ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Hi, my name is Jason Ryan and I was a Supervising Animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios and now a supervising Animator at DreamWorks Animation Studios. After graduating from the European School of Animation (aka Senior College, Ballyfermot), Ireland in 1993, with a student of the year award from Don Bluth (creator of An American Tail and Land Before Time), I started straight in as a 2D animator working on various German feature Productions. After a brief time in London as an Animator in computer games I got the call from Disney Animation Studios in 1995 to animate on Fantasia 2000 (Tin Soldier segment), Dinosaur (Kron and Carnataur), animation supervisor on Magic Lamp (CG genie in 3D), animation supervisor on Philharmagic (classic Disney characters in CG and 3D), supervising animator on Chicken Little (chicken little himself), just finished supervising on Monsters Versus Aliens and currently supervising on Shrek4 from DreamWorks Animation Studios. While working back in Ireland as an animator I also worked as a classical animation Instructor for the European School of Animation, and while working on Chicken Little I also worked as a mentor with Animationmentor.com.

WHY BUILD THIS SITE?
I love to teach and I love to Animate. I think to learn animation, you need to stand over the shoulder of a feature quality animator and watch how that person approaches their shots from the early concept stage all the way to final polish. Watching as they come up against and over come unforeseen obstacles. I have a work flow that approaches animation in a structured, creative, and most importantly a fun way.
There is a huge need in the Industry to find fully trained fast animators to hire. Colleges don't specialize and books are all theory and not practical, I will be animating right before your eyes so you can see step by step how to apply the principles and foundations of animation to real shots.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
The JRA Webinar / Live Animation Demo will be a virtual classroom where we'll all get together 12 times a year, once a month for 2 hours. I will be taking "Animation Master Classes" and showing how I approach developing these ideas into dynamic sequences for either a showreel piece or a short film. I will be doing story boards, flipbook leica reels and animation performance solving in flipbook. You will log in to this "virtual classroom" and see my full desktop and hear me talk as I develop shots and solve animation. Included in the 2 hours will be a full half hour devoted to Q&A where you can ask me questions directly and I can explain with the aid of drawings how I approach these problem areas. The whole event will be recorded and available for download to both students that attend the webinars and for students in time zones that may miss the live event. The resulting shots of the class (not the full recording) will also be posted for anyone to see what the classes are all about.

WHO IS THIS SITE INTENDED FOR?

• Anybody who has a interest in knowing how animation works.
• Beginners who need a work-flow that helps get them focused on what's needed to get their shots to a feature quality level.
• Gamers who want to get into features or just want to improve the overall quality of their work.
• Junior Animators who feel they struggle with their work-flow.
• CG animators who feel they need a better, faster, more creative work-flow to meet the industries already un-reasonable quotas.
• Creature Animators who feel they lack the Character work.
• 2D animators who want to get into CG but feel it's going to be too technical for them.
• Animators who feel uninspired and think that their work-flow needs some work.

ADDITIONAL JRA TRAINING
Visit http://jasonryananimation.com for a one stop site that contains fully Animated tutorials from "Basics to Advanced" concentrating on my "anti - technical" approach to Animation. See site for more information, examples of tutorials, and sign up for the JRA Newsletter.