Meet the crew

Industry Expert Teachers

Ryan Ware

Senior Visual Effects Teacher

Ryan loves Making Awesome at AIE Online. Ryan ‘s background includes working at Weta Digital, Oktobor Animation, and as a freelancer on projects such as; The Hobbit Trilogy, Ironman, Man of Steel, Penguins of Madagascar, Robot and Monster, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and Thunderbirds are Go!

Ryan is passionate about Visual Effects. Ryan’s doesn’t have a favourite movie but loves a series of movies from certain Directors such as Wes Anderson, and Quentin Tarantino.

Ryan Ware has worked on:

The Hobbit

Ironman

Penguins of Madagascar

Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness

Robot and Monster

Thunderbirds are Go!

Ali Wetherell

3D Art Teacher

Ali enjoys teaching foundation students the pipeline from their fab idea to finished animated short. Ali’s background includes working at Walt Disney Television Animation (Australia), MicroForte and White Noise Games on projects including; Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Scooby Doo Case File #2: The Scary Stone Dragon, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, Aladdin III: The King of Thieves, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure, Timon and Pumbaa TV series.

Ali has specialised in character animation, 2D animation, video editing, and also Guitar Hero awesomeness. A not so interesting fact about Ali is that her life is inspired by Jurassic Park – the idea of resurrecting dinosaurs led me to study science at university.

Ali Wetherell has worked on:

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

Scooby Doo Case File #2: The Scary Stone Dragon

The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea

Aladdin III: The King of Thieves

Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure

Timon and Pumbaa TV series

Craig Bentick

Design Teacher

Craig spends most of his day trying to contain his excitement at all the inspirational student work at AIE Online. Craig’s background includes working at Pandemic Studios, EA, Creative Assembly, Sega Australia on such projects as; Destroy All Humans!, The Dark Knight, Stormrise, and London 2012: The Olympics.

Craig is passionate about Art, Animation, Programming and Design. An interesting fact about Craig is that he can recall almost any song lyric he has ever heard “mmmbop ba duba dop”.

Craig Bentick has worked on:

The Dark Knight

Destroy All Humans

London 2012: The Olympics

Stormrise

Masha Juergens

Animation Teacher

Masha loves teaching students 3D animation at AIE Online. Masha’s background includes working at AIE Sydney, UTS, TAFE, Animal Logic, Dr.D, Scanline FX, Aardman animation on such projects as; Walking with Dinosaurs, Happy Feet 2, Legend of the Guardians, Owls of ga’hool, Chronicles of Narnia. Prince Caspian.

Masha is particularly strong in 3D character animation. Masha’s favourite movie is the 1995 smash hit, Toy Story.

Masha Juergens has worked on:

Legend of the Guardians, Owls of ga’hool

Chronicles of Narnia

Walking with Dinosaurs

Happy Feet 2

Batman

Prince Caspian

Sam Cartwright

Senior Programming Teacher

Sam spends much of his day debugging student’s code… then maybe teaching them a few things about game programming. Sam’s background includes working at Gameloft and 3Dme on projects such as; Crystal Monsters (aka Monster Chronicles) 1 and 2, Osaka Nights, as well as Diabetes Education Games.

Sam is passionate about Game programming and mobile game development. An interesting fact about Sam is that he lived in Tokyo for 10 years.

Sam Cartwright has worked on:

Crystal Monsters

Osaka Nights

Diabetes Education Games

Peter Chown

Lead Design Teacher

Peter loves it when the hustle and bustle picks up at the online campus when classes start later in the afternoon and evening.

Peter teaches students a range of design principles and push to develop their skill sets in team productions. Online delivery has a mixture of live tutorials, pre-recorded lectures, master classes and much more, all of which Peter plays a role in.

Peter’s background includes working at Micro Forte, Viva Haiti Inc (freelance) on such projects as the Big Word Engine, Cheer Chick Charlie (mobile app), and Kokoye Community (Card game).

Peter is interested in developing student’s skills in Game Design, Production and Project Manager. Peter’s favourite movie is The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 – it may be the best movie ever made…

Peter Chown has worked on:

Big Word Engine

Cheer Chick Charlie (mobile app)

Kokoye Community (Card game)

Finn Spencer

Lead Game Art Teacher

Finn loves gathering resources for students & preparing for the usual weekly tutorials/lectures for the Online campus. Finn’s background includes being a freelance sole trader and Private Tutor and was one of the original Co-Founder of Evil Aliens where he worked on ORBITOR.

Finn specialises in Game Level Development, low polygon modelling and project management.

Finn’s favourite game is The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.