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Co-Director
Founder and Director of Max the Mutt, is an artist who has exhibited in Montreal, Toronto and New York. She studied with Robert Beverly Hale, world famous Instructor of Drawing and Anatomy at the Art Students League of New York. She has taught painting, life drawing and anatomy for the Illustration and Animation programs at Sheridan College, and the Bell Centre for Creative Communication at Centennial College.
Co-Director of Max the Mutt & Coordinator of the 4 year Classical & Computer Animation Program
Animal Drawing, Cartooning
TINA SEEMANN is a cartoonist and character designer whose work has appeared on many of TV Ontario’s children’s shows of the past. Tina designed the “Max the Mutt” mascot, as well as the characters for the proposed Max the Mutt Animation feature production, The Jazz Bears. She is currently working on a children’s book. Classically trained in animation, Tina has taught animation at Sheridan College and the Bell Centre for Creative Communication and is director and co-ordinator of the Animation Diploma program.
Illustration for Sequential Arts Program Coordinator, Instructor
KENT BURLES is an illustrator whose love of the comic and fantasy genres led him into the comic and role-playing game industries. He worked with Malibu Comics on creating a series of Planet of the Apes comic books, as well as a series called The Adventurers. He has also worked on many role playing games by Fasa, Steve Jackson, White Wolf, and recently on Anvil Galaxy and Rifts for Palladium Books. Kent is Max the Mutt’s Coordinator for the Illustration for Sequential Arts Diploma Program.
Illustration for Sequential Arts Program Coordinator, Instructor
Cinematic Storytelling & Story Development, Character Design, Perspective
GREG BEETTAM is a veteran Comic Book/ Graphic Novel artist, freelance Illustrator, Graphic Designer, Writer and Visual Storytelling Expert, with 20+ years experience. In addition to his work in comics, graphic novels and cartooning, he has worked in advertising as a concept artist, specializing in storyboards, story development, scriptwriting, and presentation design.
Concept Art for Animation & Video Games Coordinator, Instructor
Story and Character Development, Storyboarding, Classical Animation Basics
HILARY PHILLIPS is a Director, Character Design Supervisor, and Storyboard Artist who has many years of top animation experience both in Canada and the U.S.A. Graduating with high honors from Sheridan College Classical Animation Program in 1982 Hilary Phillips has worked in the animation industry for more than 30yrs. She began her career as an animator, primarily in children’s television productions such as the Raccoons, Care Bears, Dragon Tales, but also did some feature work along the way. She directed two TV specials, Railway Dragon and Birthday Dragon. Over the years she became more involved in character design and story boarding, production design and development. She also has a crossover interest in live action film making and special effects design with several shorts and a feature film, Dark Sunrise, currently in post. Her role as a teacher started with figure drawing evenings in various animation studios, but really took shape at the Art School of Peterborough teaching basic drawing skills, figure drawing and portfolio prep.
Concept Art for Animation & Video Games Coordinator, Instructor
Advanced Environment Design & Painting in Photoshop, Advanced Prop Design, Final Project, Portfolio Development
JONATHAN STANDING is a Concept Artist with over ten years of experience in Illustration, Graphic Art and Concept Art in Games. His specialties include character design, rotations, production drawings, background paintings, narrative paintings, cinematic storyboards, and gameplay storyboards. While working at Silicon Knights he contributed designs, storyboards and 2D production art to prototypes for numerous AAA games. He has experience working as a freelance artist as well as working seamlessly in-house as part of a larger Art Dept. With Roksolana Tchotchieva, he will coordinate the Concept Art Diploma Program, and supervise 4th year students.
Instructor
Advanced & Intermediate Life Drawing, Principles of Drawing
ED SHAWCROSS is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, and an artist with many exhibitions to his credit. He has taught at Sheridan College and Dundas Valley, and is past President of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour. He is a dedicated educator, and, in addition to his own classes, oversees year one life drawing for all programs.
Instructor
Constructive Figure Drawing, Structural Drawing, Intermediate & Advanced Pencilling
DAVE ROSS has drawn and written for Marvel Comics and DC Comics on Captain America, Spiderman, Batgirl, Star Trek, Daredevil, Birds of Prey and JLA: Act of God, among many other projects. He was also an artist for the Rai series at Valiant Comics, and has worked as a concept designer and layout artist for animation. One of the founders of MTM’s Illustration for Sequential Arts Diploma Program, he works with Kent Burles to review and fine tune the program and develop curriculum.
Instructor
Layout
ADAM EARLE is an animation artist with just over a decade of experience as a 3D Layout artist and 3D animator. Some of the projects he’s worked on are, True and the Rainbow Kingdom, Justin Time Go!, and Disney’s Pixie Hollow Bake Off. He’s particularly proud of Thomas and Friends’ “Tale of the Brave,” where he had the pleasure of animating the ‘Monsters Everywhere’ sequence. In his spare time he enjoys creating comics, music and even more cartoons. He looks forward to sharing his experience with Max the Mutt.
Instructor
3D Animation Production
ADRIAN HANSEN worked for more than 10 years as both a 2D and 3D animator and is skilled in classical as well as computer animation. He has animated for major Toronto studios and game companies such as Guru, Arc ,Pipeline, Silicon knights and Yowza. He also has experience working Cinematics and In-game cycles for video games and performing and working on motion capture stunt work. His credits include work on major shows such as Thomas and Friends, Bubble Guppies, Paw Patrol and the beautiful Ever After High films.
Instructor
Life Drawing, Drawing Props & Objects
ALAN HOWELL has worked as an illustrator and designer, comic book artist, and caricaturist. Alan is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art. He has many years of experience as an Illustrator. His work appears in numerous book illustrations for Alexander press and other publishing companies. He works in traditional and digital materials.
Instructor
3D Animation Production, Acting for Animation
ANDREW STRIMAITIS With 11 years experience in the industry across just 2 studios, it’s clear that Andrew’s dedication and talent are well valued. At both studios he started out as an animator and quickly performed his way into into lead roles then ultimately to his current role as Animation Director. Today Andrew’s main focus is using hands-on practices to direct animators into becoming top performers. Using the disciplines learned working in stop-motion, the traditional skills developed in directing 2D series and teaching the systematic formulas he created in 3D, Andrew’s vast experience in all 3 major mediums makes for a very complete skill set to pass on knowledge to others. His passion for the art fuels a seemingly endless supply of energy for creation and his practical approaches make for a very inspirational learning experience.
Instructor
Introduction to Animation
APOLLO OKAMURA With 20 years of professional experience in the art industry, Apollo Okamura has worked in fashion, advertising, comics, games, and of course, animation. During this time, he’s had the pleasure of working on well known licenses such as Robotech, Transformers, and the Ninja Turtles. While Apollo is classically trained in traditional animation, he’s also a big proponent for modern digital integration and has worked closely with Toon Boom as a certified trainer, working with several animation studios, including Big Jump, Bento Box, and Chuck Gammage Animation. Apollo’s love for drawing is only surpassed by his passion for teaching and has been honoured to teach at many animation schools around the world, including these notable North American colleges: Sheridan College, Algonquin College, and Savannah College of Art and Design.
Instructor
Introduction to Concept Art
CHRIS BROWN is a designer who is an illustrator, designer and concept artist working in film, television and print. Chris is currently a prop and character designer for Corus/Nelvana where he last worked on Bubble Guppies. Chris is a graduate of our Concept Art Diploma program.
Instructor
Acting for Animation
CHRISTEL BARTELSE is a 4 time Canadian Comedy Award nominee, actor, writer, comedian and clown. A graduate of Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts, and Second City Conservatory, her work has been presented in both Canada and the US. She is an original member and co-creator of the comedy duo “The Burnt Marshmallows,” and is currently a member of “Faustwork Mask Theatre.” Christel has developed and performed in three solo shows which have been nominated for the Canadian Comedy Award ,“Best One Person Show”. Her fourth show, “All KIDding Aside” was presented and well received at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017. Her latest show, “The Surprise,” is a clown piece directed by Andy Massingham, presented at Next Stage Festival 2018. (Factory Theatre) . Christel teaches acting courses for students in the Animation Program at MTM, and also teaches for The Toronto Film School and Humber College.
Instructor
Environment Visualization
ELTON LO has been involved in both animation and mobile games. For Gameloft he developed asset art. For Guru studios he’s been a lead painter and supervisor, and is currently a designer as well as a compositor, background and matte painter. His multiple skills and enthusiasm combine to make him a wonderful addition to our faculty.
Instructor
Lighting for 3D Animation
Instructor
Concept Art Program's Final Project
GREG GIBBONS graduated with high honors from Sheridan College Classical animation program in 1982. He began as a traditional background/matte painter with acrylic, gouache, and watercolor. He has worked on twelve animated features, such as Space Jam, Iron Giant, and Spirit (department supervisor, color stylist on some) He’s worked on several television series and specials, and as matte painting supervisor on live-action the feature films, Watchman, Traitor and Under World III. Also matte painting supervisor on the animated feature Free Birds. More recently he was the art director on the TV series Paw Patrol, and currently he is the lead designer at Industrial Brothers on the TV series Top Wing. He’s experienced with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Adobe Dreamweaver, 2D painting, PDI proprietary 3D surfacing and lighting software (LINUX based) Maya and Nuke.
Instructor
Digital Matte Painting
JAMES RAIZ has been a Visual Effects Artist since 2007. A graduate of Sheridan College’s Computer Animation program, James and has worked as a 3D Modeler and Digital Matte Painter on television shows such as Stargate SG1, The Borgias, Reign, Dominion & Marco Polo. He has also worked on various movies such as Watchmen, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theif, Battle LA, Underworld Awakening, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Fantastic 4& Furious 7.
James has been a professional comic book illustrator since 2000 working for Marvel, DC & Image Comics, on titles such as Transformers, Star Wars Tales, Hulk: Destruction & Wonder Woman.
Currently he is working on Special Projects for IDW Publishing and is the host and producer of his YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/TheBoxOfficeArtist
Instructor
Life Drawing, Traditional Colour Illustration for Comics & Covers
JOCK MACRAE is a skilled illustrator and graphic designer. He has been an art director, has worked in advertising and has extensive experience as a children’s book illustrator, for publishers such as Kids Can Press, Nelsons, Key Porter and Bayard Press, among others. Jock is a major part of year one drawing faculty, and also teaches illustration and graphic design.
Instructor
Representational Painting, Digital Painting, Principles of Drawing
JOHN NEWTON is a Max the Mutt alumni, graduating from the Concept Art program in 2011. He has sinced worked for a variety of clients including Corus Nelvana, Le Cheval Noir, and private clients, as a background painter, colour key artist, storyboard artist, and concept designer.
Instructor
Introduction to 2D Computer Animation
KEITH FUKUMOTO is a 2006 graduate of Max the Mutt’s Classical & Computer Animation Program. Over the last decade, Keith has held animation positions such as designer, rigger, scene planner, senior animator and supervisor at many different studios across the city as well as occasionally completing self employed animation work on the side. Currently working full time at Portfolio Entertainment, Keith is also the instructor for the 2D computer (Flash) animation course at Max the Mutt. Keith’s animation work can be seen in the popular television shows “The Cat in the Hat knows a Lot About That“, “Ever After High“, “Chirp” and “What’s your News“.
Instructor
Story Telling & Story Development, Introduction to Storyboarding & Film Language
KUSHAL RUIA is an animation and film-making graduate from Sheridan College. Having worked in the animation industry for nearly a decade- both in India and Canada and in a variety of roles, he brings a unique balance of sound storytelling sensibilities, a creative eye for all things visual and years of management and business experience to Moovix Media Inc, an animation start-up, which he recently co-founded.
Prior to this, he headed ACK Animation Studios for five years at India’s leading children’s media company- ACK Media (Amar Chitra Katha). In this challenging leadership role (both creative and executive), he produced and directed over 850 minutes of acclaimed TV series/ films/ shorts for Cartoon Network India in addition to directing, writing and producing ACK’s first theatrical stereoscopic 3D feature, ‘Sons of Ram’, which has won multiple awards and has been shown in prestigious film festivals globally.
Instructor
Advanced Props and Objects, Character Design
LEO LEE is an artist talented in many areas, including both concept art for games, and comic books & graphic novels. He describes himself as “specializing in narrative conceptual art.” He’s studied painting and drawing since he was a child, and graduated from Shandong University of Arts in China. Before coming to Canada, he worked designing environments, characters, and assets, as well as designing advertising and posters, for T2 Entertainment in Shanghai. Since 2015 he’s been a concept artist for UbiSoft Toronto. Click on website to visit Leo’s artstation page or you can also find more from Leo here: http://leoleeart.wixsite.com/leoleeart
Instructor
Concept Art, Creature Design, Character Design
MARCO BRUNELLESCHI is one of Toronto’s top Concept Artists and is currently freelancing for top studios such as Secret Location Entertainment. He excels in both both 2D and 3D techniques, and specializes in character design and prop design.
Instructor
3D Animation Production , 3D Modelling
MATT RICHE is a 3D generalist who is a rigger and 3D artist for Soho VFX. He has created photo-realistic assets for Hollywood feature films, and has also focused on rigging of characters and prop models for animation. His extended duties include tool development and script writing. He has credits on many films. View Matt’s 3D reel here: https://youtu.be/cKbUVikHiAw
Instructor
Cartooning
MEAGHAN CARTER is a comic book artist and member of Toronto’s Comic Book Embassy. She has webcomic, and will be featured at this year’s Toronto Fan Expo. Meg is a graduate of Max the Mutt’s Illustration for Sequential Arts Diploma program.
Instructor
Digital Media for Artists, Scripting for Comics, Computer Colouring & Lettering for Comics
MIKE GAGNON is an artist and writer, who works mostly in the comic book industry. His studio, Hammer Comics, is based in Hamilton Ontario. His work has been published worldwide by companies such as Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Jack Lake Productions (Classics Illustrated), and many small press publications.
Instructor
Illustration for Children's Books, Traditional & Computer Graphics
MILAN PAVLOVIC is an award-winning illustrator and graphic artist specializing in illustrations for children, advertising, animation, editorials, and comics. Milan as educated and began is career in Serbia, and brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience.
Instructor
Portrait Painting in Oils, Figurative Painting
MING QIN, a graduate of both Sichuan Fine Arts Academy and Central Fine Arts Academy, has had his work exhibited in numerous galleries through out the USA, China and Japan. He has been an instructor of Life Drawing and Painting in China, and is an accomplished Portrait Artist.
Instructor
2D Computer Animation
RAE DICKEY is an award winning animator with a technical brain. She is experienced working in Flash, Harmony and Maya. She has particular expertise in Harmony having supervised 2D Rigging since early 2013 at Guru. She has worked on a number of 2D and 3D shows, the most recent of which being Paw Patrol, and Ever After high at Guru.
Instructor
Representational Painting, Figurative Drawing
ROKSOLANA TCHOTCHIEVA is a fine artist who was trained at the V.I. Surikov State Academic Institute of Fine Arts in Moscow, where she studied for seven years. She is currently an exhibiting fine artist, and at Max the Mutt, in addition to being one of the coordinators for the Concept Art Diploma Program, is in charge of overseeing all painting courses.
Instructor
Animation Basics
ROBERT RODAS is an MTM graduate who has worked as a 3D animator for Guru, March Entertainment, and is now animating for UbiSoft Canada. Robert is also a fine draughtsman and classical animator.
Instructor
Design & Composition, Colour & Water Based Media, Colour Theory & Background Painting
SCOTT CAMERON has been an illustrator since he completed OCA in 1984. He was a background painter for Disney Canada. As an illustrator he has numerous credits including magazine covers and children’s books. He was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for Illustration for his work on Beethoven Lives Upstairs.
Instructor
Advanced Life Drawing, Anatomy, Drawing Heads & Features, Drawing Hands & Feet
STEVE MILLARD started his career in animation working for Walt Disney Canada on such projects as Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, and Peter Pan: Return to Neverland. He has also worked as a character designer for Nelvana and 9Story Animation. As a fine artist, he has exhibited drawings and paintings in Oakville and Toronto, and also teaches a popular workshop in character sculpture.
Instructor
Layout for Animation, Drawing
TABITHA FISHER is a 2007 graduate of MTM’s Animation Program and has been working at studios across Toronto ever since. In 2011 she wrote and directed the short film “Missed Connection” as part of the NFB’s Hothouse program for emerging filmmakers. Tabitha currently supervises Locations and Layout on “Hotel Transylvania: The Series” at Nelvana.
Instructor
3D Animation Production, History of Animation & Animation Production Process
TRACY GRANT has contributed to over 500 episodes of television programming in addition to her work in film, live events and corporate communications. Tracy has produced the animated series “Marty & Gerard” and “Paws & Tales”; the award winning short films “Birthdeus X” and “Waking Gus”; and the soon to be released animated feature “Spark” featuring the voices of Jessica Biel, Susan Sarandon, Hilary Swank and Patrick Stewart. Most recently she was a VFX Producer on the Jack Black feature film, “Goosebumps”.
In addition to her work in animation, Tracy has produced live action television series for HGTV, Life Network and W.