Jayson "The Wookie" Slinger

Job Title:
Lead Animator

What do I do?
A little bit of everything, I guess...

My strengths lie in character animation and modeling, but I have also become a compositor, lighter, texturer, etc, etc, over the years. I'm a Jack-of-all-trades, master of at least one er two…(I would hope). Just gimme a project and I'll do it all!

What's the coolest thing about Ghost?
It seems to be a reoccurring theme…but it's the monkeys; definitely the monkeys...

Nowhere else can you throw poo at your coworkers, swing around from the suspended ceiling whooping at the top of your lungs, or generally misbehave all day– and not get in trouble! Seriously though, I love working/playing/hangin' wit' me fellow ghOsties. And as much as it sounds contrary to what I just said, this is one the best work environments and the best group of people I've ever had the pleasure of throwing poo at…er, I mean, working with.

What do I do when I'm not working?
What an odd category. NOT working. Hmmm...

Well, I don't work quite as much as the rest of these nutters anymore, but that's mainly due to (and thanks to) my lovely family. I love being with my family. But as for what I like to do? Going outside, camping, climbing, biking, canoeing –whatever–as long as I can get out there into nature. Yes, I'm a big ol' tree-huggin' nature freak.

My story:
I was born and raised in central Iowa; please don't hold that against me. After graduating high school, I moved to California where I romped around the outdoor education camp scene for about six years. I taught everything from ropes courses and rock climbing to astronomy and marine biology. But, alas, California lost its shine and I found myself in the Twin Cities going to school at the School of Communication Arts and working at the Science Museum of Minnesota. After graduating from SCA, I got my first 3D job at Engineering Animation, Inc. in Ames, IA (10 miles west of my hometown - go figure). I worked at EAI for three years until they closed their interactive division in the fall of '99.

And that's how I found myself back up here in beautiful Minnesota working at the illustrious Ghost Productions ever since.

I've been rather fortunate to work on some great projects in my past; my favorite of which was the Disney Interactive games: A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2. My other game titles include: Small Soldiers, Clue, Animaniacs: Gigantic Adventure, Splatball, Barbie Magic Hairstyler, and many others. I also had a jaunt working on the special effects for the movie Blade.

And lastly, I play well with others and–only occasionally–run with scissors.

Favorite Internet Links:
www.giochannel.com: Movies and comic book stuff
www.3dtotal.com: An essential for any CG artist
www.boingboing.net: One of the most glorious sources for interesting and worthless info out there

Email:
jayson@ghostproductions.com

Instant Messenger:
Geekslayre