Animation Studio & Digital Arts Education
Alchemy
The power or process of transforming something common into something special.
Potters master the wheel and clay; painters master pigments and brushwork; sculptors manipulate rock with hammers and chisels. Digital artists – which in 2024 include potters, painters and sculptors – are empowered by using and mastering software. At Vacationland Animation we believe that creative alchemy occurs at the intersection of craftsmanship and inspiration and that belief underpins our education philosophy.
Recent Work
The Mill
#1 | Prologue
Minsk, Maine
On a river.
Processed trees, rocks, earth and sweat into other stuff.
Built in the late 19th century.
Continuously operated until 1981 when it shut down temporarily.
Partially reopened in 1992, though most of plant was mothballed.
Currently it is mostly abandoned, but some mysterious pockets of industry persist.
The pace is much slower then back in the day when thousands of workers labored on three shifts, but there’s still something always going on at the Mill.
#2 | Sam the scooter driving security guard
The absentee owner of the Mill, a Scandinavian tinned-meat conglomerate that acquired it by purchasing a bankrupt competitor, pays a local security company to guard the site.
The city administrator’s nephew, Sam, was hired-on for the job. Weather permitting, he drives his scooter through the plant at least once every day. Everyone loves Sam in Minsk – he’s terrible at his job, corrupt as all hell but in a consistent reliable way that is reassuring to all the high and low rascals grifting around the Minsk Mill.
There’s been some discussion about replacing Sam with a remote operated drone service, but most believe the personal touch that Sam provides offers a more nuanced approach to security at the Mill.
#3 | Dexter Snag Lives in The Mill
Coming Soon.
Education
At Vacationland Animation we educate artists of all ages and skill levels on how to make art with computers. We teach Animation, Motion Graphics, Photography, Video, Creative Coding and more. Join us for a wide range of programs including individual and small group lessons, as well as one-day and multi-day workshops.
Our approach integrates skills development using industry leading graphic arts, animation, video editing and motion graphics software with a foundational operating philosophy that nurtures individual creative exploration. Contact Mike S. if you have any questions about private lessons and creating art with computers.
Bespoke Digital Arts Workshops for Schools, Community Groups and Education Pods
If you have a group of aspiring digital artists who want to build their own learning experience – including adults and working professionals, and/or students (college, high school and middle school), please let us know and we will customize an experience that meets your group’s needs.
Animation
Our Animation Characters Are Available for Hire!
We are a full-service animation and motion graphics studio with a growing family of fully-rigged 2D characters that are available for licensing and streaming. Our team of creators possess a unique set of skills that are available for hire. Let us help you tell your stories and shake up your brand!
2D Animation, Character Rigging & Storytelling
We can help bring life to your comic characters with fully realized 2-deminsional motion capture animation rigs capable of epic performances and storytelling.
Motion Graphics Design & Execution
We can add motion to your logo and brand, and help you communicate your message with type, graphics, imagery, music and sound effects.
Creative Coding with P5JS
The Story of My Cats (somc) is an interactive animated comic book/thing/web experience. It is built on the Story On a ChipTM platform which is the narrative corollary to the System On a Chip (SoC) guts of our mobile devices.
The somc consists of two parts: 1) the Interface, and 2) the Animated Shorts the interface serves up. The interface i.e. the chip that holds the stories – is designed to serve up a collection of interconnected animated shorts through non-linear user-interaction along with a little bit of whimsy.
Episode #5 of the RAID.451 | Jim Vagabond series was created both interactively with code using processing (and processing.js) and linearly as a traditional animated short. The linear version does not have sound. The interactive version was created with image-sequences extracted from the linear version.
About
Mike Stuttman
Animator | Educator
Hi, I’m Mike – I run this joint. I am an animator, educator and all ‘round digital arts phrenologist. I’ve been noodling around technology and creativity most of my life. I began this journey as a young photographer with a passion for underground comix and a burgeoning interest in animation which I set aside for a couple of decades while I toiled as a “suit” in the world of advertising and marketing strategy.
As my interest in marketing waned, the power of the computer technology I had been immersed in since I was a kid was advancing rapidly. An epiphany for me was realizing the similarities between cell animation and creating art with layers in Photoshop. I could see how the improved processing power of my pc combined with the increased sophistication and access to innovative software would make it possible to animate my artwork without the need to hand draw the multitude of images that traditional, frame-by-frame animation required.
Learning to master and manipulate software integrates my overlapping interests in digital art, creative coding and randomness with my desire to bring my cartoon characters to life.
With degrees in Mathematics¹ and Computer Art & Animation², and decades of experience nurturing the creative process for leading brands, I have been an enthusiastic participant in a content creation revolution that has irrevocably transformed the worlds of business and art.
Today, I am equally excited and trepidatious for what the future holds for creativity and technology.
When it all works together – it’s Alchemy, and that’s what I hope to achieve here at Vacationland Animation.
1. Bachelor of Arts, University of Colorado
2. Master of Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts