Get to Know | Ryan

Meet Ryan, one of our amazing FX artists at FOLKS Toronto, who embodies perfectly our core values: excellence and kindness.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT TORONTO?
I truly enjoy the culture at FOLKS Toronto: everyone is so nice and friendly, and there’s also a real pursuit of excellence that I find truly inspiring. Where the city itself is concerned, I really like The Beaches neighbourhood since there are lots of nice spots for walking and it has a true village feel that reminds me of Huntsville, my hometown.

IF YOU COULD TRANSFER TO ANOTHER PITCH BLACK LOCATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO AND WHY?
If I were to live anywhere other than Toronto, it would be Vancouver. Having lived in Vancouver during my time studying at Lost Boys Studios, I grew to love how beautifully the city blends into its natural environment, the ease of transportation, and the overall positive atmosphere.

THE FIVE MAIN VALUES OF FOLKS ARE CREATIVITY, COLLABORATION, EXCELLENCE, SIMPLICITY AND KINDNESS. WHICH ONE DO YOU MOST IDENTIFY WITH?
Kindness, because I see it as a foundational human element. Without kindness, creativity and collaboration would wither due to negative human connections, excellence would feel hollow due to the lack of passion and spirit, and simplicity would be difficult to achieve due to the stress of negativity. All the other FOLKS core values of creativity, collaboration, excellence, and simplicity work best and flourish in a positive environment with kindness at its core.

IN WHAT FOLKS PROJECT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF YOUR WORK?
The project that I am most proud of working on at FOLKS would have to be Titans. I enjoyed the diversity of the effects that I worked on throughout the project, and the opportunity to use pre-built setups as well as create custom setups to complete tasks has been a fantastic learning experience. I’m also proud of having worked on Spider-Man: No Way Home since I’ve always wanted to contribute to a Marvel project and to be part of such an iconic movie is an absolute dream come true.

IF YOU HAD TO NAME A COLLEAGUE WHO INSPIRES YOU, WHO WOULD IT BE?
I’ve learned so much from all my colleagues, but Josh George is constantly innovating with interesting ideas while managing to keep his setups simple, which is something that I personally strive to accomplish. He is also quite generous with his time and encouragement, guiding me in how to improve and advance in the visual effects industry.

YOUR FAVORITE SHOT?
One of my favourite shots was working on the house fire and collapse for the movie Emancipation. It was my first time working with large-scale fire, and working on matching the real-world fire with the CG fire proved to be a unique challenge. It was also an enjoyable, collaborative experience working with modeling/assets to get the house geometry to work well for the RBD collapsing, and modifying the geometry of the house asset to appear broken at the beginning of the shot allowed me to practice new RBD fracturing techniques.