Ricky Wood's Animation Reel - Ninja Theory's Finest

If you've ever wanted to see what the demo reel of a top notch game industry animator looks like, look no further. Ricky Wood is currently a principal animator at Ninja Theory, the company behind DMC, Enslaved, and Heavenly Sword. Having spent close to ten years at the studio and climbed the ranks to where he's currently at, Ricky has had the chance to work on every title the studio's put out to date, setting a new industry standard with his fantastic house animation style.

Unlike many other studios Ricky's approach stands out for his hand keyed animation style, which doesn't use motion capture and instead relies on straight up hand animating his work to imbue it with some true personality. His love for animation kicked off at the age of 13 with a copy of 1994's live action/animated hybrid The Pagemaster, when Ricky decided to attempt to recreate a snippet of animation from the feature film. This fateful event culminated in Wood's pursuit of an animation degree,and a college transition years later from 2D to 3D animation which allowed him to secure his place in the games industry.