Mind of Ryan

"This is NOT a fun water slide!"

- Ryan Sullivan

Mind of Ryan is a mind series created by DravenMario on YouTube. The series follows a 27-year-old Robotics Engineer by the name of Ryan H. Sullivan. The series takes place in the well known mod, Half-Life: Echoes.

Cast

 * Draven VanHeel as Ryan Sullivan (All episodes)
 * Chris Aspera as Unnamed Friend (1 episode)
 * Nick Jacques as Tod Arlen (1 episode)

Background
Ryan was born on August 25, 1976, and began taking classes at the University of Chicago in 1994 at the age of 18. After attending the college for 5-7 years, Ryan obtained his Master's degree in Robotics Engineering. However, finding a job was not easy for Ryan, so he spent roughly a year searching for employment across America (though some dialogue implies that he stayed in Michigan for a while). In Episode 6, Ryan talks about living in a storage shed, and how sleeping in it every night was miserable due to the constant cold temperatures. Ryan also did not have any blankets at the time.

How exactly Ryan was hired at the Black Mesa Research Facility is currently unknown, but evidence suggests that he has worked there for over a year at the time of the Black Mesa Incident.

Ryan talks about his work at Black Mesa sparingly throughout the series. He mentions that his lab is located in Sector G in the "biology building", which is referring to the Advanced Biological Research Lab, near the Hydro-Electric Dam in Half-Life 1. In Episode 5, Ryan states that he is confused about his placement at Sector G because he is not a Biologist. He also briefly mentions designing the Tau Cannon in Episode 4, which implies that the prototype found in the Questionable Ethics chapter was created by Ryan himself. In Episode 1, Ryan mentions having a decent friendship with Barney Calhoun (subsequent dialogue implies that he is referring to Ian Riley's interpretation of Barney). Ryan states that he often tries to wake Barney by yelling at him like a drill instructor.

In Episode 7 of the series, Tod Arlen calls Ryan out of concern, and it is revealed that the two know each other fairly well. However, Ryan is still surprised at this call, saying: "Wow, dude. You are the last person I expected a call from".

Personality
Ryan is a quiet but caring individual who respects his fellow scientists and security guards alike. Ryan has made an important point to wear his lab coat and tie at all times to show that he is thankful for his job, unlike some other employees. Ryan also demonstrates anger management throughout the series by frequently telling himself to calm down. He often represses thoughts that make him scared or angry, which is shown in Episode 4 when he completely ignores the presence of a Gargantua. While this ability proves to be useful in some situations, it can at times become a disadvantage, such as when he refuses to kill Headcrab Zombies because to him: "It just feels wrong. I probably worked with these people".

Appearance
Ryan's character was designed to resemble Togusa from the Ghost in the Shell series. Series creator Draven VanHeel wanted Ryan to have a fluffy mullet to emphasize that he grew up in the 80s. As mentioned in the "personality" section, Ryan always wears his lab coat and tie, never removing them at any point in the series. However, he does occasionally pick up a vest from security guards.

Ryan is 5'9" in height and has an average body type. He was likely able to stay in decent shape because of his work as an engineer.

After Episode 3, all End-Cards depict Ryan with a scar under his right eye. This was probably caused by the Headcrabs that Ryan encountered in Episode 4.

Production
DravenMario has noted that production of Mind of Ryan is "much more complicated than it needs to be". The standard production session for an episode begins with playing through a small section of Half-Life: Echoes repeatedly to get a feel for the section, plan out dialogue, and figure out a good stopping point for the episode. This part of production can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

Recording of the gameplay is done in a very specific way. It involves going through a section of the game whilst using the "demo recording" feature of the GoldSrc engine, and recording sound at the same time because demo recordings commonly have sound errors. When the demo recording is finished, the HUD is removed, the FOV is increased to 115 degrees, then it is played back and recorded at 1080p using OBS. After this, a second recording of the demo is made, but this time with the weapon hidden; this is done for timing reasons. After the recordings are complete, they are mixed together in Sony Vegas.

Dialogue is written and recorded after the episode itself is recorded, and the process for writing dialogue can take days. DravenMario has stated in the past that he records his dialogue in the back seat of his car with blankets hanging next to the microphone for better noise cancellation and sound dampening. This process makes the timing of dialogue a bit of a challenge, and many lines have been cut from the series as a result of this.

The gameplay recordings are downscaled from 1080p to 720p during editing so that there is a slight anti-aliasing effect. After this, the dialogue recordings are added to the episode first. Once that is finalized, sound effects are added for realism. The two recordings mentioned earlier (one with the weapon up, the other with the weapon hidden) are switched between in accordance to either dialogue-based timing, or timing based on other factors. After the general editing is finished, some simple effects are added. These effects include a slight sharpening to preserve detail, and a slight bloom effect to make bright lights stand out. Once the episode is rendered, it is imported into Adobe After Effects for the addition of a per-pixel motion blur effect, then rendered for one last time.

The drawing of the End-Cards is done at random points during the production of an episode. For example, the End-Card for Episode 6 was created before the production had begun.

Creative Choices
Mind of Ryan differs from the traditional "Mind Series formula" in many ways, such as focusing more on realism than comedy, but the primary difference is the occasional inclusion of ambient music composed specifically for the series.

All music tracks used in the series so far can be found in this playlist here.

End-cards
DravenMario has set a goal to create a unique end-card for every single episode of Mind of Ryan. These end-cards are detailed drawings depicting a single event from the episode.

Trivia

 * Many aspects of the series are inspired by, and dedicated to the memory of, Lex Groh, the creator of Arlen's Mind, who passed away on August 4th, 2017.
 * The "H" in Ryan H. Sullivan stands for Harrison, which is a reference to the now-defunct Harrison's Mind.
 * The raccoon story told in Episode 1 was actually a true event that happened to DravenMario.
 * Ryan's old dorm area had no air-conditioning.
 * Around the time Episode 8 entered production, an unknown individual claimed that the series was cancelled. This was later proven to be false when DravenMario released this video.