Apr 6, 2020
There’s a connection between Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Game of Thrones and Langara’s Centre for Entertainment Arts (CEA) – Jason Snyman. His career in animation encompasses a dynamic portfolio of internationally recognized films. He is now an instructor and directs the Advanced 3D Animation programs at Langara’s third and newest teaching facility on Great Northern Way. The CEA offers advanced entertainment art programs in 3D Animation, VFX, Game Design, and Game Technology.
Born and raised in South Africa, he first became interested in 3D animation at the age of 13. The time he spent teaching himself how to use the expensive software after school led to his first big break at 17. After relocating to the United Kingdom with his family, his skills helped him earn his very first job on an Eddy Murphy film. From then on, he was in: Jason continued to pick up momentum and worked on increasingly exciting projects as he progressed in his career.
“I learned how to snowboard and moved to Vancouver where I worked most recently supervising the team that animated the dragons on Game of Thrones for two episodes in Season 7 and doing most of the dragon work in Season 8.”
Jason can be credited with adding value to the growing animation industry by using Maya in a clever way. Maya is a computer animation and modeling software used for creating interactive assets in video games, TV series, and animated films. Using Maya, he was able to emulate how dragon skin would slide over the muscles and bones of dragons. He also developed a way to mimic large crowd simulations by using geometry in a simple way. Now, Jason is eager to share these unique techniques with future 3D animators.
“I wanted to teach advanced techniques at Langara CEA, because I have some crazy outside of the box ideas and thought it'd be fun to give students an alternative to the standard way of doing 3D animation. I wanted to teach students the valuable and good stuff.”
As with many creatives, Jason draws inspiration from his fellow artists. He loves watching the latest films and delving into behind the scenes content to discover what other artists are up to.
In his spare time, Jason spends time with his wife and two children. He also enjoys heading to the slopes for snowboarding. Outside of animation, he specializes in regularly coming up with dad jokes that are so bad, they’re good.
View the Continuing Studies Summer 2020 Guidebook online.
About snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓ Langara College
Located in beautiful Vancouver, B.C., Canada, snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓ Langara College provides University, Career, and Continuing Studies education to more than 23,000 students annually. With more than 1,700 courses and 130 programs, Langara’s expansive academic breadth and depth allows students of all ages, backgrounds, and life stages to choose their own educational path. Langara is also known as snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓, a name given to it by the Musqueam people on whose unceded traditional territory the College is located. Langara is celebrating its 49th year on West 49th Avenue with Beyond 49, an integrated celebration, alumni engagement, and fundraising campaign to reconnect with alumni, and raise funds for student support and important College initiatives. Learn more.
Learn more.
Lisa Tuyen
Communications and Marketing
Langara College
604.323.5107
ltuyen@langara.ca
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Jason Snyman Cover Shoot
Photographer: Calvin Gehlen
Asst. Photographer: Michal Urbanek
Art Director: Chris Gunn
Producer: Lisa Tuyen
Makeup: Rae Pelat