Who the heck is this guy and does he ever just shut up?

Hah! If I had a dollar for every time I overheard someone talking to someone else about me like that, I’d buy us both a pony!

a nice one, too! maybe even a red one!

I’m just a mere mortal. one who likes to talk about pretty much anything that gets my blood pumping. Usually that means animation or computers or people or films or boogers.

Actually, I don’t talk about boogers all that much.

I like to keep that private.

other than that, by day I’m an animator.

By night, I’m a ninja who eats jelly doughnuts and grins at nothing in particular.

Every comment/post/rant/opinion expressed within these pages is only the opinion of the author, and does not reflect any employer, parent, guardian, or alien host of any kind.

Oh yeah.. and if you’re really bored, here are a couple of links to interviews…

Lord of the Rings

• Meet the Artist – Jason Schleifer
• Jason Schleifer: Senior Animator/Creature Technical Director, Lord of the Rings, Weta Digital
• 3December – Jason Schleifer
• Gollum & Me
• Weta – Customer Story

Madagascar

• Survival of the Funnies: The Lion, the Zebra, and the Wack Factor

Misc

• Animation Mentor Graduation (In German)
• Strut Your Reel Interview
• Cgchar-animation Ask the Pro
• Animation Lounge Interview
• Maya Master
• Expose 1 Review
• Maya Rigging Bundle DVD
• 3d Career de-mystified
• Mp3 radio interview.. I think..

And if you really must have a resume..

From 1996 – 1999 I worked at Alias|Wavefront as an intern, support specialist, and product specialist, focusing on Maya, demoing Maya, and traveling the world speaking about Maya.

from 1999 – 2003 I worked on the Lord of the Rings trillogy. I started out as a character td, wrote the animation pipeline, and then transitioned to animation starting as an animator on film 1, senior animator on film 2, and animation lead on film 3.

In 2001 and 2002 I wrote two Master Classes on character rigging for Maya. Until recently they were available from the Autodesk website as the Jason Schleifer Rigging Bundle. I’m working to make them available again.

In 2002 I co-authored a Siggraph course on character rigging.

In 2004 I moved back to the states and began animating at PDI Dreamworks where I was promoted to Supervising Animator in 2007.

In 2008 I was promoted to Head of Character Animation for a film called Oobermind, which is to be released in November, 2010.

Film History

1. Oobermind – Head of Character Animation
2. Madagascar 2 – Supervising Animator
3. Monsters vs. Aliens – Preproduction Animator
4. Shrek the Third – Senior Animator
5. Over the Hedge – Senior Animator
6. Penguins X-mas Caper – Senior animator
7. Madagascar – Senior Animator
8. Lord of the Rings – Return of the King – Animation Lead
9. Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers – Senior Animator
10. Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring – Animator

Awards

1. Doctorate of Arts, honoris causa – Digital Media Arts College, 2007
2. Maya Masters, 2002