Animation Skillnet are teaming up with Animation Dingle 2018 to offer master classes delivered by Dan Katcher, Ryan Woodward and Keith Sintay (with support from Skillnets, Screen Training Ireland and the BAI). See below for more details. (Note: these classes are now full)
Masterclass 1 – Dan Katcher – Friday 23rd March 10am-12.30pm – Beehive Theatre
Biography: Dan Katcher is a renowned Los Angeles-based creature designer for television, games, and film. He is best known for his design of the dragons on HBO’s hit, Game of Thrones, which earned him Emmy recognition for three straight seasons. In addition to Game of Thrones, Dan is currently at work on creatures for a number of DC Comic productions, including The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl. Dan’s previous work includes the dinosaurs on Fox’s Terra Nova, alien designs for the Green Lantern film, creature designs for MTV’s Shannara Chronicles, and sculpts of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Sideshow Collectibles, as well as many other works both public and private. Dan got his start creating collectibles in wax for Todd McFarlane Toys in New York. Dan was trained in New York City at the School of Visual Arts, where he majored in Animation, and at the Art Students League, where he learned clay figurative sculpture from experts in the field. Dan later trained in both Maya and Z-Brush, and is considered a leader in his utilization of the latter platform. Dan credits his traditional art background for the depth of understanding of anatomy that sets his work apart. His ability to capture a character’s full range of human emotions gives his creations a signature, unmatched vitality. See more here: https://www.dankatcher.com/
Master Class Title: Making Monsters in Zbrush (How to Make a Dragon – An Anatomical Approach). Dan will talk through the importance of understanding of physiology and anatomy while creating creatures using Zbrush.
Masterclass 2 – Ryan Woodward – Saturday 24th March 10am-12.30pm – Beehive Theatre
Biography: Ryan Woodward has worked in the film, animation and gaming industry in various roles such as animator, storyboard artist and director for 23 years. He began his career in 1995 as an animator on the film Space Jam. Since then, he has gone on to work on the following films: The Iron Giant, Spider-Man 2 and 3, Cowboys and Aliens, Where The Wild Things Are, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Avengers and many more. Some of Ryan’s passion projects include the short film Thought of You, and the animated graphic novel Bottom of the Ninth. He currently works at Riot Games on the development of future projects. See more here: http://ryanwoodwardart.com/
Master Class Title: 2D Animation – Ugly Drawings Moving Beautifully. Ryan will go through his theories and approach to animation and the value of understanding the depth of characters and story structure.
Masterclass 3 – Keith Sintay – Saturday 24th March 2pm-4.30pm – Beehive Theatre
Biography: Keith Sintay has been a professional animator for over 23 years. Having worked as a traditional paper and pencil animator, an all-digital character animator to VFX blockbuster animator and supervisor, he offers a unique perspective on the industry. He began his career at Disney Feature Animation in Florida as a traditional animation artist on the Disney film Pocahontas and from there worked on such films as: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Tarzan, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron, and Sinbad (Dreamworks). From there he made the transition into CG animation while still at Dreamworks working on Shark Tale. After Dreamworks, he moved on to Sony Pictures Animation to work on such films as Open Season, Surf’s Up, Monster House and Beowolf. After working for 10 years in Feature Animation, he made the transition into VFX animation while still at Sony, and went on to work on I Am Legend. He then made the move to Digital Domain, and worked on such films as G.I. Joe, Tron, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief as well as Transformers 2 and 3. He’s also worked as a Senior Animator at ILM on such films as TMNT 1 and 2, Transformers 4, Avengers 2, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and the upcoming Han Solo movie. He has been an Animation Mentor Tutor for over 10 years, working to shape and guide the future of the animation industry. On top of being a highly accomplished animator, he has also worked as a Storyboard Artist and is published in storyboard and animation reference books. He is currently working as Animation Supervisor for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on the Warner Brother’s CW network. See more here: http://www.animationmentor.com/mentors/keith-sintay/
Master Class Title: Tips and Tricks for Character Animation and VFX Animation. In his Master Class Keith will be discussing his methodology and workflow that has allowed him to be successful and efficient throughout his digital career. He will offer Tips and Tricks for approaching both VFX Animation and Character Animation.
Due to such popular demand, Animation Skillnet will be hosting two half day masterclasses with Dan Katcher and Ryan Woodward in Dublin. If you missed your chance to see these two industry maestros at Animation Dingle, they will be visiting Dublin on Thursday 29th March. For more details on these Dublin master classes and how to apply, please visit Ryan Woodword masterclass and Dan Katcher masterclass.