"Let me teach you who this so-called Bluerider is."
Profiling Bluerider
"Let me teach you who this so-called Bluerider is."
Real Name: Ryan Martel |
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| Current Computer Setup: | ||||
| Processor: AMD 1.3 Ghz Video Card:Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti 4400 Ram: 1 Gigabytes DDR Monitor 1: NEC MultiSync FE950+(18"viewable) Monitor 2: Envision 780e (17"viewable) Tablet/Digitizer: Wacom Intuos2 12"x18" |
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| Education: | ||||
University of Alberta - Edmonton, Alberta |
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| Program: Design | ||||
| Major: Business/Marketing | ||||
| Sheridan College - Oakville, Ontario | ||||
| Program: Animation-Classical | ||||
| Degree achieved: Diploma | ||||
| Background Info: | ||||
| Early Childhood | ||||
| Ryan grew up on an acreage outside of the city of St.Albert. Looking back at it I have come to realize how fortunate i have been to be raised in the environment i have grown up in. Growing up in a nice neighborhood with large backyards, some light forested area behind my house (which as a kid can spark any imagination), a stables nearby where i could see beautiful horses and play among bails of hay (much to a mothers dismay), and many friends to be made durning my earliest days. As i recall these days i am made to realize that i could not have had some of my experiences should i have lived in the city proper. | ||||
| Years of youth | ||||
I don't
believe i was older than 8 when we moved to a new house. Though
not relatively far from my first home it did mark a rather new
segment of my life as I was still at an age where such a distance
from those early friends would result in some of them fading away
to just memories. But new friends are made. |
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| It was also at this time when personal computers were making their way into peoples homes. Our first computer was a Tandy 1000 EX computer. I even remember playing on those old Apple IIe computers at school. And don't forget those games that you could play on the Atari Entertainment System or Colecovision. Since then i have continued to grow up with computers as a part of my life. | ||||
| Those High Speed High School Dayz | ||||
| Just before reaching high school my parents reached a turning point in their lives and decided that it was best to go their own ways. So marked another drastic change in my life. No matter how hard things get you always want to be supportive of your parents, for they have always been there to support you as you have grown. But the difficulty is always there. Changing to a new school as we moved from our acreage to a house within the city would also be a difficult thing to adapt to at first. But like all things we adapt to change. And hope that in adapting we grow into stronger individuals. | ||||
| It was also just before finishing High School that i was making the decision that i wanted to do something artistic with my life. I was always able to obtain high marks in every class i took, but art was both difficult and yet rewarding. There was a nice sense of accomplishment as you produced something on a blank sheet of paper. I could not say i found such interest in the other things at school. Of course cartoons had always been my favourite thing to watch on television, especially every saturday morning when the majority of animated programs would be aired on television. After some research into colleges and universities I finally decided that Sheridan College would be the place I would go to to learn animation. | ||||
| The Crammin College Years | ||||
| Getting into Sheridan College wasn't going to be easy, so it was no surprise that I didn't get in directly out of High School. So I went to the University of Alberta to continue my education with the hopes that I would eventually get accepted into Sheridan College. I enrolled in the Design program which I felt offered me a good range of courses that applied to my future goals. I chose a route majoring in Business/Marketing. This gave me some business courses which applied to my desires to eventually start my own studio for animation, as well as taking art history, drawing, and painting courses to furthur my drawing skills. University was not easy and my studio courses would often have me working long hours to finish my projects, many of which i would try to apply towards my future goals of animation. | ||||
| After 3 years into my 4 year program (which would have taken another half year after the 4th in order to get all the courses done i was needing) I finally received my acceptance directly into the Animation course at Sheridan College. So the next year of post secondary school found me living in the dorms at Sheridan College and finally taking the courses I had been wanting. Again the course load would be gruelling. Many a night I would go without sleep to finish that project before the deadline. But it would be fun and well rewarding. It is at Sheridan College that I feel i have had my greatest experience in my art education. I have made many friends that I am looking forward to working with again. And hopefully I will be able to get some of them together at some point to do a short film or two. | ||||
| The Here and Now | ||||
| So what have i been up to since college? Well truth be told, not much. I finished college and decided that since i had racked up quite a hefty student loan that i could barely afford to stay in the Toronto region. So back home i moved. Though there was one thing I had to make sure i did before i settled into the workforce. I needed a vacation. So me and two friends took a flight to Japan for two weeks. A guided tour through many cultural landmarks and temples for the first week. Then a week in a hostel in Osaka. That was the week for exploring and lots of shopping. After that it was off to Hong Kong for one more week. Then back home. | ||||
| Well it was now time to get those loans paid off as fast as i could. So I took on a job at a local warehouse. The pay started off better than I expected and the raises came fairly quickly when you are working full time, as well as often getting 2 hours of overtime pay. Needless to say it took me a little over a year to pay off those nasty student loans. Gotta appreciate parents for giving you a place to stay while paying off loans. And don't forget those home cooked meals. | ||||
| With that out of the way it is time to focus again on my goals. So started this webpage as an active reminder to myself, as well as a place to put up my work. I have been attending a figure drawing class every wednesday evening. As well last summer saw me going out and playing with paint doing some scenic painting. Sure is nice to be outside and doing the things you like under the sun. I've been playing with my Wacom tablet and using it to draw on the computer. I enjoy drawing on the computer since it feels much more free than drawing on paper. Paper sometimes can take on too much of a feeling of permanence, which to me makes it feel like every drawing should be your best. Which of course can not be the case and sometimes becomes discouraging. The computer though frees me from such ideas. Lets me get down to the essence of it all - using my imagination. | ||||