Starts: July 3, 2012      (*This camp is open to anyone  entering  high school or older.)

This four week camp is designed for those with little or no animation experience to learn the fundamentals of stop motion, puppet build, and the ability to set up an inexpensive professional studio at home and continue to hone your skills with the medium of stop motion animation. You can take only the first two weeks  but they are the pre-requite for the last two weeks.

Weeks One and Two:

Finished product for the  first two weeks: With a series of lessons and exercises in the fundamentals of film language and stop motion animation you will learn how to build and animate a stop motion puppet as well use the equipment / software of a stop motion studio.

Date: July 3 – 13, 2012 ( July 3,4,5,6,9,10,11,12,13, 2012)
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $800.00 + H.S.T.

Contact: Carla Drmay cdrmay@maxthemutt.com 416-703-6877 x223 1-877-486-MUTT x223

Weeks three and four:

Finished product of the two weeks:  You will complete your own stop motion short with the understanding of animation techniques / set / background design and build / wardrobe design / build to bring your puppet and story to life. You will animate and complete your stop motion short with all the components of the course. Your puppet, background, props, wardrobe, and lighting will come together to create your finished piece, which you will export as a QuickTime movie as well as keep the raw hi resolution files.

Date: July 16 – 27, 2012 ( July16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 2012)
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $800.00 + H.S.T.

Contact: Carla Drmay cdrmay@maxthemutt.com 416-703-6877 x223 1-877-486-MUTT x223

EZRA WADDELL is  a professional  stop motion animator with years of  professional experience in all aspects of stop motion film and television production. Ezra animated for Cuppa Coffee, the largest stop motion studio in North America. His  passion for this art form, his warmth, and his excellent communication skills, make him the ideal person to lead Max the Mutt’s first Stop Motion Summer Camp!

Thank you very much for the recommendation! My work in animation is going great and steady. I’m working on a children’s show for the next few months called “Whats Your News” that is currently on PBS kids. It’s a good looking 3D motion captured animated show with Flash animated segments and graphics. I am the only animator here and in charge of all the Flash animation that needs to be done which is a lot of fun.

Hope you’re doing well and keep in touch,
Keith

“Max The Mutt is a small, unique private art school specializing in fine art, illustration, graphic novels and animation. The quality of the faculty is exceptional, comprised of many artists and designers with industry experience. The environment reflects a congenial and creative atmosphere that encourages and supports the students and clearly brings out the very best in them. The students‘ work is really amazing, inventive and technically brilliant,  demonstrating a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and talent. Their work is clearly on a par with the best of the industry and the graduates are all likely to have an tremendous impact on their generation of illustrators and animators.

Clive Smith

Maxine, I would be happy to allow you to publish this letter if it is of any benefit to the school.”

Week One:  3-6
Week Two: July 9-13
Week Three: Juiy 16-20
Week Four: July 23-27

From 9-12 Noon with a 45 minute lunch break, and continuing from 12:45 to 4PM each day.

This camp will be a four week progression through the basics of producing a comic book page, from the earliest beginnings of a script, through character design, page layout and design, on to finished pages coloured and lettered on the computer.

Each week can be done as a stand ­alone week of study on a given specialty, or a student could attend through the four weeks, experiencing the production of a comic book page from start to finish.

Because of this the courses will need to be designed with a degree of flexibility – each weekly course will have to work as a self contained unit, but also be able to lead in to the next week’s course, and potentially to a four week course in creating comics pages.

There will be two different target groups of students: a first group made up of students from grades 9 and 10 (ages 13-15), and a second group made up of students from grades 11 and 12 (ages 16~18)

Week One: Scripting for Comics

Basics of comic book scripting:
Traditional script formats versus Marvel style scripts

Story or plot driven scripts
Character driven scripts
Use and creation of story arcs
Creation of simple scripts (i.e. 3 panel comic strip)
Creation of script for a comic book format leading to the finished
product for the week:

A 2-3 page comic book script. If the student is progressing to
week two (Character Design), characters from the script can be
designed during that session.

Resources: Andy Belanger and Scott Chantler’s course outlines
can provide a framework here, along with books such as Story by
Robert McKee.

Date: July 3 – 6, 2012 ( July 3, 4, 5, 6, 2012)
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $400.00 + H.S.T.

Week Two: Character Design

Basics of Character Design

Introduction to template for creating a basic body

Use of basic shapes and silhouette in character creation
Design of four different character types:

The Female hero
The Male hero
The Big guy
The Little Guy

Resources: Bojan’s character design course can provide needed resources. As well Steve Millard can provide files and input on character design, and I have similar visuals that can be added to the mix.

Finished Product for the week: either the above mentioned characters or….
if the student is progressing to week three (Comic Book Layout), then the student will design characters that she or he can use in their pages.

Date: July 9 – 13, 2012 ( July 9,10,11,12,13, 2012)
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $400.00 + H.S.T.

Week Three: Comic Book Layout

Basics of Layout
Proper Working Methods
Choice of Moment, Frames and Transitions
Use of word balloons and captions
Directing the eye
Use of the photocopier and light table in layout

Resources: I have multiple files (and handouts) appropriate to
layout on penciling, choices, balloon placement etc. Scott
McCloucl’s excellent books Understandinq Comics and Making Comics can also be used.

Finished product for the week:  pages of continuity.

If the student is progressing to week four, these pages can be inked and digitally coloured and captioned in the week four session.

Date: July 16-20, 2012 ( July 16,17,18,19,20, 2012)
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $400.00 + H.S.T.

Week Four: Inking and Digital Media

Basics of Inking
Digital Media and comics ~ use of Photoshop

Computer colouring – use of flats and layers

Computer lettering – fonts and captions

Resources: This is outside my area of expertise, but certainly the existing course outlines can provide a framework. A simple template of commands, tip and tricks should also be compiled.

Student will print out a complete coloured and captioned page at week’s end (8 V2 x 11 or 11 x 17 – will discuss for cost).

If the student is doing this week’s class as a stand a|one, we will provide pages to work on. If the student is progressing from the previous week’s class, he or she will work on the pages created and/or provided in the Layout session.

Date: July 23 – 27, 2012 ( July 23,24,25,26,27, 2012)
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $400.00 + H.S.T.

Contact: Carla Drmay cdrmay@maxthemutt.com 416-703-6877 x223 1-877-486-MUTT x223

From 9-12 Noon with a 45 minute lunch break, and continuing from 12:45 to 4PM each day.

This camp is a four week progression through the basics of producing a short  animation, from the introductory basics of film language, through the mechanics of storyboarding and character design, to a finished short, animated scene in Adobe Flash.

Each week can be done as a stand­-alone week of study or you may attend all four weeks, experiencing the production of the short animation from start to finish.

Each week works as a self-contained unit, but also leads in to the next week’s content.

Week One: Intro to Film Language/Storyboarding

Date: July 3 – 6, 2012 ( July 3, 4, 5, 6, 2012)

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $400.00 + H.S.T.

Week Two: Intro to Cartooning & Character Design for Flash

• introduction to template for creating a basic body
• how to use basic shapes and silhouette in character creation

Assignment: you will design two characters.

(If you are progressing to week three (Introduction to Flash), you will design characters that you can use in your animated scene.)

Date: July 9-13, 2012 ( July 9,10,11,12,13, 2012)

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $400.00 + H.S.T.

Week Three: Intro to Flash/Layout

Flash:

• overview of animation in Flash and its menu sets
• understanding frame rates in Flash animations
• animation timelines and keyframes
• animating frame by frame
• exploring motion tweens
• manipulating motion tweens
• using motion paths in animations
• using the Motion Editor

Layout:

• basics of layout, perspective etc…
• proper working methods
• choice of movement, frames and transitions
• directing the eye

Finished product for the week: Understanding of Flash and its tools. Two completed layouts. Animating a character within a background.

If you are attending the fourth week, one of your layouts could be used in your flash animation.

Date: July 16-20, 2012 ( July 16,17,18,19,20, 2012)

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $400.00 + H.S.T.

Week Four: Animation in Flash

You will begin to animate a scene from beginning to end using the idea and story- board you created in the first week.

You will export your animation as an AVI file.

If you are taking the whole camp, your story idea, characters and layout, will be the basis of your animated film clip.

(For each session PDFs will be provided as will a file directory on the lab server so students can collect handouts appropriate to the day i.e. use of basic shapes in character design; basic commands in Flash etc.)

Date: July 23-27, 2012 ( July 23,24,25,26,27, 2012)
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Class Size: Limited to 15
Cost: $400.00 + H.S.T.

Contact: Carla Drmay, cdrmay@maxthemutt.com 416-703-6877 x223    1-877-486-MUTT