculty should be active in the industry, so too must the curriculum be kept current. This is not just to teach up-to-date skills, but also to help you know what employers are looking for in graduates right now.
Class Size – Regardless of how good the faculty and curriculum are at any school, their effectiveness shrinks as class sizes expand. It’s not difficult to understand the connection between smaller class size and how much individual attention you will get as a student.
A Career Focus – Animation is a profession. Employers look for job candidates who not only have the right skills, but who also demonstrate the level of professionalism that will help the company succeed. In addition to teaching you all the processes, tools and techniques, an animation school should also prepare you for the passion, discipline and commitment needed for you to succeed.

Max the Mutt’s Animation Program is proudly endorsed by Brown Bag Films where many of our students enjoy internships and other wonderful positions!

If you liked this post, check out our recent article about one of our instructors, Dave Ross, a comic artist who’s worked for Marvel, DC and Dark Horse comics.

Brown Bag Films Visits, Hires Summer Interns, Endorses Max the Mutt’s Animation Program!

As seen in the above photo taken at Brown Bag Films – from left to right:
Erik Segriff – MTM Animation Intern, Kevin Seto – Recruitment Coordinator, Christine Huot – Recruitment & Resourcing Manager, Jana Kosanavich – MTM Rigging Intern, and Ryan Persaud – Recruitment Administrator

Max the Mutt has had many graduates hired by 9 Story over the years. They have enjoyed steady employment as animators, layout artists, storyboard artists, while working in all aspects of pre-production and animation. Now, as Brown Bag Films, there are even more opportunities for working on top quality projects.

Brown Bag Films is one of the world’s most exciting, original and successful creative-led animation studios. With studio locations in Dublin, Toronto, Manchester and an office in LA, Brown Bag Films creates cutting-edge animation for the international market. It was acquired and merged with 9 Story Animation, which is now 9 Story Media Group, in 2015.

Brown Bag Films, is a creatively-driven studio with a focus on producing the highest quality, cross-platform animation with strong stories and engaging characters. It produces both 2D and 3D animation, and is known for its high-end work on series such as Doc McStuffins, Octonauts, Nella The Princess Knight and Peter Rabbit. 9 Story’s Toronto studio has been known for its popular 2D series, such as Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood, Peg + Cat, Wild Kratts, 3 Amigonauts and the The Magic School Bus: Rides Again.

Erik Segriff, after his second year in the Animation Program at Max the Mutt, was hired at Brown Bag Films as a summer intern in 2018, and has been asked back again to work as a full fledged animator on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

Erik Segriff at Brown Bag Films, graduates hired — Erik Segriff at Brown Bag Films, Summer 2018 intern

We were delighted to have recruiting and resource manager Christine Huot visit us this spring, accompanied by several animation and pre-production directors. They looked at demo reels and interviewed this year’s concept art and animation graduates weeks before our Industry Event.

Why is Brown Bag Films interested in Max the Mutt graduates and students?

“Brown Bag Films has had tremendous success finding very strong talent from the classes at Max the Mutt. Many of our very successful long-term employees are graduates of the Animation program. When I attend recruitment events I have been very pleased with how the students professionally present their work and themselves. With the staff we have hired from this program have very well honed artistic skills and they are very employment ready when they come into the workplace. These past 2 summers we have been highly successful with hiring students from the Animation program for summer internships. Erik Segriff has joined us for his second summer in a row this year and he is a very valued addition to the team, his teammates and supervisors were thrilled he could join us again this year. We also have Jana Kosanavich joining us this summer as a Rigging Intern. We are very happy to support the Animation Program at Max the Mutt and will continue to have them at the top of our list for Campus recruitment.”

Christine Huot
Recruitment & Resourcing Manager
www.brownbagfilms.com

Contact us for more information about Max the Mutt’s 4 year Classical & Computer Animation & Production and Concept Art Diploma Programs!

Book a tour today! Or email us at admissions@maxthemutt.com

And if you are considering an Art-based career, check out our eBook to help you decide.

4 Pioneering Digital Animation Innovations from Pixar

You don’t get very far in any conversation about digital animation, or film animation, before the name Pixar pops up. That’s true even if the chat isn’t about technical innovations.

Many people who are interested in digital animation, from fans of the genre to those who want to make a career , got their first taste of it from the original ‘Toy Story’ movie. Released in 1995, ‘Toy Story’ was the first computer-animated feature film and set the standard of the day for digital animation.

In the over two decades since Toy Story hit film screens, Pixar has released almost one computer-animated film per year, including 2018’s ‘Incredibles 2’. Along the way, Pixar also created many digital animation innovations to keep up with demand for more movies and more realism and flexibility in 3D film animation.

3D Animation Innovations from Pixar

It would be difficult to list all of the innovative digital animation tools and techniques developed by Pixar. But here are three that stretched the envelope of what’s possible in digital animation.

Global Illumination – Lighting may be more important for animated films than it is for their real-life counterparts. Better lighting effects improve realism. Global Illumination uses a group of algorithms to determine not just how light strikes a surface, but how it bounces from surface to surface.
Universal Scene Description (USD) – Imagine many steps in the 3D animation process being able to be worked on simultaneously. Instead of waiting for characters to be animated before they are lit, it could all happen at the same time. That’s the level of animation complexity that USD allows.
RenderMan – Ahh, time to render your 3D animation for a film. Come back later. Unless you happen to be using Renderman, which eliminates the delay between when an artist makes an edit and when the rendered image appears.

3D animation is part of the curriculum for the Classical & Computer Animation & Production Diploma from Max the Mutt. We have graduates who work at many leading animation companies, including Pixar. Contact us to learn more.

Benefits of Camps & Workshops in Art and Animation

We’ve done them for over 20 years and this year’s schedule for summer camps and workshops in art and animation at Max the Mutt is as busy as ever.

Whether you’ve graduated from a formal arts and animation college or university program. Or you’re considering a career in arts and animation. Summer camps and workshops can help you in lots of ways.

Workshops help you focus on practical applications in specific areas of study. Aimed at adults, postsecondary and secondary school students, you can enroll in workshops and camps as your schedule allows. The one exception being our Intro to Traditional Fine Art Skills & Portfolio Development Certificate Program, which combines a number of workshops into a 6-week program.

How You Can Benefit from Summer Camps & Workshops in Art & Animation

Learn a New Skill

If you’re a doodler or a professional. There may be areas of art and animation that your experience and or training haven’t exposed you to. Whether it’s life drawing, cartooning or painting in acrylic. Workshops and camps give you a ‘non-committal’ way to learn. And if you want to learn, even more, there are often subsequent workshops to expand your skills.

Freshen Up an Existing Skill

Maybe your work or schedule doesn’t allow you to keep all your art and animation skills as sharp as you’d like. 3D animators often like to revisit 2D animation and drawing as a way to keep their digital work more realistic.

Satisfy Your Curiosity

If you’ve always focused on one area, like animation. You may wonder about expressing yourself in life drawing or acrylic painting. Workshops can give you practical insights into other artistic disciplines to satisfy your interest and help you decide whether you want to pursue your new skills further.

Camps and workshops covering a wide range of art, design, and animation are available throughout the summer at Max the Mutt.

The Importance of Still Life Drawing

Before we discuss the importance of still life drawing, it helps to clarify just what is is. Interestingly, still life art typically depicts everyday natural or man-made objects that are inanimate and, in contrast to the name, generally lifeless.

But it’s the depiction of what may be a lifeless (actually including dead animals in some cases!) object in a way that draws in the viewer, almost as if it was somehow ‘alive’, offers the first clue to its importance.

Whether you’re considering a career in 3D or 2D animation, gaming graphics, fashion design, advertising art, or any graphic-related profession, the importance of learning still life drawing shouldn’t be missed.

1. Creating the Illusion of 3D in 2D

Even if you want to jump straight into 3D animation, understanding how to make a two-dimensional object look three dimensional gives you a practical understanding of what you’re doing on the screen.

2. “Animate” the Inanimate

The art of still life drawing is depicting objects that we might never notice day-to-day, other than for practical purposes (like a can of tomato soup!), in ways that lets the viewer see them differently, see different aspects and even different meanings in them.

If you can do that in a drawing of a bottle, you’ll be better able to do it in any graphic art form.

3. Setting the Scene

Still life artists take time and care to choose and compose their subjects before composing their drawing. It’s like sketching with the objects of your art instead of with pencil and paper. And it helps your ability to compose any scene, whether it’s on paper or digital.

4. Capturing Colour Theory

In addition to composition, still life art can rely heavily on colour theory to add meaning, mood and dynamics to the subject. All of which are valuable tools for every artist and animator.

5. Adds an Interesting, Unexpected Dimension to Your Portfolio

In addition the your areas of specialization, still life drawings add a sense of versatility and depth to your portfolio.

Still life drawing is a major component of the Fine Art Portfolio Skills Class at Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art & Design.

Just What Are Sequential Arts?

Sometimes, even the most complex names and terminology are actually quite easy to understand, and sequential arts falls into that category. You might be stumped on first hearing the term, but it’s really very simple. Drawings and/or images that are used in a sequence (suddenly it’s starting to make sense, eh?!) to tell or illustrate a story are known as the sequential arts.

Comic books and graphic novels are two of the most common uses of sequential art.

But, if it’s easy to get a good understanding of the term sequential arts. It’s not so easy to simply pick up a pencil and start drawing a series of images that produce meaning and a story when they are viewed one after the other.

That fact is one of the reasons that the term sequential arts was used by Will Eisner, one of the earliest cartoonists in the comic book industry. To describe the comic book medium and the elements that go into creating a comic book.

Comic Books as Sequential Art

Just like a story told in words can be conveyed in any of a virtually limitless variety of ways, so too can a story told using sequential arts.

To give you a sense of what can be involved in sequential arts, let’s stick with the comic books example and look at some of its components.

The Panel

If the basic building block of a written story is the sentence. The corresponding element in sequential arts is the panel, or frame of each individual image used in the sequence.
Just like sentences can be long, short, complex or simple, panels can take a variety of forms. They generally have a visible, rectangular border. But panels can take any shape and have no visible border. Whether they have a border or not, panels are usually separated by an area called the gutter.

The Page Layout

The basic page layout of a comic book is a series of rectangular panels in an obvious order. But just like panels can take different forms so too can page layouts. Many sequential artists don’t use rectangular panels, borders or the uniform page layout used in most comics. Instead, the borders of their panels may only be defined by the gutter, and the layout of the page can seem to have very little structure.

The Style of the Art

A story of revenge as told by Stephen King gives the reader an entirely different experience than a similar story told by J.K. Rowling. Of course, they would each use their own words to tell the story, but it is their style of writing that is as much to do with the different experience as anything else.

The same is true for the style of art used to create a comic. Your story will create a different impression if the style of art is cartoonish, abstract or realistic. And, as a visual medium, sequential arts can borrow from other visual media in its style. For example, the long shots, close-ups and zooms of film can also be part of your sequential arts style.

Marrying Text & Image

Not all sequential arts use text, but, when they do, it adds yet another level of complexity to the story telling. In addition to simply expressing dialogue, as it does in a Garfield comic, text can be used as narration, sound effects, thoughts and commentary. Text can appear in speech balloons, text boxes and within the image itself. Including the right text, in the right context, in the right position in each panel is as important as any graphic element of the panel and the overall story.

If you would like to find out more about learning sequential arts, get in touch with us 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.

8 Graphic Novel Stats You Need to Know

Before we reveal some of the impressive graphic novel stats that every aspiring illustrator and/or storyboard artist should know, it’ll help to clarify just what is a ‘graphic novel’.

Except that’s not so easy. Wikipedia even says “the term is not strictly defined” and “…the exact definition of a graphic novel is debated…”. Other definitions include: “a novel in the form of comic strips.” (Dictionary.com) and “a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and published as a book” (Merriam-Webster).

For our purposes, a graphic novel can be any story that has more than one chapter ( similar to the difference between a short story and a novella or novel) and is told through a combination of sequential drawings and words. However there are rare examples of terrific graphic novels that don’t fit this description: one is told completely through sequential drawings with no words at all, another is a sequence of one sequential drawing chapter followed by a written chapter. Sometimes a sequence of individual comic books is published over time as a continuous story and is later published as a graphic novel.

In general graphic novels are a story in book form that is largely told through the use of illustrations, like “This One Summer”, written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki.

That said, take a look at some of the graphic novel stats listed below. They show, in a world of increasing digital animations and illustrations, that traditional forms of the art are not only still used, they are thriving. Even if you want to be a purely digital animator or illustrator, learning more about about ‘pen and paper’ techniques will add a new dimension to your work.

Graphic Novel Stats

$1.085 billion

Total graphic novel sales in the U.S. and Canada in 2016 (comichron.com)

16% – 23% – 16%

The growth in graphic novel sales in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively, to a total of $405 million in 2016. The graphic novel category is considered one of the biggest growth categories in all book publishing. (comichron.com)

The First Graphic Novel to Receive the U.S. National Book Award

Released in March 2016, “March: Book 3” became the first ever graphic novel to receive the National Book Award. A story about the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., every installment of the March Trilogy, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydi and illustrated by Nate Powell, held the top three spots in the New York Times Graphic Novel Bestseller list for six weeks. (Wikipedia)

Six of the Top 10 Grossing Films of 2014 Were Based on a Graphic Novel

Have you seen “Guardians of the Galaxy”; “Transformers: Age of Extinction”; “X-Men: Days of Future Passed”; “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”; “The Amazing Spiderman”; and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”? All of them are based on graphic novels. (CNBC.com)

Graphic Novels Boost Library Circulation

As traditional libraries continue to redefine themselves in an online, on-demand world, graphic novels are a welcome area of growth.

“In our library it’s (graphic novels) 3% of the collection and 30% of our circulation,” says Esther Keller, a New York school media specialist. (publishersweekly.com)

11.3 Million

The number of graphic novels sold in 2017 (comicsbeat.com)

992,000

Number of copies sold of the #1 selling graphic book of 2017, “Wimpy Kid #12: The Getaway” by Jeff Kinney. (comicsbeat.com)

Wide Employment Horizons

In addition to jobs as illustrators for graphic novels, those who learn traditional illustrating have success in finding job opportunities in gaming, animation, digital graphics, graphic facilitation, advertising and marketing.

To learn more about learning traditional illustration and animation skills and techniques, get in touch with us at Max the Mutt College of Animation Art & Design.