The pro for the week of June 19th was senior character animator at DreamWorks Animation (PDI) - Jason Schleifer.  For those of you that were able to attend the CGCHAR @ Siggraph Event last year in Los Angeles, Jason gave a lively presentation on Madagascar.  To read what went on in the June 19th-23rd ATP discussion, point your browsers to the Ask-The-Pro forums . 

Jason Schleifer has wrapped work as a Senior Character Animator on DreamWorks Animation’s recent release, Over the Hedge.  His next project will be in the same role on Shrek the Third.

Since joining the studio in 2003, Schleifer has been able to juggle multiple responsibilities while maintaining a consistent quality of work as a character animator. His main duties require him to translate the visions of the Director(s), Production Designer and VFX Supervisor into a movement and an emotion of a character within the film. Schleifer has also been involved in collaborating with the Character Rigging Department in testing and providing feedback for new rigs, which can be seen in the recent hit film Madagascar and its spin-off short, The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper.  During his off-hours away from the studio, Schleifer enjoys being a mentor for an online animation school, Animation Mentor.com. 

Prior to his career at PDI/DreamWorks, Schleifer had extensive involvement at Weta Digtial beginning as a Creature Technical Director and later promoted to an Animation Lead while making the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In addition to his film career, Schleifer has developed a couple of DVD’s for Alias on creating animation rigs, as well as being a co-author and co-presenter in a SIGGRAPH 2002 course on character rigging.

Schleifer has a B.A. in High Honors from the University of Califorina, Santa Barbara.

Comments (9)

uh oh : a guest lock up your women and children! :) June 16, 2006 wow : a guest heh, i knew who it was just by looking at the face image on the front page! this should be good... :) June 16, 2006 ... : a guest well, first of all, thanks a lot Rick for getting the next ask the pro underway, Jason is a great animator. but... i think maybe it would be nice if we could get some new faces for the ask the pro, people whom we don't get to read about widely on the net. I remember Jason did a Q June 16, 2006 New faces : Rick May If you have suggestions or know of someone that would like to do Ask The Pro, please contact me via the "Contact Us" link on the left side of the page. I could always use some help pinning people down. Usually those that are not active on the net, don't have much interest or time to do something like this. At least, that has been my experience. Unfortunately, not everyone is as giving with their time as Jason is. :) June 16, 2006 Sweet :D : a guest Ha, yeah, I knew who it was just by looking at the eyes. :D June 16, 2006 Hey : a guest Oh my godd!!! Is the coach!! I keep training hard!! Spanish fly. June 16, 2006 ... : a guest Ha, next we'll be checking his teeth. ;-) Come on, we have Jason as a mentor in AM, and I'm still stoked about seeing him do a Q June 16, 2006 ... : a guest whoops, I think this comment thingie cuts off special characters like ampersands! :-) June 16, 2006 Great news! : Amrit Derhgawen Wow! I'm big fan of Jason Schleifer! Can't wait to take a few tips from him! June 17, 2006

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