I’m Stephen Dryer, an animation director and post-production specialist with 35 years of hands-on experience across film and broadcast. I’m known for bringing both strong creative instincts and highly organised, methodical process to every project—helping teams hit the brief, solve production problems quickly, and keep quality consistently high under pressure. With a portfolio career, I’ve worked as an animation director, 2D animator and editor and also in key production roles such as executive producer, development producer, edit producer, post-production manager, and motion GFX director/designer. Whether I’m restoring classic animation, or creating stunning new ones, building animation and post workflows, sketching out animatics, obtaining client approvals or just sitting in the back of a suite overseeing a conform, or up front in the chair getting my hands dirty with a grading of finishing session, I consistently aim for original, craft-led results and I enjoy creating a calm, collaborative environment where people can do their best work.…

Stephen Dryer

VerifiedPro
5.0 (1 review)

I’m Stephen Dryer, an animation director and post-production specialist with 35 years of hands-on experience across film and broadcast. I’m known for bringing both strong creative instincts and highly organised, methodical process to every project—helping teams hit the brief, solve production problems quickly, and keep quality consistently high under pressure. With a portfolio career, I’ve worked as an animation director, 2D animator and editor and also in key production roles such as executive producer, development producer, edit producer, post-production manager, and motion GFX director/designer. Whether I’m restoring classic animation, or creating stunning new ones, building animation and post workflows, sketching out animatics, obtaining client approvals or just sitting in the back of a suite overseeing a conform, or up front in the chair getting my hands dirty with a grading of finishing session, I consistently aim for original, craft-led results and I enjoy creating a calm, collaborative environment where people can do their best work.…

Next availability:
November 2, 2026

I’m Stephen Dryer, an animation director and post-production specialist with 35 years of hands-on experience across film and broadcast. I’m known for bringing both strong creative instincts and highly organised, methodical process to every project—helping teams hit the brief, solve production problems quickly, and keep quality consistently high under pressure.

With a portfolio career, I’ve worked as an animation director, 2D animator and editor and also in key production roles such as executive producer, development producer, edit producer, post-production manager, and motion GFX director/designer. Whether I’m restoring classic animation, or creating stunning new ones, building animation and post workflows, sketching out animatics, obtaining client approvals or just sitting in the back of a suite overseeing a conform, or up front in the chair getting my hands dirty with a grading of finishing session, I consistently aim for original, craft-led results and I enjoy creating a calm, collaborative environment where people can do their best work.

See more

Work Experience

Animation Director - Hoist at Blue Box
January 14, 2025 - November 28, 2025
Titles Designer - Here Come the Cherokees at Skooch Media
January 6, 2025 - February 23, 2025
Animation Director - April Showers at Blue Box
August 5, 2024 - November 30, 2024
Animation Director - In Development Hell at Blue Box
July 1, 2024 - October 31, 2024
Animation Director - Callie at Blue Box
April 19, 2024 - July 19, 2024
Animation Director - A.M at Blue Box
January 8, 2024 - April 30, 2024
Titles Designer - The Presence of Snowgood at Skooch Media
October 30, 2023 - December 8, 2023
Animation Director - TOX at Blue Box
July 3, 2023 - October 30, 2023
Animation Director - A Body of Utterances at Blue Box
April 3, 2023 - July 28, 2023
Key Animator - Drawing Blood at Blue Box
February 15, 2023 - June 30, 2023
Animation Director - A Petal Short at Blue Box
September 12, 2022 - March 31, 2023
Animation Director - Nora at Blue Box
May 9, 2022 - January 26, 2024
Edit Producer - Britain's Favourite at Daisybeck Studios
October 14, 2019 - December 20, 2019
On-Air Creative - Designer - Compositor - Effects Editor - Animator - Video Editor at BBC - MTV - LWT (THE LAB) - ITV - UKTV - Christian Aid
September 6, 2004 - May 29, 2009
On-Air Creative - Designer - Compositor - Effects Editor - Animator - On-line Editor at Evolutions Television
February 16, 1998 - July 16, 2004
On-line Editor - Compositor - Effects Editor - Animator - On-Air Creative at First Post - Beyond Post Production
April 14, 1997 - January 30, 1998
Avid Editor/ Final Cut Pro Editor at Bartle Bogle Hegarty/ Grey/ MTV Networks Europe/ Young & Rubicam/ WCRS
March 11, 1996 - February 21, 1997
Film Video Editor - Self Shooting Videographer - Animator at Young & Rubicam
May 10, 1993 - March 22, 1996
Runner at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
August 6, 1990 - February 26, 1993

Education

City & Guilds - Media Production at University of Westminster
September 1, 1991 - July 2, 1993
GCSEs at Beal High School
September 5, 1983 - July 1, 1988
A Levels at Beal High School
September 5, 1988 - June 29, 1990

Qualifications

Blackmagic Design training (DaVinci Resolve)
May 2, 2020 - July 10, 2020
DV Talent (Edit Producing Masterclass)
September 19, 2019 - September 21, 2019
Shotgun Software Producer Training Course
January 8, 2018 - February 20, 2018
Quantel PABLO
January 1, 2008 - September 9, 2026
Quantel MARCO
January 1, 2006 - September 9, 2026
Eyeon Software Digital Fusion (post-production/VFX)
January 1, 2002 - September 9, 2026
Quantel HENRY INFINITY
January 1, 1999 - September 9, 2026
Quantel EDITBOX
January 1, 1996 - September 9, 2026

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment
    Callie - Award winning animated short
    This was a very personal project for me. It was a re-imaging of an idea I hade been working on since the early 1990's. The key challenge for me was get the emotional beats to hit. I think I did.…
    Animated character illustration
    An animated self portrait character illustration made by painting the key frames on watercolour paper, photographing them and then compiling the 8K files into sequences. Hybrid in-betweening was hand-painted in Fusion. animator advert videoeditor…
    April Showers - Award winning animated short
    This animated short is a story of alien monsters attacking a rural community in an alternative universe and set against an unrelenting barrage of rain. The rain in this story represents the constant barrage of content from social media and the alien monster represents a loss of innocence. When childhood innocence is shattered at an all too early age, what is lost? With access to social media and adult content all to easy are we all condemning our children to a life with no childhood, or has the way this innocence gets shattered simply changed? animation director, short film, animator…
    A.M - Award winning animated short
    This is the story of a group of students all struggling to find some kind of connection in an alternate universe where a benevolent moon god watches over and often struts among them. The biggest challenge for me in this project was to get just the right personality for the Moon god in all their forms.…
    Hoist - Animated Feature
    An animated feature using 1000's of painted frames to create a visual representation of the heroine's constant physical and emotional battering. animation director, animator, artist, painting,…
    Xmas Promo
    This seasonal promo was created by using a mix of textured papers and cell animation in an attempt to re-create a very classic look. animator filmdirector videoeditor video…
    In Development Hell - Award winning animated short
    This film was created using a technique of charcoal sketches for the character designs and then using a layered rostrum to capture the paper separation between the characters and the backgrounds. Poser, Fusion and Resolve all had a turn in helping to create the final film advert animator filmdirector videoeditor explainervideo video…
    Four Feet - In Memorium
    This memorial animation was created from my hand drawn keyframes of the subject and some observational sketches for the background. These were photographed, then extra in-between frames were hand painted in Fusion and the sequences were finalised in Resolve. animator filmdirector advert video explainervideo videoeditor…
    The Presence of Snowgood - Feature Film titles and credits
    This was a feature film tile sequence created using a mix of charcoal, chalk, rough papers and a lot of smudging. The keyfames were then photographed and animated. I rounded it out by creating a soundscape that was designed to add to the overall creepy feeling. All grading and post production was handled in Resolve. animation director film titles titles design animator…
    FRESH Broadcast Design Reel
    This is my broadcast design reel. The projects were all done on a mix of Quantel kit, Poser, Vue, and some film. video animator motion graphics videoeditor advert GFX promo…
    FRESH Corporate Motion GFX
    This showreel highlights some of the corporate graphics work I have created. These were a mix of conference VT's, logo animations, UI's and motion graphics. explainervideo animator motion gfx animation…