“My son absolutely loved this camp!
He was excited to go back every day, learned so much & was very sad to see it end.” -JH
Turn Screen Time Into Skill Time
Inspiring Art & Animation Camps For Young Creators
click here for
(6hr single-days. Ages 8-13)
click here for
(5-days/30hrs. Ages 8-13)
“Best Art School in Barrie”
Visit Our Other Cartoon Camp Programs:
•Summer (coming soon)
•Special (coming soon)
20+ Years of Award-Winning Professional Animation Industry and Post-Secondary Leadership Experience.
Voted “Best Art School in Barrie” & “Business Champion” in 2025.
A safe, inspiring and supportive space for all. Sibling Discount: 10% off the 2nd seat.
A Pizza Party lunch is included with every full single-day or 5-day Cartoon Camp.
All traditional materials included.
Watch to Learn About Cartoon Camp
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*Please note: Cartoon Camp is not a camp. There are no tents, bears or marshmallows.
…OK, well there might be marshmallows as a treat and we might see bears, but they’ll be drawn with pencils.
Meet Your Cartoon Camp Leader, Brad
🏆 Award-Winning Experience: Heavy contributor to multiple Emmy and CSA-winning television series, including Peep and the Big Wide World and Almost Naked Animals.
🎤 Local Recognition: 2025 Barrie Arts Award for “Business Champion”, Voted “Best Art School in Barrie” (2025) and Grand Prize Winner of the HBEC Grand Pitch Competition (2023).
✏️ Industry Expertise: 20+ years of professional experience as an Animator, Designer, Storyboard Artist and Director/Showrunner.
🎓 Educational Leadership: Former Post-Secondary 4-year Animation Diploma Program Director and Instructor. Also your Founder and Director of Upchuckle Education.
Photo credit: Laura Joy Photography
Some Clients Brad’s made TV shows for:
Bring your curiosity to Cartoon Camp!
Regardless of our planned curriculum, we're here to support our students growth, understanding and passion. We’re happy to answer any questions about art, animation, production, or the secrets behind creating captivating films and TV shows. We organically adjust our planned schedule and curriculum as needed to suit the pace, understanding & interest of the group.
2026 Term 2 — P.A. Days (single-day):
6 hour days from 10am-4pm (with an optional Extended Hours Program)
Pizza lunch and all materials included
Learn important skills directly from an award-winning pro in a safe & supportive environment
10% Sibling Discount applied to your 2nd seat to the same Cartoon Camp at checkout
Friday, April 24th
How To Draw: 3D Props & Locations
Perspective is the secret ingredient that makes a drawing feel like a real space. It’s everywhere, from the phone in your hand, to the rooms in your home to the landscapes of Minecraft. This is a technical but important hands-on day focused on the foundational science of drawing with believable depth.
The Goal: We take the mystery out of 3D spaces by exploring eye lines, vanishing points and more! It’s a rewarding challenge for students who want to stop "guessing" and upgrade their skills to start building solid 1 and 2-point perspective environments and objects.
Mini Final Project: To wrap up our day, students will introduce storytelling and organic elements to compliment their new skills. They’ll design a simple 3D scene for an original character to inhabit—showing where they live or explore—applying their technical tools to bring their artwork to life.
$99
(Less than $17/hr)
or $87/day when you BUNDLE!
Enrollment closes:
Tuesday, April 21st @ 9am
Friday, June 5th
How To Draw: Witches, Wizards & Creatures
Dive into fun as we explore a magical realm of spells, imaginative creatures and epic fantasy! This is the place for students to embrace the strange and leave the ordinary behind as they create legendary creatures & characters who have never existed before!
The Goal: We’ll develop new skills in expressing our ideas visually as students learn to translate their strange and wonderful ideas onto the page! Students will be introduced to important principles such as shape language, silhouette and how to develop expressive magical characters who are full of personality and storytelling (and spells!)
Mini Final Project: To apply what they’ve learned, students will create an "Epic Encounter" series of drawings. They’ll pair up a lead spell-caster with a one-of-a-kind creature companion in the middle of a big, magical moment. Using their new skills in expressions and action poses, they’ll bring a high-energy scene to life that looks like it’s ready to leap off the page!
$99
(Less than $17/hr)
or $87/day when you BUNDLE!
Enrollment closes:
Tuesday, June 2nd @ 9am
(Student Work)
Friday, June 26th
Fun With: Stop-Motion Animation
Get ready to step behind the camera and turn physical objects into something extraordinary! Stop-motion is pure movie magic where every tiny movement tells a story and every object has a personality waiting to be discovered. We’re leaving the sketchbook behind for the day to build, direct and animate a cinematic world where the only limit is your team's imagination.
The Goal: We’ll explore the fundamental principles of animation and film as students learn how to plan a production from the ground up! Reinforcing the importance of working as a team, Campers will work as a professional creative crew to develop a story, design characters and plan out shots for a group film. It’s a hands-on lesson in timing, shot composition and the collaborative effort required to bring a collective vision to life.
Final Project: The entire Cartoon Camp crew works together to produce an original Stop-Motion Film. From crafting the physical sets, props and characters to shooting the final frames, students will enjoy the experience (and rewards!) of animated film production. The following week, after internal editing and some post-production, each family will be emailed a digital copy of the finished movie to premiere for friends and family!
$99
(Less than $17/hr)
or $87/day when you BUNDLE!
Enrollment closes:
Tuesday, June 23rd @ 9am
Limited seats (Max 12 per Cartoon Camp)
Children must be enrolled by their own parent/legal guardian.
All prices are subject to HST.
March Break (5-days):
5 x 6 hour days (30 hours) from 10am-4pm (with an optional Extended Hours Program)
Last day pizza lunch and all materials for the week included. (Pack NUT-FREE lunches Mon-Thurs)
10% Sibling Discount applied to your 2nd seat to the same Cartoon Camp at checkout (does not apply Sponsorship offer)
Spend the week leveling up skills and gaining creative confidence with an award-winning pro in our safe & supportive environment
(Student Work)
Monday, March 16th — Friday, March 20th
ENROLL FOR:
How To: Create Characters & Animation
This March Break, Upchuckle Education transforms into a bustling animation studio as your young filmmaker spends their week learning the steps that go into creating their own animated film! It’s a fun, immersive, hands-on experience where students move from the first pencil stroke to the final frame, bringing their original ideas to life through a mix of traditional drawing and movie-making magic.
The Goal: We’ll start the week by building a solid foundation through exploring character design—faces, poses, shapes and personality. By midweek, we move into essential drawing principles like 1 and 2-point perspective, prop & background design and storytelling. Our last two days focus on various forms of animation. Students will discover how to translate their imagination onto the page as they pick up the mechanics of flipbook animation, gaining a clear understanding of how great characters are built and moved.
Final Project: Campers will utilize the skills they’ve gained throughout the week to plan and create their own Animated Flipbook Stories. Following our week together, each family will be emailed at least two of their child's flipbook animations that have been filmed for them to enjoy and share!
Students may also have the opportunity to collaborate on a group stop-motion film if time and interest allow. As always, we’ll wrap up and celebrate our big week together with film screenings and a Friday Pizza Party lunch!
Important Camp Notes:
-Lunch & Snacks (Mon–Thu): Please pack a nut-free lunch, snacks, and a full water bottle for your child.
-Pizza Friday: Friday lunch and drinks are on us! (Please still pack their water bottle & feel free to pack additional nut-free snacks if they’ll need them through the day).
$429
This March Break, Upchuckle Education transforms into a bustling animation studio as your young filmmaker spends their week learning the steps that go into creating their own animated film! It’s a fun, immersive, hands-on experience where students move from the first pencil stroke to the final frame, bringing their original ideas to life through a mix of traditional drawing and movie-making magic.
The Goal: We’ll start the week by building a solid foundation through exploring character design—faces, poses, shapes and personality. By midweek, we move into essential drawing principles like 1 and 2-point perspective, prop & background design and storytelling. Our last two days focus on various forms of animation. Students will discover how to translate their imagination onto the page as they pick up the mechanics of flipbook animation, gaining a clear understanding of how great characters are built and moved.
Final Project: Campers will utilize the skills they’ve gained throughout the week to plan and create their own Animated Flipbook Stories. Following our week together, each family will be emailed at least two of their child's flipbook animations that have been filmed for them to enjoy and share!
Students may also have the opportunity to collaborate on a group stop-motion film if time and interest allow. As always, we’ll wrap up and celebrate our big week together with film screenings and a Friday Pizza Party lunch!
Important Camp Notes:
-Lunch & Snacks (Mon–Thu): Please pack a nut-free lunch, snacks, and a full water bottle for your child.
-Pizza Friday: Friday lunch and drinks are on us! (Please still pack their water bottle & feel free to pack additional nut-free snacks if they’ll need them through the day).
Enrollment closed:
Wednesday, March 11th @ 9am
Limited seats (Max 12 Students)
Children must be enrolled by their own parent/legal guardian.
All prices are subject to HST.
(Less than $15/hr)
That’s only $86/day!
or $75/day when you BUNDLE with P.A. Days!
School Schedules are based on the Simcoe County District School Board
“Brad was great! My little brother didn’t even know he was into drawing. He got an opportunity to attend the teen’s Cartoon Camp, and he learned so much! I noticed he’s gained more confidence over the week too. We will definitely return next year!”
Your Cartoon Camp Questions, Answered
(Click your question from the list to see the answer)
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We appreciate that every student is an individual and don’t believe in "one-size-fits-all" solutions. Our full-day Cartoon Camps are 6 hours long, which can feel quite demanding for younger or inattentive students.
As a specialized art and animation school, we do not have alternative activity spaces or non-art backup programs. If your child is outside our stated age range but is passionate about creativity and thrives in a focused group setting, please reach out to us at Education@Upchuckle.com to discuss if Cartoon Camp would be a good fit.
Some Cartoon Camps may have built-in exceptions to the age range. See their info pages for details.
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Absolutely! For your convenience, we offer a flexible Extended Hours Program for our full-day Cartoon Camps (10am-4pm) to help accommodate busy family schedules.
It allows for drop-off as early as 7:30am and pick-up as late as 5:30pm while your child enjoys inspiring and fun supervised creative time.
Click here for rates & information. Registration for the Extended Hours Program takes place separately once the Cartoon Camp registration process is complete.
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Yep! We love seeing families create together.
We offer a Sibling Discount: 10% off the 2nd seat when registering two children for the same Cartoon Camp. This discount is automatically applied during the checkout process.
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Due to our limited seating and heavy administrative and prep work that goes into making every Cartoon Camp great, cancellations 8+ calendar days prior to the event are 50% refundable (+ payment processing fees, if applicable).
Cancellations 7 days or less prior to Cartoon Camp are non-refundable.
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Once you purchase admission through our website, there is one final step to officially secure your child’s seat at Cartoon Camp:
Within 1 business day of your order, we’ll email you a mandatory Student Information Form to help us ensure the health and safety of everyone at camp. Please watch your inbox (and spam folder) for this email from Education@Upchuckle.com—adding us to your contacts is a great idea!
The form will arrive with a clear deadline for submission (Usually about 3 days—sooner if we’re nearing the registration cutoff date). Because we have to manage our limited seating carefully, missing this deadline will result in cancellation of your order and be subject to our refund policies.
Once we’ve reviewed your form, we’ll reach out to either ask for clarification or confirm your child's seat with us is officially secured.
2–3 days before the event, we’ll send your Cartoon Camp Welcome Package with all the extra details your child will need to join us!
Take a look at the fun memories & creative artwork from Upchuckle events, lessons, workshops & Cartoon Camps!
We coordinate with local charities to provide creative-learning opportunities for students who are experiencing various forms of hardship. Upchuckle matches EVERY sponsorship, automatically doubling it’s impact!
Cartoon Camp In the news…
Note: Dates & location in this newscast are no longer current.
