www.nfb.ca/hd/ryan/

Ryan, a short film directed by Chris Landreth, is about the Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. Larkin is known for his shorts "Walking" and "Street Musique". Chris Landreth introduces himself to us in a funky restroom and then introduces the film's subject, Ryan Larkin, a brilliant animator in the 1960s and early 1970s. Chris shows clips of "Walking" and "Street Musique," Ryan's ground-breaking shorts. We now see Ryan as he is: emaciated, alcoholic, much of his mind gone; we meet Felicity Fanjoy, his love during his creative period, and Derek Lamb, his producer. Ryan talks to Chris in the dining hall of what is probably a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Chris tries an intervention. We follow Ryan out into the street where he panhandles. The animation, which uses live footage, reveals the ravaged burned-out graceful man


Ryan was conceived, developed and animated in the world of 3D computer generated imagery (CGI). Although the characters and sets have detailed realism, everything in the film has been modelled with CGI tools- there is no live-action footage. All characters in Ryan were animated by hand (there was no 'motion capture' used in the film). A number of software tools were used to create interesting 'effects,' such as smoke, fog, distortions, clothing and dynamic hair on the characters.
The production of Ryan relied heavily on Alias's Maya animation software (V 4.0) for modelling, rigging, animation, lighting and rendering of the 3D world in the film. In addition, we used Discreet Combustion V2.1 for all compositing and 2D effects, Adobe Photoshop V7.0 for painting and texturing, and Adobe Premiere for creative development and editing.

Chris Landreth
(1961 - )
Biography from a retired page on the dmc3d.com web site; photo (2005) from the IMDb

© WireImage.com Chris Landreth went into animation as a second career after being an engineer for several years. He received his MS degree in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois in 1986. For three years he worked in experimental research in fluid mechanics at the University of Illinois, until he made the transition into the netherworlds of computer animation. In 1994 Landreth joined Alias/Wavefront, where it was his job to define, test and abuse animation software, in-house, before it was released to the public. In addition to well-mannered software, this resulted in the production of animated short films, including "the end" (1995) and BINGO (1998). Both films have won recognition and awards worldwide. "the end" was nominated for an Academy Award® in 1996 for Best Animated Short Film. RYAN (2004), Landreth's latest short film, is an "animated documentary" on the strange life of Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. It was voted Best Animated Short Film by the Academy.
Nominated for Achievement in Animated Short Films 1995:
Directed by
Chris Landreth
· Produced by
Steven Hoban
Marcy Page
Mark Smith
· Production Agency
Copper Heart Entertainment Inc.
National Film Board of Canada


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