Ryan Olson Email & Phone Number

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Leading a team of 12 animators, directing show style and animation quality through mentorship in dailies reviews, performance management, and "lunch and learn" demos. Contributing animation as needed and guiding the quality for our overseas partner studio through reviews. Fostering a collaborative environment while providing input and implementation on new tools and workflows. Additionally, I maintain our Studio Library, assess rig quality, and provide solutions to uphold the highest artistic and technical standards.*Drive the series' style, artistic vision and strong character animation for a preschool audience.Ensure effective CG pipeline for Local and Overseas Studios.*Oversee timelines and quality, partnering with Production Management to meet deadlines and enhance efficiency through new tools.*Lead the CG department by setting/tracking objectives and mentoring team members for growth.*Review all animation stages, ensuring artistic quality and technical continuity while analyzing outcomes for improvements.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Leading a team of development animators for WondLa, an Apple TV+ and Skydance Animation property, I support production with crowd animation, cycles, and development essentials, including animation pickers, rig testing, and lead support. I mentor animators through skill-building and career advancement, including conducting performance reviews, working closely with the Series Supervisor, Head of Animation, and our client stakeholders to ensure a cohesive vision across the show.*Directed a team of animators in extensive retakes for the first three episodes, ensuring alignment with creative goals.*Collaborating effectively across teams, including Shot Finaling and Lighting/Compositing to maintain quality under fast-paced conditions.*Continuously seek process improvements to meet deadlines and uphold client expectations.*Scope Management, Scheduling and Supervision of WondLa crowds for Seasons 1-3, implementing crowds for shots upwards of 500 characters.Following WondLa, I was added as Lead Development Animator to a Netflix feature-quality series.

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

From storyboards to final execution in the edit, I oversee everything from story direction, design, animation, fx, and editorial, while leading a team to excellence in their craft. My goal is always to ensure an entertaining, cohesive story that lives up to our clients’ vision, while remaining on budget. This includes stakeholder management, collaboration with clients, training/mentorship of team members, lunch and learns, creation of show bibles, performance reviews for career growth with HR. I manage teams up to 14.I also step in where needed to supervise on episodes and provide mentorship to junior animators to increase their artistic quality and production capabilities.Animation Director, Alpha Betas (2022)https://youtu.be/Jekvx1gXq5Ihttps://youtu.be/zxH6h5YRSKoAnimation Supervisor, Summer Memories (2022)Director, Unannounced (2022)Director, Skookum & Chums (pilot) (2022)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvOKHWdPyj0Series Director, Sweet Tweets Season 2 (2021)https://www.knowledgekids.ca/videos/sweet-tweets

Kelowna, Bc, Canada

Leading a team of retakes animators to push the animation quality bar and storytelling through scene notation, mentorship and lunch and learns. I am the voice of our client and director for the team on the animation floor. I conduct 1-1's with team members to provide guidance to their career as well as identify growth opportunities. In collaboration with production and HR, I also lead performance reviews to ensure clear communication on areas of growth and opportunities for improvement.Animation Director - The Pole Season 1Animation Director - Alpha Betas Pilot Episodehttps://youtu.be/_PUt6q8KRsEAnimation Director - Pete the Cat Season 2

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Lead multiple lines of animators often on overlapping episode schedules and oversight in hitting a benchmark of high quality. This includes 1-1 mentorship to help animators balance quotas, grow skill levels, and minimize animation fixes. I implemented a thorough approach to feedback through detailed redlines of scenes for team member growth to push posing and appeal in their animation. I also led lunch and learns to grow the knowledge level across teams, including over Zoom during Covid-19 lockdowns.Animation Supervisor, Harmony on ‘Hotel Transylvania, Season 2’Animation Supervisor, Harmony on ‘DNAce’Animator & Revisionist Animator, Harmony on 'Mysticons'CG Animator & Revisionist, Maya on 'Ready Jet Go'CG Animator, Maya on demo projects

Kelowna, Bc, Canada

Leading a team of 4 Animators (2D & 3D) to excellence in character animation for Club Penguin's online games and marketing. Responsible for quality of animation for Disney Club Penguin & Disney Club Penguin Island, which included setting best practices and guidelines for the team. Conducted 1-1's with team members for career and growth opportunities, while contributing high quality art and animation for Club Penguin's online and mobile games.Duties:- Delivery of high quality, consistent, timely 3D keyframe animation- Facilitation of peer reviews/discipline feedback sessions- Conducted sessions for brainstorming of ideas and filming of video reference- Performance ReviewsProject team responsibilities also included:- Character illustration- Environment illustration, setting up room functionality with repurposed code- 3D character modeling & texturingAccomplishments:-Set up the studio with a video reference room for animation reference.-Achieved high quality animation that was approved by our Disney affiliates, including Pixar Animation Studios.-The only artist assigned to Club Penguin Classic at the end of its lifetime, provided a diversity of skills, working on the studio's revenue source that funded Club Penguin Island.

Kelowna, Bc

Leading the art (illustration and animation) and a team of 28 (with 4 art leads) for Disney Club Penguin. This included collaboration with recruitment and HR, building budgets for training, mentorship of reports, performance reviews, outsourcing management, art direction, and creative leadership. Content was launched weekly in both 2D and 3D forms to the delight of our audience (over 200 million active memberships). I was the point person for Club Penguin art across our Glendale CA and Kelowna studios for Club Penguin. This included art direction for special projects (Disney Park experiences/mascots, merchandise & console).Duties:- Set best practices & model guidelines for Club Penguin.- Performance Reviews - Manage career development for a team of 28 artists - both 2D & 3D, in collaboration with HR.- Hire, Recruit, and build a team of world class artists in collaboration with recruitment- Art Direction for characters, environment designs, props & clothing, 3D models, textures, 3D animation & traditional animation- Manage outsourcingAccomplishments:*Successfully lead the art team in our partnerships with Disney affiliates including Star Wars, Marvel, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Pixar.* Built up the art team from 9 artists to 28 artists over a period of 5 years. Setting up specialized teams, art leads and art directors for high quality art output that was launched weekly in both 2D and 3D forms.* Lead the art team through a successful rebranding of Club Penguin's art. This included model updates to Club Penguin's characters, 3D penguin avatar, and room updates.* Drove Club Penguin art guidelines creation & rolled out to Disney Interactive - Glendale studio. Point person for art leadership across Glendale CA and Kelowna studios.* Set up a successful training program for the art team. This included getting the art team up to speed to begin launching Club Penguin on mobile devices as well as setting up workshops for skill building.

Kelowna Bc

Creation of Vector Illustrations and Animation in Adobe Flash for Disney Club Penguin online MMO.Accomplishments:* Created the animation and personality for the Yellow Puffle (Penguin Pet)* Animated for and collaborated on the game design for Club Penguin's mini-games. Titles include "Aqua Grabber", "Card Jitsu" and "Dance Contest" among others.

Vancouver Bc

Duties:- 3D Character Animation for Storm Hawks.- 3D Character Animation for League Of Super Evil Promo.

Vancouver, Canada Area

Duties:3D Rendering & Compositing for animated sequences of Nerdcorps Ent.'s Storm Hawks.Accomplishments:* Helped explore and land on new processes that were implemented into render set up for Storm Hawks.* Became efficient enough to be the only render wrangler assigned to an episode.

Workshop, Expert, Character Animation

3D Character Animation - 12 week course with Netflix Director and Pixar Animator, Frank Abney Software: Autodesk Maya 2017

Workshop, Expert, Character Animation

3D Character Animation - 12 week course with Animsquad founder & CEO and Walt Disney Animation Studios Animator, Marlon Nowe Software.

Workshop, Intermediate, Character Animation

3D Character Animation - 12 week course with Walt Disney Animation Studios Animator, Michael Woodside Software: Autodesk Maya 2015

Animation And Visual Effects, Animation

2 Year Diploma Focus on 3D keyframe animation