Summary

A graduate of the Sheridan College Classical Animation program in 1980, Brian has worked in the animation industry for the past 44 years. He worked as an assistant animator on the feature film, Rock and Rule, character designer on the original Inspector Gadget series, and layout artist on Ewoks and Droids, Smurfs, Flintstone Kids, Laser Tag and Punky Brewster. He was the layout supervisor on Carebears and Teddy Ruxpin, and an animator on Y's the Magnificent and other short films. Brian has also worked as an illustrator for various advertising agencies whose clients included, Kellogg's, Nestle's Quik, Barbie, McDonald's, and Burger King.

Brian began teaching at Sheridan College in 1988. He was the Co-ordinator of the Classical Animation program at Sheridan College from 1996 - 2000. during these years he was also an Instructor teaching Storyboarding, Layout, Character Design, Animation, Background Painting and Life Drawing until 2000.

In 1991 he began writing a series of books about the different aspects of animation. To date, he has written 10 books on the various animation processes, including;
• Designing Cartoon Characters for Animation Vol. 1,
• Layout and Design Made Amazingly Simple,
• The Advanced Layout and Design Workbook
• Layout Examples,
• The Animation Drawing Course and DVD
• Animation: The Basic Principles
• Character Animation and Lip Sync
• The Basics of Perspective
• Animation Tips & Tricks 1 & 2
• History of Animation 15,000BC - 1960

These books are currently being used at many schools of animation across North America, Europe, and Asia and are still available in .pdf at https://www.brianlemay.com/index.htm

His book, The Advanced Layout and Design Workbook was translated into Korean and adopted into the curriculum of the animation schools there.

During this same time period he also wrote new curriculum for Sheridan College, the 1st year animation curriculum for the program at Studio Saskatoon, and the curriculum for the Limcockwing school in Taiwan.

In 2001, Brian left Sheridan College and moved to Seneca College in Toronto. His proposal to set up a new 2D/3D animation program was accepted by the Government and implemented in 2002. He wrote the curriculum for the 1st and 2nd year courses.

In 2002, while at Seneca College, Brian was asked to draw the storyboards for a film entitled "Ryan", directed by Chris Landreth. "Ryan" won the 2005 Academy Award Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film. To date the film has won more than 45 international awards. From Feb - May 2007 Brian worked with Chris on another computer animated film titled, "The Spine", once again drawing the storyboards for the entire 14 minute film.

Between 2002 and 2018, Brian taught 1st and 2nd year Animation and Layout at Seneca College as well as 1st and 2nd year Production Art which involves Character Design, Storyboarding, and Layout at Humber College in their 3D Computer Animation Program.

In the summer of 2006, he completed a children's book titled, "The Skunk Who Went To Town".
Brian was the storyboard artist for 2 Historica Canada commercials titled "Treaty" and "Chauney Wenjack".

In Sept. 2011 Brian was a special guest speaker at the 6th Annual Shijiazhuang International Cartoon Fair in China and a Guest lecturer at the Hebei Institute of Communications Animation Program.

Between 2015 and 2023, he produced a series of 8 animated cartoons based on audio recordings by the late Phil Hartman, titled "Flat TV". These included parodies of television commercials, game shows, soap operas and various movies.

In 2018 he earned his Master's Degree in 3D animation from Bournemouth University in England

In 2017/2018 he was the Storyboard Supervisor for the "Bitmoji TV" series which airs each Saturday morning on SnapChat Disovery. He roughed out each of the episodes and assisted in the clean-up along with two assistants. These 5 minute cartoons are a series of parodies of television and movies. Each episode stars your personal Bitmoji character and the friend that you last sent a message to. There were 10 episodes that have been produced.

In 2020 he did storyboards for the pilot episode of a show called "Camp S.M.A.S.H." about a group of kids who are the children of superheroes that attend a special superhero training camp. Each child has a unique super power; speed, flight, strength, etc as well as a dog with corresponding powers. Each episode they are harassed by an evil genius who lives across the lake from the cottage and just wants some peace and quiet, so he tries to destroy the camp and the children... naturally. He also did 2 other episodes.

In 2021 he was a Storyboard Artist for a production titled "Young Thinker's Laboratory". He was also a Prop Designer for the television series "Red Ketchup" and a Layout Artist on "Paradise P.D."

In 2022, he did storyboards for 10 episodes on season 4 of "Blues Clues and You!"

In 2024 he was contracted to produce 4 - 1 minute shorts for the Indigenous Dental Association of Canada. He did all aspects of production from character design, storyboards, layout and finished animation by himself between Feb and May. These 4 episodes encourage children to take good care of their personal dental health. The episodes have been translated into 6 different indigenous languages including English and French.

He is currently also producing, writing and animating:
- Storyboarding for Animation
- Dynamic Posing for Animation
- The Animation Drawing Video Series including:
Introduction to Animation - Perpetual Ball Bounce
Introduction to Animation - Descending Energy
Introduction to Lip Sync - "Meow"
Introduction to Lip Sync - "Absolutely Incredible"
Designing Cartoon Characters for Animation Vol. 2 DVD

Brian is currently taking a course on Special Effects Make-up and Advanced Prosthetics and Prop Design.

Skills

Software proficiency

Maya

Photoshop

Premiere

Reel