It’s hard to believe that classes for first and second year are already in week three! Third and fourth year students are in week  four!! I will do my best to resume writing this column weekly, but find life at Max the Mutt very busy these days. Am I always saying that?

This year, under Nina’s leadership, we are holding “Comic Book Jams” every other Sunday. I haven’t been to one, but they sound like lots of fun. Everyone in the school is welcome to attend, and we hope to publish the best work at the end of the year.

What else is new? More and more companies are on board for giving our students summer paid internships. The feed back on last summers interns was universally positive, and we’ll start work early on lining up placements for summer 2009.

The new Advanced 3D Animation and Production room is great! Its one of the biggest studios we have and has a lounging area, lockers, microwave and coffee station at one end. All the equipment is brand new. When I looked in today, Stephen Barnes  (he worked as a lead animator for Pixar before returning to Toronto ) was busy teaching the animation part of Maya. It gave me real pleasure after all the hard work of the summer,  reorganzing and setting up, to see it all working so well. Hats off to Niall and Tina who bore the brunt of moving classical animation and setting that studio up, as well as creating a brand new (from the wiring up) fourth year space.

So far the year seems to be going well. The first year students seem to be motivated and full of energy. The second year Concept Art students are excited about their courses. We are already holding early application interviews, and are busy looking for students for  ’09 who are right for us and for whom we are the best choice.

Our programs are great for really motivated students, hungry to learn and willing to work hard. You also have to be able to deal with frustration and delayed gratification  and you need faith in your potential. Developing high level skills takes time and practice.

Please feel free to leave comments! I enjoy hearing from you.

Character Maquette Building For Animation and Video Games Part 2: with Steve Millard

Starts November 15, 2008

This is a continuation from Part 1. A maquette is a three-dimensional sculpture made from a drawn character design. In this course students will learn how to build a character maquette based on their own original designs.

Steve Millard worked in the animation industry both for Disney and Nelvana, where he was a character designer. Most recently he has been teaching Life Drawing, Anatomy, Character and Background Design while focusing on his painting which has been recently exhibited in Toronto and Oakville.

Date: November 15, 22, 29, 2008
Time: Class Size: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Limited to 15
Cost: $300 + G.S.T. (3 Saturdays)

Contact: Carla Drmay, Max The Mutt Animation School 952 Queen Street West, Suite 300 Toronto, M6J 1G8Tel: (416) 703-6877 / Toll Free 877-486-MUTT Fax: (416) 703-3930

Email: cdrmay@maxthemutt.com