//ADAPT 2007 - SPECIAL COVERAGE

JEH: Who are your best “Pen Pals” when comes times to getting critique for your work?

Ryan: Hah, well, due to the limitations of NDA it's funny but you really can't ask anybody for a crit uness they're sitting there in the room with you! Very sad but true- I get questions all the time as to when I'm going to update my website and I have to explain that almost everything I'm working on is either coming out in 2 to 3 years or has been shelved which means theoretically I can't show it to anybody ever. That said, I do try and keep in touch with much of the Star Wars and Ninth Ray crew just because it feels like we were in a war together for a few years. There's also James Clyne, with whom I shared an office on Avatar and continue to on Star Trek, we're always giving each other a hard time about the daily ups and downs of drawing 'spaceships and explosions...'.

JEH: What can you tell us about Ninth Ray Studios?

Ryan: Ninth Ray Studios was formed when Iain McCaig and I and a bunch of talented artists found themselves staring dumbfoundedly at each other after the Kerry Conran Princess of Mars was yanked but we all wanted to keep working together. Iain's artistic ability is matched only by his tenacity and business sense so he went on to singlehandedly and within about a day of phone calls line up enough work to supplant and surpass our previous job. We worked together on many fun and interesting projects but Ninth Ray went into an inactive time as most of the members went on to Iron Man, I went on to Avatar and Iain was devoting more time to writing and producing his scripts and book projects. Ninth Ray's always there and it would be fantastic if there were a project that could get us all back together again, good times...

JEH: Tell us about your participation at the //ADAPT CONFERENCE, what will you be presenting there?

Ryan: Yes, for the ADAPT Conference I can hardly wait first of all to see Montreal and to be a part of what I heard was a fantastic event last year. It's a huge shame but because of work commitments I won't be able to attend the whole event and will end up missing many of the presentations I'd love to check out. At my presentation I'll give a demo and show a retrospective of work and get into what it means to be a part of the Art Department in both feature film and video game capacities. Not just the nuts and bolts of drawing and designing but the workflow and integrating with the other departments, and lastly and maybe most importantly I'll cover the political side of things and talk about how to get into the industry and how to stay in the industry, things I've learned in my career and can hopefully pass on to those who attend the conference.

JEH: Anyone you look forward to meet there?

Ryan: Well, there are a ton of great artists and legends who will be attending this year, of course there's Syd Mead whom I've met a few times but is always fascinating, Phil Tippet's a legend of course. Some of my friends from Corel will be around to say hi, I think Dan Gregoire's going to be there too and then there's Mark Goerner who's work I admire and it goes on and on. I also get a kick out of meeting colleagues who are attending the conference, looking at portfolios and giving back to the whole artistic community. And then of course there's you Jean Eric, with whom I've been corresponding and emailing and has helped me out immensely by getting my words and work out to the CG community, it'll be very cool to finally meet you in person and say thanks for the many years of kind words.