Hey Reader!

First off, some animation news!

An Animation Obsessed substack called the Animation Obsessive! Check out the post above they did on Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli for an amazing place to start. I've been loving this Substack!

​Cinesite Is Staffing Up in Montreal & Vancouver for a New Animated Feature Production. Brad Bird has directed a new feature, called Ray Gunn! I'm excited to rewatch the old classic The Iron Giant soon.

​Win the Art of Hoppers! You just have to answer one trivia question about the movie.

We are just entering our final demo + lecture of our Figure Drawing & Character Posing class this Tuesday!

I've also been editing and posting weekly student success stories, in the form of personal interviews I've had with our students who were accepted, here are a few:

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Congrats to everyone who applied! It was a tremendously difficult year, but if you are one of many who will be re-applying, dive deep into these interviews and have a good look and listen to what they share about the process. There's some great tips throughout.

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Next up is Juan's class on Making a Short Film! For those who'd prefer to read at their own pace, here's the content of the video:

"What makes a great portfolio piece for an animation portfolio?

One that shows that you can tell a story. That you have a creative vision and that you can see it through.

One that demonstrates your technical ability with your art, and also your ability to stitch your artwork together into a sequence.

One that shows your ability to follow through on a project, fulfilling all creative elements along the way.

Join our instructor Juan this May and he’ll teach you the elements of making a short film, including...

• Filmmaking standards

• How to layer a film composition

• How to make a film schedule and manage your time

• How to do reference and research

• Ways of approaching concept art and pre-production

• How to make a storyboard animatic

• How to implement sound effects and music

• How to present the whole piece with an intro and outro title cards

but most importantly... how to make an animation portfolio piece that signals to the College and University faculty that you

mean business in animation!"

The course is starting on Monday May 18th! Mark your calendars!

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We also have our new Foundations Bundle starting this September, and we made a new trailer where I share all about how it will work. This semester of courses is for those earlier in their artistic skills, or that are anywhere from 13-16 years old, but still want to build their skills so that when it comes to be their final year of high-school when they'll be making their portfolios, they'll be ready!

Our Summer-long Frame-by-Frame Course is also still open for Enrollment!

• Tons of lectures and demonstrations on all things 2D animation (1 x 2.5 hour class per week)
• Feedback every week (1 x 2 hour feedback session, maybe longer depending on # of enrollments)
• Variety of software options for students to use
• Starting with simple exercises, and moving all the way to character animation in early August!
• Analysis of existing examples of incredible animators work to deconstruct how they did it
• ...maybe the odd movie night too! 🥁🥁

We updated our About Me page to include info about our other instructors, and most inspiringly, their incredible artwork! Have a look!

These instructors (and more!) will be continuing to teach with us next fall (as well as our upcoming spring courses) as well as some more! Stay tuned.

After Juan's course, we'll have our final spring course with Mahi!

Garth's comment: This is the much anticipated course by Mahi that I've told many of our current students about! Mahi is an incredible background painter that I've hired for freelance projects in the past, and I highly recommend her as an instructor.

Here's her description:

We’ll start by discussing creating concept images based on stories, this will be expressed through various worldbuilding exercises, and then we'll go over basic shape and design fundamentals. From there, we’ll move into designing props and a location for your world, and then finish by refining a story moment with a focus on the environment.

Short Summary of Course:

By the end of the class, students will have some design variations, prop designs, isometric explorations of their world, and a final story-focused environment piece.
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​Format: Mixture of video lecture + demonstrations with 4 LIVE 2-Hour sessions throughout the duration of the course (every other week). Live sessions will be in the evening in the western hemisphere — 6pm EDT.

Start Date: Day of week TBD, beginning first week of May (completed by end of June)

8-Week Group Course Cost: $500 CAD | ~$360 USD | ~€310 | £266

While practicing animation and illustration full-time, I try to squeeze in as much time as possible for an entirely analog practice — Oil painting! Any of my students that have heard me talk about painting even briefly knows how much talking about colour makes me yammer on for far too long. I've decided I'd like to make more videos that share this side of my practice too, so here's a first video introducing some thoughts I have when I approach an oil painting.

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If you'd like to support my oil painting / free instructional videos, consider supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee!

As always, if you have anything you'd like to ask about in this newsletter, don't hesitate to reply — take care everyone!

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Cheers,