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Emily Skaer

Motion Designer & Illustrator http://www.emjanedesign.com Brooklyn, NY Age 33 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

In college we had to do everything from welding to painting. I got into papercraft and pop-up books, which led to an interest in editing, then stop motion, and ultimately motion design.

What are some best practices you use today?

Always, always, always keep organized files.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

Hah! There is none. I am constantly working. If I really am stressed, I go for a run. I love what I do, so it's hard to stop.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

Being a cis, white person has definitely offered me advantages in the world that I would not have otherwise. It's my responsibility to now lift others outside of this privilege I have been given through no work of my own. 

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

It's something I am still trying to learn, because burn out is real. How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Security, happiness, and eventually helping others. My lifelong goal is to become a Creative Director or another higher level position, so I can foster voices that have been absent from the advertising/marketing world.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Get a mentor! And use your school's resources if you are in school. Make work for fun, and share talks about finances openly. A trick that was taught to me: ask people how much they were paid 5 years ago or so. Many people feel awkward about how much they are paid now, but past salaries people are usually more open about. Also, if you feel a workplace isn't working for you, leave, if you can. Often times toxic places won't change. Find allies at work. Being a freelancer can be great, if you have connections, because people look at you as an expert at what you do and potentially take advantage of you less than on staff. And the biggest piece of advice? People don't hire based on talent. They hire based on who they want to work with/who they like.

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Rachel Gitlevich

2D Character Designer and Animator http://www.vimeo.com/gitlevichr New York, NY Age 31 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I went to University of the Arts in Philly. My junior year I accompanied a tour to visit New York City studios. One of the ones we visited was Flickerlab, where one of the producers was a fellow alum. When frantically submitting for internships everywhere for the summer she was the only person to actually respond - and I got my first studio internship at Flickerlab! In hindsight...kind of alarming what I had to do...but at the time it was just what I needed. Trust from artists in my ideas and creative vision - projects/tasks to complete, and most importantly I met some great artists there! 

Fast forward three years into the future. I've been two years out of college and doing a lot of low/no paying animation gigs trying to beef out my resume while working two jobs. Remember those artists I connected with from my internship? One of them posted that they were looking for animators. This was posted on Wednesday. I messaged him saying I was interested. I called in sick on Thursday and went into NYC (without anyone knowing) to interview (I was still living in Philly at the time). I was hired on the spot and they asked if I could start Monday. Like a bandaid I ripped my whole life off and moved to the city in a weekend. Friend's of my father's gave me a place to stay for two weeks while I figured stuff out My boyfriend at the time (who got a job at Titmouse at the same time I got mine at Flickerlab and was currently living in North Carolina). His grandparents lived in North Jersey and let us move into their tiny spare bedroom. I was young, in love, and I got a break in my industry! Everything was ROSES. The gig at Flickerlab ended in three months, and Titmouse was looking for animators. My boyfriend put in a good word and I miraculously passed the most stressful animation test of my life (I've failed 3 animation tests before that, mind you). And somehow I was hired at Titmouse, where I've worked ever since!

What are some best practices you use today?

Be kind to my community. Organize fun events. Check in with my friends and coworkers. Be friendly! Attend film festivals, set up figure drawing sessions, value my rights as a worker! 

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

Hobbies. Writing. While people decompress by watching movies or playing video games I try to go outside and practice skills that have nothing to do with animation – fixing old boats, playing with dolls, blacksmithing, medieval re-enactment. Those are my anchors and give me things to look forward to when the monotony of animation grunt labor gets to be too much. 

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

My privilege was having a couch and a spare bedroom to crash on without paying for it. My privilege was having a loving boyfriend who fought for me to get a job at the studio he was in at the time. I had so much help getting in, so I do my damndest to pay it forward. I helped a handful of people get into Titmouse, I teach, I give career talks, and I take care of my community. 

If you are a caretaker, how do you arrange your life so that you can achieve your professional goals while being responsible for others, (parents, children, etc.)?

Not a caretaker. I grovel at the feet of caretakers working in this industry, for they are amazing. 

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

By quitting my full time job. I'm serious. I did a course of cognitive behavior therapy a few years ago that really helped me get my head back on straight. Now I'm doing a self-help course with a few close friends and physically carving out time for self-indulgence for myself with a goddamned spoon. I feel guilty, but I need this break. I'm teaching and doing freelance, so honestly I'm just as busy as I've been before, but I needed a lifestyle break. Its empowering to take your life into your hands and disengage from the system for a bit.  How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

My definition of success oscillates wildly between "having creative influence in my industry" and "My basic needs are met and I am not in survival mode, what more can I ask for?" 

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Don't. Stop. Making. Art. Ever. Once lost that momentum is nigh impossible to build back up again.  Life is weird. Take steps towards your dreams and unexpected doors will open for you. Follow your gut – if doing something fills you with butterflies and shortness of breath it is the direction you must go with! 

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Charlie Erholm

Freelance Motion Designer http://www.kinetickit.com/ Atlanta, GA Age 24 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

When I was 12, I downloaded some Pokemon episodes from the internet and started cutting them to different edgy songs I liked back in the day. It became a hobby of mine make "AMVs" and made me want to learn more effects, do more animation, and learn new programs. When I was 16, I first learned that digital art was a option in life, and I did everything I could to make it happen. I studied Motion Graphics at Savannah College or Art and Design, and after graduation I moved to Atlanta for an internship, and then a job. Now 2 and a half years later I am freelancing here!

What are some best practices you use today?

Time engagement! I'm still learning but knowing where and how much time to put into something is super important. 

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

I have a very interesting work life balance. Since I got into motion graphics as a hobby first, that hobby has never really left me, so even in my time off I am often doing things animation related in a way without meaning to – making my hobby and my work overlap quite a bit. 

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I go by Charlie. I have since I was a child, even though it’s not my legal name, it is on everything. Had many clients call and after hearing my voice realize I am female. I have also had some very supportive family members. My mom allowed me to go down this path of art and has been cheering for me the whole time

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

It’s different for everyone. Be happy with who you are and know your reason for working.  

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

It’s not easy! Put in everything you can to get the outcome you want. Take some of those jobs that seems like a waste. When you’re starting out anything can help. Makes lists, lot of lists: job listings, freelancer listings, to do lists. And just make stuff – keep making stuff. 

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Jennifer Schlichting

Animator + Illustrator https://www.jenniferschlichting.com/ Seattle, WA Age 32 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I always knew I wanted to do something with computers and art. I've always loved drawing but didn't know how to marry the two. When I was 8, Toy Story came out and it immediately captured my imagination. As I grew older and realized what it took to create something like that I dreamed about working at Pixar one day. Long story short, I went to The Art Institutes of Minnesota and got a Bachelor's in Media Arts & Animation (which is now closed it was such a joke of a school). While I was there from 2007-2009 we had a few classes that dabbled in 3D Studio Max and Maya. I got to dive into 3D which was great, but it was such a painful user experience it put a huge damper on my desire to create 3D animation work of any kind.

After graduating in 2009 I moved back to my hometown in Iowa and had a hard time finding creative work of almost any kind (shocker, it's IOWA haha). I took a job as a bank teller to pay the bills and married my "high school sweetheart." A few years later I landed a job at one of Nordstrom's photo studios as a photo retoucher and lived in Photoshop all day making models and clothes look impossibly perfect. I also took the odd business card or logo design gig that came my way and fed my soul creatively by taking up painting with watercolor.

After six years in an abusive marriage, living paycheck to paycheck, having a toxic work environment, and my creative soul dying more every day I finally got up the guts to put an end to all of it. I divorced my husband, quit my job, and took everything that could fit in my SUV (including my cat) on a three day road trip across the country to move out to Seattle. I only knew a handful of people and had no job lined up, but I had a place to live for free for two months while I figured out what the heck I was going to do with my life next. That was enough for me. 

I landed a contract job at Amazon doing basic graphic design work for the next 7 months and the pay was (just barely) enough to land my first studio apartment in Seattle. Knowing my contract would be coming to an end soon I was keeping my eye out for my next gig the entire time. Not knowing many people in Seattle (let alone the motion design community) made it really difficult to get in anywhere at first. I found a local Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D meetup group and started going every month to meet some of the community and pick their brains on how to break in. I started doing YouTube tutorials in my free time and revamping my portfolio.

One of the art directors at Amazon heard I was looking for my next gig and after she went through my portfolio with me she suggested that I read The 2 Hour Job Search. It gave great advice on how to get out of the black hole of submitting your job application online and never getting anywhere. I started going directly to people. My LinkedIn search began and the emails were flying out the door. I made a spreadsheet of all the studios in the greater Seattle area, what kind of work they did, the contacts I was making, what kind of jobs they were posting for, and got to work creating projects to put into my first reel since 2009. 

People were slowly starting to respond to my emails and accepting my offers to buy them coffee. I met so many lovely and helpful people (and a couple oddballs too haha). I asked what kind of work they were doing, how long their contracts usually were, what it was like to do animation work all day every day, what they were getting paid, and how tailoring their reel got them in the door doing the work they want to do.

One guy I met up with in particular (while I didn't know at the beginning of the conversation) was looking for a motion design intern to bring onto their small but mighty agency. By the end of our conversation he offered me the position! He had a passion for teaching and he could tell I was hungry to learn. While it didn't pay much, and was only a couple days a week I was able to put "motion design intern" on my resume while also working part-time doing graphic design work for a shoe and apparel company. I had just turned 30 and accepted an intern position, but was so thankful for company that didn't discriminate against age!

A few months later I heard back from a corporate telecommunications company I had applied to several months prior. They were interested in starting up an internal studio instead of outsourcing out all their work to agencies in town. I would be the first full-time creative on the team and had to be a unicorn. I knew a little video editing, some storyboarding, some motion design, some graphic design, and that was enough for them to offer me the position.

Fast forward two years and the team has grown to 20+ people and I've done everything from t-shirt design, graphic design, motion design, video editing, storyboarding, and deck design for massive conferences. It's not always fun or exciting animation work, but it pays the bills and afforded me a house in the crazy Seattle market.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

There have definitely been times when there are late nights at work but they seem to be fewer and farther between now that the studio is more established and they are working through better processes. I'm in by 9am and leave by 5pm most days. Weekend work is rare. We get two weeks paid vacation each year (and more the longer you stay with the company) as well. There is definitely more fun animation work in Seattle than what I'm doing currently but it's nice to have a steady paycheck and have time for personal projects on the side.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I'm a white female born into a Midwest middle class family in the United States. I have a Bachelor's degree which was paid for in-part by my parents but I carried student debt until 2018 (thanks to my abusive first marriage-my ex refused to work for several years and insisted his "business ideas" would make us millions one day). I got out of debt myself by pulling myself up by my own bootstraps. The college I went to was not a great one and have learned so much more on my own since graduating than I ever did in college. I went to college full-time and year-round to graduate faster while also holding down three part-time jobs to help pay for college. It also saved me a ton of money every month after moving in with my now husband and paying only partial rent in Seattle.

I've always had gumption and a stubborn, never-give-up attitude. I was taught at a young age that I had to take responsibility for myself and my future and took that seriously. My parents weren't thrilled I wanted to go to an art college (and they had two more kids to put through college as well) but made a deal if I wanted to go I had to pay my own way. They took out the loan for me, but I paid it all back. I didn't have any scholarships but I made it work. I think it helped that I attended community college for two years before I transferred to The Art Institute and that lowered the tuition bill because of all the general education classes I took beforehand.

If you are a caretaker, how do you arrange your life so that you can achieve your professional goals while being responsible for others, (parents, children, etc.)?

My husband was a package deal and came with twin 9-year-old boys. We have them for a full week every other week. I'm not going to lie – it's a lot, even having them for an entire week haha! My husband and I both work full time but he has more flexibility when it comes to start/end times for his day and working from home. He drops the boys off and picks them up from school/daycare/camps/appointments/swim lessons/ etc. 

The weeks we don't have the boys we spend our nights and weekends taking care of housework and building our portfolios (he's a creative as well). We are also trying to be more aware of how we spend our time and shift more of it towards self-care and doing more fun things together vs. the never-ending "to-do" list all the time.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

This is something I'm still working on, haha! My husband does a great job reminding me to take time for myself, and we love to go out to eat, go to the beach, go for a hike, get massages, or paint and draw together. I've also recently swapped my hour+ commute to work where I would drive myself through Seattle traffic with now taking a corporate shuttle in. This has given me so much of my time back where I can read, draw on my iPad, or catch up on my favorite YouTubers.

I also love painting in my downtime (http://www.jenniferelizabethstudios.com/) which gives me a wonderful break from all the screen time and let's my hands do something tactile. There's no undo button with watercolors and I've accepted that and turned it into a more "zen-like experience" where I try not to control everything haha.

Just getting outside and into nature can be so refreshing. Even if it's a ten minute walk outside on my lunch break can do wonders for my mood. That, and getting 7-8 hrs of sleep/night! Oh, and making sure to take lunch breaks AWAY FROM MY DESK.

And snuggling with my purring cat never fails to make me feel better no matter what's going on in my life.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Being happy and fulfilled with the life you're living. I've always liked the quote "Create a life you don't need a vacation from." Which, may be difficult to do but I think it's definitely something to aim towards.

Success isn't all dollar signs, but getting paid what I'm worth is definitely a win for me. Plus it's always nice being able to take people out to dinner and buy them nice Christmas presents. :)

On another note, I always feel successful when other people reach out wanting to chat and hear about my experience thus far. Whether it's people looking to shift gears slightly or change career tracks entirely it always makes me feel happy and successful when I can help someone out with any lessons or things I've learned along the way.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Take advantage of all the resources online! There was almost none of that ten years ago when I was starting out.

Don't be afraid to reach out to people. You never know where it'll lead. :)

Leave your ego at the door and don't be a jerk. Nobody wants to work with a jerk.

Never stop learning.

Look for jobs with titles other than "motion designer." Currently my title is "Communication Design Manager". LOL . Read the job descriptions to see if there will be animation work involved! Sometimes companies don't know what to call us.

Some great inspirational and informational resources to check out:

-Design for Motion: Fundamentals and Techniques of Motion Design by Austin Shaw

-The Freelance Manifesto: A Field Guide for the Modern Motion Designer

-The 2-Hour Job Search

-Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins

-Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

-Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in that order) by Bridget Quinn

-The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

-In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney

-Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

-Creative Pep Talk by Andy Miller

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Amanda Moody

Motion Graphic Artist https://www.behance.net/amandamoody Maryland (DC suburbs-ish) Age 29 She/They

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I graduated from Savannah College of Art and design with a BFA Animation in 2011. Afterwards I applied to over 100 jobs... and spend the next 2 years underemployed and in a pretty crappy spot – bouncing between seasonal jobs in tourism and hustling on Fiverr.com to make...SOME money doing art.

My final seasonal job – an usher in a baseball park – wound up being my first big motion graphics opportunity. I convinced the owner of the team into allowing me to intern with the live video team creating motion graphics for use during the games. 

After my internship I had a junior-level reel, and I started applying for jobs aggressively again, but switched my tactics this time to be mostly smaller motion graphics and broadcast design studios – places I wasn’t aware of when I graduated. Eventually, I nabbed a job as a Junior Motion Graphics Artist at Image Factory DC in Silver Spring, Maryland. I packed up and moved, and haven’t looked back, not to Florida or the dream of doing 3-D feature animation.

I worked at Image Factory DC for 2.5 years creating motion graphics for clients like Nat Geo, Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, TLC, AHC, Velocity, Animal Planet, PBS, Thomson-Reuters and HP.  

I was let go from Image Factory in 2016, which was a huge blow. And for a time I thought I might have to pack up and go back to Florida.

After a short stint as a full time freelancer, I did find another job in the DC area doing mograph for an FAA contractor. It was boring, and the commute was horrible, so I left after a year.

Currently I work at ICF Next, both animating and leading others to create a wide range of video and web graphics for clients in government, utilities, and commercial work.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Having enough money from my day-job to maintain my lifestyle, health, and afford pet-rent and get a dog! (I really REALLY want a dog).

I also view success as having enough time to create my own personal projects- whether or not they reach a large audience. If they do that’s great, but that part isn’t something I use as a metric for success for my own sake. Just finishing them is a huge success in my book!

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

This is something I struggle with. I take on extra freelance to have a bit more money, and it very much affects my personal life and schedule. I’m not in a place where I feel comfortable turning down freelance.

I’m lucky enough to have a job and a boss that respect the 40hr salaried work-week, so it’s not often that it bleeds over into my personal time. I do occasionally stay late during ‘light’ weeks to develop skills in new areas- something I do both to stay competitive on the job market, and because 3-D is fun and I don’t have an awesome computer at home.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I went to SCAD with a full ride scholarship. I was able to start off my career on a much better foot financially than many of my peers.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Make opportunities where you can, whenever you can- No matter how small they may seem!

My entire career was started by badgering a rich guy and making terrible sports graphics. Opportunities are what you make of them.  

Don’t let yourself get caught up in the trap of envying others- we each go at our own pace to what we define as success.  

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Marcie LaCerte

Animator, video journalist, struggling independent filmmaker marslizard.net/ New York, NY Age 24 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

Studied 2D animation in art school after a brief stint in psychology. Moved in New Jersey after graduating in an attempt to jumpstart a studio career. Studios weren’t interested, and I was having a hard time getting freelance work, so I applied for an internship at NPR in New York. Learned motion graphics on the job (after doing a bit of mograph freelance prior) and started gaining interest in video journalism (by way of spending a lot of time on YouTube). After the internship, I applied for a job as an animator/video journalist at Quartz, which is where I work today!

Also, I made a short film during a phase of unemployment, which got me both attention/validation and freelance work! Very much recommend personal films.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

This is something I struggle with. I’m happiest at work when I’m able to express myself, but that doesn’t always save me a lot of energy for personal work. But even if my energy wanes, I try to save a part of my mental space for personal work. I interchange between casually working in my sketchbook and making short films.

I also balance intake with production. I spend a lot of time (maybe too much) rummaging through the internet for inspiration, making mood boards and collecting knowledge.

My social life is chill and low-key—I see friends about once a week, and I’m lucky to have friends at work who I can hang out with. To relax and refuel, I watch old movies, go to improv shows, and eat lots of food.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I do not have any debt—my parents paid off all my loans after graduating (and after I convinced them that I could make a living off of art). I also didn’t pay full tuition, as I received a scholarship. Right after graduating, my parents fully subsidized my living costs (rent and food) for about three months while I looked for work.

Apart from that, I grew up affluent. Lots of opportunities for both education and play. Took a few unpaid internships during college because I didn’t need extra income.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

I’m not the best at this. My lifestyle alternates between extreme bouts of productivity and extreme laziness. I try to do something creative every day, which staves off guilt. Peak self-care for me is listening to philosophy podcasts, reading graphic novels, collaging, drawing, and eating a plate of mangoes. Physically, I have a hard time with self-care and sort of rely on those around me to remind me when I need to take better care of myself. Basically, I’m a baby, and I have no idea what I’m doing.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

If you’re in school: take advantage of literally every single opportunity! Go to class, experiment with different mediums, attend lectures, learn everything, try things you don’t think you’ll like, talk to weird people, embrace the full spectrum of the human experience. Make your favorite teachers your mentors. Make zines. Go to figure drawing classes. Relish the art school bubble.

If you’ve just graduated: keep on making personal work. Try really, really hard to make personal work. The artistic community you might’ve taken for granted while in school gets much harder to come by once you leave, so maintain those connections and establish new ones. If you can’t find work, move to a big city. Be patient with yourself, but take risks. (This paragraph is more a reminder to myself than anything else.)

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Laura Porat

Freelance Motion Graphics Designer lauraporat.com Los Angeles, CA Age 24 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

Ever since I was a kid, I was always being creative. I asked for papers and markers for every birthday and Hanukkah. I would spend hours in front of the TV drawing whatever came to my mind.

Throughout my childhood, my mom was very supportive of my artistic endeavors and signed me up for art lessons and I took a stop motion class one summer. When it came to applying for colleges, my mom encouraged me to major in animation. I went to Emerson College which is a small film school in Boston.

Life at Emerson College was unique as they place a lot of emphasis on extracurriculars so I joined clubs where I designed and animated things. I soon got the reputation for being one of the few animators on campus so students would seek me out for my animation skills. I got an internship at a post-production studio after my sophomore year of college which is where I was forced to learn After Effects on a much deeper level. I fell in love. I had a few different internships in college which made me realize that I wanted to be a full-time motion graphics designer.

After I graduated, I landed my first freelance role at a small virtual reality company in Burbank. I freelanced steadily for a few months until all of a sudden, I could not find any work at all. I spent the entire summer making no money. I was desperate to find a full-time job at a studio but everyone wanted someone who was older and had more experience.

Then, out of the blue, I received a phone call the night of Yom Kippur. My family is pretty religious so I had to lock myself in the bathroom and conduct this phone call in secrecy. It was from a producer who needed an animator starting the following Monday. I immediately accepted. I ended up working at that creative agency, InSync Plus, for a year where I honed and crafted my skills. I learned the workflows for animation and what it was like working in a team. It was a great experience. After a year of working there, I felt confident enough about my portfolio and skills that I decided to quit to rejoin freelancing full-time. I haven't looked back.

Since entering the freelance world, I've had the opportunity to create designs and animations for the NBA, Snapchat, Live Nation, and so on. I've gotten to work with amazing studios and clients. I get to determine my own schedule and choose the projects I work on.

What are some best practices you use today?

I am always looking for inspiration from different sources. I love watching movies, I read books, I go to museums, I travel, I take improv comedy classes and so on. I study and observe people around me. All of this influences the work that I do. It's so important to not just look to other motion designers for inspiration but to look outside. This leads to a great diversity of work and better results.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

Self-care is incredibly important in our field. We're pressured to constantly create content for others to consume. It can be very easy to fall in the trap of "oh well, I have to make something today or else it hasn't been a productive day." That mentality is so dangerous. If you don't feel like creating something, don't force yourself. See a movie, take a walk, go outside of your office or studio.

I participate in a kickball league so I get exercise at least once a week. I also plan for vacations where I don't do any work whatsoever on the vacations. Even if it's just a staycation, it's important to take plenty of breaks. That way, I come back to work re-energized and recharged.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

There is no "correct" way of entering this field. You don't need to go to a fancy art school. Youtube, Lynda, etc have excellent online resources for learning.

Be active in your local motion graphics community. Go to meet ups and make friends! Don't go in there expecting something from someone. Just go to meet ups with a positive attitude and the mentality of learning about other people. I've gotten a lot of gigs from friends who have been too busy with work so they pass the project on to me.

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO POST YOUR WORK ON SOCIAL MEDIA! This is the biggest killer I see in artists. They're too afraid to post their work because they don't think it's good enough. Chances are, someone else will see it and really like it. Social media is a fantastic way of getting potential clients or even making friends. It costs $0 to post your work on Instagram, Twitter, Behance, and so on.

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Angie Taylor

Motion Designer, Animator, Author, Educator www.behance.com/AngieTaylor Brighton, UK Age 54 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I graduated with a degree in Sculpture, drawing and humanities from EDINBURGH College of art in 1996. When I left, I thought, “what the **** can I do with a sculpture degree? I’d have loved to just be an artist, but I needed to make money. I had nothing. My choices, in terms of making money quickly were; make gravestones. Or become a prop-maker, I chose the latter.

I moved to London and began my prop-making career in the TV and film industry in 1987. I started freelancing and then got a full-time job making food props for TV and film - anything from non-melting ice cream and chocolate to pigs on spits, lobsters and pizzas. We made props for all sorts of amazing productions including Aardman Animations and the BBC. It was fun figuring out how to make stuff look real but I soon got bored recreating reality. I preferred the idea of surreal.

In my spare time I was deejaying in London’s punk clubs and gay clubs. I met lots of creative people in these nightclubs including; Heaven, FF, Turnmills, The Fridge, The Bell. When I was deejaying I attended a music and technology course to learn about Sampling and sequencing. We used Cubase version 1.0 on Amiga computers. There was also a copy of Deluxe Paint on there and I started playing with it during breaks. I’d make little cycling color animations.

I wanted to do more but I couldn’t afford to buy a computer at the time. My Dad had a Sinclair Spectrum and had the Hobbit game on it. I borrowed that when I could. I loved the idea of sequencing images and storytelling, it really excited me.

One day, when I was dropping off props at the BBC, I saw somebody using a very early beta version of Photoshop1. I thought “I want to do that!”. I realised I needed to make big changes for this to happen. I gave up prop-making and became a full-time Deejay in order to save to buy a computer.

In 1993 I met my wife, Jo. When we got together we spoke about our life goals. We both agreed that we needed a change. So we left London and moved to EDINBURGH. Jo loves books took a job as manager of a big, family-run book shop. I couldn’t find any courses on computer graphics so I enrolled in a course in traditional graphic design and another in IT - just to get access to computers.

The Graphic design course was very traditional - there were no computers. We had to use Letteraset to lay out text. We would enlarge text in a Grant Projector. It was a great course, I loved it. The IT course was also good, I learned the beauty of spreadsheets (no, I’m not joking!)

I also wrote my first tutorial on that course - teaching other students how to copy and paste images into their documents and make screenshots. There was a copy of Corel Draw on the computers. I learned it inside out. But I wanted something more. When I finished the course I was a bit unsure about which direction to turn.

Then one day I went to a party at a neighbours house. He had an Apple Macintosh Classic. I knew these were the dream of every graphic designer so I asked him whether I should get a PC (which I’d learned on) or a Mac.

“Ooh! Get a Mac!” He replied. “I work for a company called Adobe. If you get a Mac, I’ll get you a copy of Photoshop to help you get started”. I wasn’t really aware of who Adobe were but I’d seen Photoshop and was so grateful to him for this offer. I really don’t know where my career would be today without that lucky break. (Thanks Rory!)

So I saved, and saved, the bought myself my first computer. It was an Apple Power Macintosh 8500. He brought me a lovely, new, cellophane-wrapped copy of Photoshop 3. I watched a free video tutorial that was on the installation CD by the amazing Russell Brown. I thought, “this is what I want to do!”

As a thank you to my friend, I made him a card. I took a picture of his new-born baby. I scanned it, added a Mohawk hairstyle, tattoos saying “Mum” and “Dad” on her knuckles, and a leather jacket. All done in Photoshop. He was blown away with what I’d done. He asked me to come and show people at Adobe how I’d done it. As a result of this, Adobe asked me to do some Photoshop demos at a trade show in Amsterdam called CGIX. That’s when I first saw After Effects. It was version 2.0, it was love at first sight! I’ve been in love ever since!

My friend, Rory, got me a copy of After Effects and I was obsessed! I got myself the Total AE by Total Training course and watched it back to back, at least twice. Brian Maffitt is still the best After Effects teacher IMHO. I practiced for about 6 months, 12 hours a day while my lovely partner earned a daily income. I also started doing more demo work for Adobe. Doing After Effects demos as well as Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere. But that wasn’t earning me enough and I really wanted to get into motion graphics.

I sent letters to about 40 production companies telling them I had a home setup to create motion graphics with After Effects and could be employed on a freelance basis. This was 1996, in those days most people laughed if you suggested using AE for TV graphics or animation. Luckily one person gave me an opportunity. He was interested in new technology and ran a business called Atacama Films (www.atacamafilms.co.uk) making films for museums. So I got my first AE job doing graphics on a film for the Cook Museum in Middlesbrough. From there things slowly grew by osmosis.

I worked for about 20 years, freelancing for other companies and directors. In between jobs I was still doing demo work at trade shows and events for Adobe, Wacom and Apple. I was lucky enough to work with great some great directors, including Chris Cunningham and John Williams. I also worked on projects with great artists and musicians such as; The Slits, Beck, Joan Armatrading. I produced motion graphics for the BBC, Channel 4 and other TV and film companies.

However being a designer didn’t come naturally to me. I was trained as a fine artist so loved to experiment and hated having to constrain my ideas to please clients - I found this to be very restrictive. The stuff I liked was not really inline with the latest design trends which I found to be boring and formulaic. I have never enjoyed creating stuff that looks like everyone else’s. It’s like fashion, I’ve never understood why everyone would want to look the same as each other! This is possibly due to my ADHD and Autism Spectrum Condition. I was diagnosed with these at the age of 54.

During my career I wrote a few books on After Effects and motion graphic design and I began making video tutorials. I enjoyed this creative process more than the work itself. I love helping other people come up with ideas and helping them to solve problems. This was always the stage of design projects I was best at. I find it very hard to focus on the fine-tuning aspects of the job! I need challenges to keep me motivated.

Another thing that motivated me was my negative experiences at art school. I found that it really knocked my confidence and had a detrimental effect on my creativity. Before art school I drew constantly. But art school instilled in me a worry that I was not good enough. That feeling has never left me. Because of this I possibly avoid doing my own work. Teaching others is a great way of doing this!

So I gave up freelancing in 2013 to pursue a career in education. I now run my own business. A private art school called Creative Cabin on the south coast of England, near Brighton. I offer people bespoke, one-to-one tuition as an alternative to traditional art school education. People come to the Cabin and I help them with their creative projects. I hope to inspire them in the career they desire. It’s very rewarding. I also provide “Creative Escapes” - retreat vacations for creative people where they can learn drawing skills, make sculpture, forage and cook wild foods and relax in our beautiful, cliff-top woodlands. I also offer a mentorship service to clients.

Writing books was a struggle for me due to my dyslexia, whips is often comorbid with ADHD. So I started creating video tutorials with a company called Video2brain. They were bought by Lynda.com, who were, in turn, bought by LinkedIn. So my tutorials can now be seen on LinkedIn Learning.

I’ve also struggled throughout my life with anxiety and depression. These conditions are very common in those with undiagnosed ADHD and Autism Spectrum Condition. As a result have probably never achieved as much as I had hoped to. I also had to stop travelling for work due to physical issues associated with these conditions.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

I’ve always put home and family first so have turned down a few opportunities that could have taken me away from home. But all in all, I’m happy now to teach other people how to do the work that I love. To be honest, I find it more rewarding than actually doing the work myself. I was never satisfied with what I created anyway!

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

My ADHD and Autism have pros and cons. I think my total obsession with After Effects, Illustrator and Cinema 4D are the pros. The cons are that I find it difficult to communicate with other people in a conventional way. I find it easier to get up on stage and do a demo for 500 people than I do having a two way conversation with a client. Funnily enough I’m fine when it comes to training on a 1-2-1 basis - that’s when I’m at my most happy. I have difficulty networking with people. I used to cope with alcohol and drugs. But now that I’m sober, I have to limit the stress in my life. So working from my home based studio, Creative Cabin, with my dog, Elsie, by my side, is where I’m happiest.

As I said,I’ve had a few lucky breaks along the way. Who knows what would have happened without them. My books on After Effects helped me get to the stage where I could get a mortgage and eventually buy our house with the Cabin next door, which I converted into a training studio.

I couldn’t have learned as much as I did without the friendship and help I received from the amazing After Effects community back in the 1990’s. I was part of the IMUG and subscribed to the wonderful Media Motion email user group. It’s was so open and everyone shared everything. There I met lifelong “industry friends’ like Trish and Chris Meyer, Brian Maffitt, Paul Tuersley, Steve Forde, Mark Coleran, Mark Harrison, Philip Hodgetts, Peder Norby, Pete Litwinowicz, Amacker Bullwinkle, Tim Clapham, Simon Harper and others too numerous to mention. We’d meet up at trade shows and seminars where we’d talk about nothing other than technology and animation - That’s the only thing I miss about my old life - the people.

But over the years I’ve learned how important it is to take care of yourself and those closest to you. I always found the traveling hard and stressful. To cope I would drink alcohol. I’d get home from a trip feeling exhausted, emotional and unhealthy. I put on weight and ended up with back and knee issues. Partly from too much sitting at a desk. I have a sit/stand desk so vary my working position as much as possible. I use a Salli swing, saddle chair which has really helped my back.

In terms of keeping well. I see a personal trainer  and a psychotherapist once a week. I cycle everywhere and I swim as much as possible. My best friend is my dog, Elsie. A rescued Staffie-Patterdale (Stafferdale) cross who I walk every day. For my mental health I do mindfulness mediation and listen to inspiring podcasts from the Audio Dharma website.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Success in life is being content and being around those you love. If you can leave something behind that inspires or changes the lives of others, that’s great. But if not, that’s fine too. Just being human is difficult enough. Be easy on yourself and enjoy the life you have.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

To those who are starting out today I’d say, pick one thing and focus on it. Don’t be persuaded into becoming a multi-tasker like I did, it will only dilute your talents and prevent you from focussing. If you want to learn something don’t use Google or YouTube tutorials. Do a properly structured course that will teach you the fundamentals and principles as well as the cool techniques. And look after your body and mind. You don’t have to crumble before you learn that your health is the most important asset you possess.

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Angela Gigica

Freelance Graphic and Motion Designer, Art Director, Animator, Illustrator www.afoxonabox.com London, UK Age 38

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I have an education background in fine arts and applied textile arts. After getting my degree in Textile and Decorative Arts (specialising in woven textiles) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, I started an MA in Art and Design with the same university. I needed to get more financially independent so I took on a part-time job as an intern with a small local graphic design agency. Having knowledge of colour theory, history of art and design, layout and composition, as well as drawing was a tremendous help. But I had to learn the software: Macromedia Fireworks, Freehand, a little bit of Flash and then discovered Photoshop too. I didn’t even own a computer at the time (we’re talking late ‘90’s early 2000’s), but I spent a lot of time learning about the use of typography, paying attention to posters and print in general, and looking at websites anywhere I could get access to a PC.

I completed the second year of my MA with a postgrad course at West Dean College, in South of England, where I received a scholarship (for which I will be forever grateful) from the Edward James Foundation.

That year at West Dean was fantastic in terms of creativity and exploration; I visited London regularly for exhibitions and inspiration. I loved the buzz of this immense city and the opportunities that it promised.

Despite the amazing year I had at West Dean, I knew that my chances of making a living as a fine artist in London were almost null. I had no safety net, not many contacts or rich parents I could ask help from. I applied to every entry level graphic design job I could possibly find offline and online, putting forward my best work from the experience I had the years before as an intern (designing sites and retouching photos).

I eventually landed my first official motion design job (it was for a very junior design assistant job) in TV for an international news channel. The contract was actually for a job in the Middle East, but I had to work my 3-month probation period at the London office and then move with the rest of the design team to Qatar. Getting the temporary visa and work permission for those 3 months in UK was incredibly stressful.

I learnt After Effects on the job and in my spare time mainly, and I loved it. I was doing Total Training tutorials at home (not so many resources available online back then), I also had senior designers with vast TV experience to learn from, and get to ask questions.

After I finished my two year contract in Qatar, quite burnt-out, fed-up with the working culture in news TV and very keen to move away from what became a rather toxic environment, I moved to Bucharest - Romania. Here I joined a lovely local boutique ad agency for almost one year as an Art Director.

I missed doing motion design though to the point where I would imagine how the branding proposals, or print layouts would work as animations. I then found out one of my TV news projects (from the previous job) won a BDA Bronze award in New York (I was never credited for it, another male designer from the team was credited instead). This really gave me confidence, my work wasn’t rubbish after all, as I was made to think at the time. So I decided to give motion design another try. I moved to London in 2009, and again, went through the ‘joys’ of getting the highly skilled migrant status sorted.

It all worked out in the end and after several permanent jobs with agencies and other broadcasters, I am still here freelancing and navigating my way through the maze of jobs and clients.

What are some best practices you use today?

- Keeping in touch with former colleagues and collaborators, as you never know when they might need a designer again in their new jobs.  

- Keeping my projects tidy, even if I don’t hand them over to other teams. I know I might want to refer back to a technique and having to deal with a messy project (even if my own) drives me mad.

- Before I start panicking about any project feedback, I take a deep breath read it again slowly and then pick up the phone or go in person to talk things over. It’s never as bad as you initially think, or as you interpret it on a first reading.

- Making time for self-development and learning, either via a course or tutorials, or a personal project. It all feeds into my daily work and my growth as a professional designer/animator depends on it.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Being successful for me means I get to work and get paid a decent wage for doing what I love, not spending my life working but working to make a living.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

Taking time off when you freelance can be tough. You don’t want to miss out on that next gig. And when you run your own business there is always something to do, and it can be very hard to switch off. I book my holidays in advance. I then book work around it.

I like to set boundaries and define my working hours clearly from the beginning in each job. I now know that I need time to recharge, and move away from the screens.

When I have a few dry weeks I use that time to workout (yoga or pilates) and spend time outdoors (with or without my partner), or visiting family or friends.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I was privileged in the sense that in Romania I benefited from free education, including the university. I also grew up in a loving and supportive family. The best thing which I can now appreciate, is that I didn’t leave education and start my working life with a huge amount of debt (which is what happens to students in the UK, and the US as far as I know)

We all have our limitations and challenges and we work around these parameters I suppose. For me some of these limitations were the cultural challenges, the language barrier to a certain degree, the lack of work experience in the UK, and the fact that I am woman (worked this one out quite late to be fair).

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

- Try different things before you settle into a specialty.

- Be reliable.

- Be honest with yourself, be kind to others and yourself, share your passion and knowledge.

- Don’t be afraid to change direction or say no to certain things if they are not what you thought they would be initially.

[momentumgo]

Arielle Ray

Motion graphics journalist/Art Director www.arielleray.com/ New York, NY

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

My start in motion graphics was definitely odd; I didn’t really know it was a job that you could have. In high school I knew that animation was a profession and that I could work at Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network or Disney, but that seemed impossible to achieve. I’ve always liked to draw but not THAT much. I didn’t have a stellar art portfolio (mine was pretty mediocre because I didn’t have a style or apply myself) and I knew I needed a scholarship if I wanted to stay out of debt. I was also a little be terrified of the perceived impracticality of art school (my whole family is in STEM), so I ended up going a more academic route.

I ended up in a Visual Journalism program with a double major in English Literature and an Art Minor within the communications school. While there I slowly gravitated towards all of the design classes, and I thought I would end up in infographics/dataviz or doing editorial layouts online.The project that landed me in motion graphics was part of an independent study. I was supposed to be building a whole interactive site based on census data to showcase my dataviz skills...then the government shutdown happened. Fun fact, no government, no census data. So my professor told me that the science department needed an educational video aimed at middle/late elementary schoolers about aphids.

It was 5 minutes long and completely illustrated. It honestly looked like a highly animated powerpoint. My professor didn’t know how to use After Effects and neither did I. I had no idea how to parent or pre-comp things, and I think I just did a crash course in Lynda tutorials and selective googling.The project has over 200 unparented layers in one very long comp. There is no easing and the aphid has the weirdest, wobbliest walk ever. There were tears. It ended up being oddly charming though, so I got an A in the class.

Early career: I moved to NY the summer after college for a paid internship at a magazine. I was the art department intern and mostly ended up digitizing archival photos. I used my extra time to brush up my portfolio and do personal projects so I would be job-ready. I dropped off my resume at a few booths at a journalism career fair (pro tip: designers, make your resume super extra. Have a designed version and a Microsoft Word version, you’ll stand out that way) and I got a call back from the Wall Street Journal. Based on my wonky aphid video I got hired as a video department “illustration” intern doing day turn around, graphics-forward news videos. I spent a lot of time making assets, and then slowly began to edit entire videos. When I was hired on as a staff member, I made 1.5-4 minute explainer videos on everything from opioids to ISIS to Hamilton. I now work for Quartz, another media outlet and I art direct for the video department, do a lot of branding work as well as occasionally writing reporting and producing my own videos.

I use basically all of the skills that I learned in college, my English Lit major helps when writing scripts, I use my journalism background when interviewing people and doing research, my fine arts background comes in handy when it comes to illustration, my graphic design background helps with composition, art direction and color theory.

I’ve never freelanced and just moved from journalism outfit to journalism outfit doing motion graphics and I feel like I stumbled into the perfect career. I get a ton of freedom in that my team kind of lets me animate what I want, and I don’t have brand guidelines or a client brief to follow. That being said, the story is always king in journalism, so my visuals will always take a backseat to the reporting and changing timelines are common. The script/voice over is never truly locked. Your animation can get cut and it doesn’t matter how hard you worked on it or how much you love it.

I’m also on staff, and that comes with stability and health insurance and I really love that. I think I could ultimately push myself to be more creative and make more money if I freelanced, but I am very risk averse and cannot handle living in a city as expensive as NY without a steady paycheck.

At the end of the day, I really love my job, and I feel very successful doing what I’m doing. I don’t know if I’ll ever have time to produce Motionographer level work, or do a short film, but I feel creatively fulfilled and am really proud of a lot of my work.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I was lucky enough to go to high school in a place that allowed for a lot of AP classes so I started college with a bunch of credits, allowing me to finish a double major and minor in 4 years. Those AP classes also got me a scholarship and between that and my parents help, I didn’t have to take out any loans. I worked some to take care of minor living expenses but because I was financially secure, I could choose jobs that helped my design skills and I took on 3 unpaid summer internships. I landed my internship through an alumni of my college, and that internship paid me a lump sum that covered my living expenses. I would not have taken the NYC leap without the money. My parents stopped supporting me when I moved to NY but I always knew I could move back home.

Starting out in journalism is a bit rough, and it is very, very hard to do if you have debt. You are expected to work 10-14 hour days on an intern’s salary (sometimes minimum wage) for that 3-6 months, and you are also expected to be grateful to be there. From there, there is often another level of indentured servitude called a fellowship, where you are paid under $45k (sometimes as low as $30k) and locked into that for a year. After that you have to hope you do a good enough job for that outlet to hire you/or that the outlet has the budget to bring on another staff member (they often don’t).

I was able to skip the fellowship stage but was still being paid a fellowship salary. The benefit was, I was able to negotiate a slightly better salary within 6 months. I would not be able to have reach where I am without my parents’ financial help in college, and I would not have taken such risks if I had debt.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

I don’t know that I would want to do mograph without the journalism, but I also wouldn’t necessarily advise getting into journalism. You have to really, really love it. I personally do love my career and feel extremely fulfilled by it. I love that I have so much control over my work and sometimes tackle subjects that really make a difference, and I’m constantly intellectually and creatively stimulated. I also wonder if staying in journalism is worth it. Layoffs are always imminent and getting paid what you’re worth is a constant political game of competing offers and posturing. You can never really look past the next 6 months for guarantees. Unfortunately, journalism is a contracting industry and in New York City there are a million new Columbia grads every year who would be very willing to replace you for pennies. A graphics background makes you special, but not special enough to make you irreplaceable.

In your design work, be flexible, be multidisciplinary, and don’t be intimidated by other people’s work. Figure out that unique thing that you bring to the table and don’t be afraid to volunteer for things that are only tangentially related to what you do, you’ll be amazed what you can learn in the process. Don’t be afraid of negative feedback, it’ll make you better, but also don’t take it completely to heart. Communication is key, and that, more than software and design skills will make you invaluable to your team.

[momentumgo]

Lizz Kupfer

Animation Tech Lead San Francisco, CA She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I started my animation career by attending an art school for college. My intentions when I started my education at SVA in NY was to get into games and work in level designs. But when I started, the small subset that I was interested in in the Computer Art department, wound up being eliminated, so like most people, I slightly freaked and then pivoted. I was going to a school that was very expensive and on student loans that I knew one day I would have to pay back. I wasn’t going to waste time and transfer to another department or school who may have had a stronger gaming geared department, I was going to take the resources at hand and make it work. I had a goal of graduating in 4 years, transferring may have hampered that goal and I was determined not to spend more on my education than I needed.

I took classes and found ways to see what I liked best in each class. This lead me to a conclusion: I really liked animating 3D characters. Even if I did not work in games, this new idea was a great stepping stone into multiple different industries that had disciplines in 3d.

Both my parents were very supportive, my dad a bit more than my mom, when I made the decision to go to art school.

After graduating with a BFA in Computer Art, I wound up permalancing and freelancing in NYC as a generalist. I really wanted to focus on character animation, but I also had to pay bills, one of which was some hefty student loans. I was lucky. My parents took out a ParentPlus loan for part of my freshman year. Going to a private college wasn’t really what they thought I should be doing, but there are very few public or state colleges with a program I was looking for. The rest of my student loans my grandmother co-signed in order for me to qualify for them. My first payments wound up being around $1200 a month, not to mention living expense. I was also lucky to be able to live at home for a few years.

After a couple of years of generalist gigs, I started really pushing towards characters again. What helped me stay pretty open was also taking gigs with softwares I wasn’t completely fluent in. One of my first permalancing jobs I learned how to use 3 different compositing softwares, tracking software, a different 3d program that I was not familiar with at all, and honing my skills with familiar softwares as well. Another studio I applied to work at wound up using motion capture, which I understood how it worked, but never actually got to work with it. They were willing to teach me and so I took a lower rate than I should have, but learned a great deal. There I met some great friends and one new friend had a lead on project that sounded right up my alley, and was in an industry I had wanted to get into from the get go: video games.

What are some best practices you use today?

‘Work smarter, not harder.’ It’s super cliche, but it’s the truth. Sometimes you have to get into the muck and deal with stuff, but if there is time to plan, plan. If there is time to troubleshoot and find a simpler way to get something done, do that research. If you need to hire on someone to get to the finish line, don’t wait til the last moment. And don’t over promise what you can accomplish. I always think things thru, and put buffers into how long it will take to complete a task. Sometimes I’m dead on, and sometimes I’m way off. I’m not perfect, but technical issues aside, I’m pretty forward with what I think can or can’t be accomplished in time. And if someone says something I don’t agree with, I’ve been known to put my foot down and say how it is. (not my favorite part, but you gotta do what you gotta do.)

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Success, to me, is doing something I love and getting paid for it. What better job could there be? I’d probably do this for free if I didn’t need to pay bills and retire one day. Success means doing something I’m good at and enjoying the work, even if it sometimes isn’t the greatest project or a game I might not play. It also means getting paid what I’m worth. There have been times where I’ve talked to colleagues and nothing is worse than realizing someone who has less experience or isn’t as good as you or other team members is getting paid the same as you or more. It’s like a punch to the gut. Does that mean that whoever hired me for this project values my input less because they didn’t offer more or they offered the same pay to someone who has several years less experience than me? I don’t have the answer to that. But it’s something I’ve had to deal with, and the best I could do was walk away from that project and team knowing I’m worth much more.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

The eternal struggle of knowing when to leave work at work, and when you need to get something done. I have moments where I’m not good at balancing my personal life with my work life. Many of my friends work in similar fields and I’ve met many of my friends thru work. I make an effort to work out to stay healthy (sitting all day doesn’t really help and the sedentary lifestyle is not kind to your body).

I’ve crossed over into a few different work environments. Commercial, TV, Video Games. They all have issues with ‘work/life balance’ and not only with one gender. I wound up seeing both men and women trying to prove to someone how serious they were about a job. It meant giving up time with their families to work longer hours. I see it games more than others, but it’s also because that’s where I’ve mostly been. Ask anyone in VFX if they work long hours and you will most likely get a resounding yes.

We all have this huge problem because the system has a problem. Work is inevitably going to get in the way, it’s more about how much you are going to let it. I had a moment at a studio where I had to suddenly take a few days because of personal family issues. I let work know that the day I had been booked I could no longer come in. I informed people on my team the day before and let them know I would be able to do the long hours next week or that evening, but the following day I needed off. We were always chasing deadlines. Me failing to come in would be hard, but it shouldn’t have been earth shattering to them. That’s how it felt and they all let me know how they felt. I got the rudest, snide, remarks about how I wasn’t going to be there and people guilting me because I had to take a day off.

The next morning, someone higher up gave me a call about how I wasn’t in that day and how it was irresponsible to not come into work. I’m not even sure that claiming I was sick with the flu would have worked. The call made me feel like I was a small child being scolded for doing what was right for me, but inconvenient for the company. The first 30 minutes of the call was trying to get me to come in. “We’ll send a car and pay for you cab fare home.” “You can do that overnight, afterwork. You don’t need to take the full day.” “What if you came in for a few hours?” “You’re being extremely selfish. What about the rest of your team?”

The next 30 minutes was a lecture on how I needed to take responsibility and how I put way too much on my teams plate. How I wasn’t considering them and it was immature of me to take a day off last minute. I was compared to this person’s 17 year old son even though I was a 20 something who had her own bills and student loans and had been working consistently for a few years at that point.

I needed that day off. It was the right choice for me. Looking back, I have no regrets. After how my co-workers had treated me for taking this rare day off to take care of personal issues, and the phone call I received because a co-worker probably complained to someone about this, I decided I needed to not work for that place anymore. A few weeks later, I was working somewhere else. My work/life balance improved. And I was happy I burnt that bridge.

It’s one thing to get lost in work or to have a deadline that is fast approaching. It’s a completely different thing when a company stirs up a culture that prides itself on doing long hours like it’s some sort of battlescar. Places like that are not going to have employees best interest in mind. Places that run on constant tight deadlines and push to get work done are all around us, knowing if or when to step away is maybe the hardest thing we’ll all battle with. At some point, something has to give. Burnout is a huge issue. We’re also in industries where ‘passion’ and ‘seriousness’ are valued, and if you don’t do the extra work, you are all of a sudden less passionate and serious than if you did. Again, something has to give. We are only human.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I’m a white woman from a middle class family. My parents are still married. My dad worked as a bus driver and my mom worked as a RN. Most of the kids I grew up with had both parents who worked, but almost all had the father as the breadwinner. My mom brought home more than my dad. We eventually had stability, but before my dad worked as a bus driver he had difficulties landing a steady job. He adapted, we all did. My parents never let us see they had issues with paying bills, but there was also times when we were told we couldn’t afford that right now. Overall, it seemed like a pretty normal upbringing for where we lived. We were also slightly different than most families I had seen by us. My parents were from different religious backgrounds. It’s more common now, but for our conservative area it wasn’t normal. I always felt like I stuck out slightly.

I have had some uncomfortable experiences based on how I look. I never thought I looked Jewish, but I’ve had experiences at work where it was quite clear that I was an other. My curly hair has always been something that has defined me. Once I got to working though, I was now being described as the Jewish looking girl. I’ve also been told to my face that anti-Semitism isn’t really a thing in liberal cities and not something you have to worry about in America. My experience has not made that clear at all and have had to deal with anti-Semitism several times. I try very hard to avoid these topics at work, and I’m not the one bringing them up.

The curly hair thing also has the whole please don’t touch my hair issue. For as long as I can remember, people come up and just pull on my curls. To see them spring back up. No. Just no. It’s just as if I go up to someone and touch their nose. Adults don’t do that. Boundaries.

On the part of being a woman, I have been given character work because I was a woman. I animated a female character because I was a woman. Not because I was good and this character needed more help, but because I was a woman. And I was told that at the start of the project. I’ve also been ignored and had my idea said slightly differently and accepted by the team/lead/director.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

Taking vacations help. But I also try to get up and walk around throughout my work day. That with working out when I can helps. I also have plenty of hobbies so I don’t focus on animation all the time. It’s important to step away.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Learn the fundamentals. Tools will always be changing, software is constantly evolving (and is sometimes buggy). Knowing why you do something one way versus another is a great skill. Knowing why something looks funny or weird or marvelous or scary is half the battle. The tricks we teach each other to get those effects are easier than figuring out why something looks the way it does. The why is the hardest part to figure out. Then it’s off to how to accomplish that look or feel.

Be Adventurous. I work with some really great people and our team right now is amazing. And part of that amazing-ness is how everyone on our team got their start somewhere different. You don’t have to go down the traditional path in order to get somewhere. Animation schools are everywhere now, and I think they are great, but they all have holes in what they teach. What you learn isn’t some gospel truth, but one path that has been tested over and over. It doesn’t mean you couldn’t try it another way.

Everyone makes mistakes. We all fall. It’s how we get back up. (lame, another cliche) It’s cheesy, but knowing that we all make mistakes, we all fail, well, it makes it easier to get up from that. We all fuck up. It happens. It’s the part that follows that can be the hardest hurdle to jump. Knowing that you aren’t perfect and you will fail at some point.

[momentumgo]

Kelly Kurtz

Motion Designer http://www.kellykurtz.design/ Squamish, BC, Canada Age 38 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I have a rather non-linear path to mograph, as many other people’s stories. I started off in a very different industry, but now (after 3 years) my love of the outdoors and motion design have (hopefully) come together.

I come from the adventure tourism industry of 12 years. I was an expedition guide in Canada’s North during the summers, an outdoor education instructor in the spring and fall working with grade 9 & 10’s, and during the winters I worked in Snow School at a local ski hill (Cypress Mountain) teaching ski lessons, supervising, and then in the last 5 years managing all the on snow operations for the department of 180 instructors.

I loved my time as a guide and have so many beautiful memories of guiding (canoeing, backpacking & rafting) as well as working in the ski industry for more than a decade. Guiding multi-day expeditions means you are away from home for months at a time, and your time in between trips is spent cleaning up and prepping for the next trip - which was exciting and worked for me in my 20’s but once I had done it for a decade I started to desire a shift. I had done a lot of photography during my guiding years and found myself up until 3am the night after trip editing photos because it was satisfying and challenging, I wondered if photography could be where my next path led.

I was always curious about design, especially graphic design. One day I met a woman who used to be a kayak guide for 6 years who went back to school to become a freelance graphic designer specializing in brand identity, had 2 young daughters whom she could spend more time with since leaving the guiding world and I saw a seed of possibility.

It took 3 years of thinking about making this shift, and jumping from one career to the next is not a decision to take lightly - but what ultimately pushed me over the edge was a 14 month head & neck injury that I sustained from a skiing accident in the winter of 2012/13.

As horrible and dark as head injuries are, there was a real silver lining in that experience as it became a catalyst for change for me. I applied to a few different art schools with some doodles that I did from when I had my concussion, (as well as some photography I took up during my guiding years), and to my surprise I was accepted into Vancouver Film School’s Digital Design program in the fall of 2015.

I initially was interested in web and app design, but in the first few weeks we worked on a small stop motion project and opened up After Effects and thought WOW - this stuff is amazing. Once we started learning Cinema 4D, and worked on a title sequence project my life really started to change, and that is how I quickly got hooked on Motion.

I really struggled to land a job after I graduated VFS, it took me 7 months to land a job and I felt forced to take it as it was the only job offer that I had, my funds were running out and I was in a depression. I stayed at that company for 10 months but it was very corporate and things didn’t move very fast. I felt like I wasn’t getting the growth I was desiring. I was constantly looking for something else.

I was approached by an advertising agency downtown about a motion design position they were opening up, so I jumped at the chance as I needed the change and was curious about the ad agency world. It was eye opening to work in an ad agency, but my gut told me I didn’t belong. 7 weeks into the job my producer blindsided me in a 1-on-1 meeting and told me she didn’t think I fit in here (first time I’d heard any feedback since being hired), and asked me to think about what I really wanted. Ouch. Unfortunately she was dead right, but it still felt soul crushing at the time. A few days later I handed in my resignation and decided to try freelancing instead of the endless search for the “right” full time job, and Vancouver can be pretty limited with motion design studios.

Freelance felt like a breath of fresh air, I could manage project the way that I wanted to, and mistakes were my own. I was freelance for most of 2018 and tho I had a steep learning curve, I enjoy many aspects of it. I also couldn’t help but think, I wish I had more experience and a larger network to lean on before hopping into freelance. I felt like I grew so much in terms of understanding business and the freelance game, but not as much growth as a designer. I craved to work with other motion designers and learn from them - a luxury that I had perhaps not realized I took for granted while going to school and learning from my very talented classmates.

Now my journey takes another shift as my dream company (Arc’teryx) has recently offered me a motion designer / video editor role that I start in a few weeks. The company is a high end technical outerwear company that I have adored for 20 years. It combines my love of the outdoors with design & video. So perhaps my personal and professional realms have just collided, I hope so as I’d like to be surrounded by like minded people who are passionate about similar things as I am.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Success to me is being able to work with a synergetic team while creating compelling content that I am challenged and rewarded with while maintaining work life balance.

What are some best practices you use today?

Never. Stop. Learning.

Kick self doubt square in the balls. It will sneak up on you when you are least expecting it. EVERYONE goes through it, no one is immune.

Celebrate (and look for) your successes. No matter how small they are. This also helps with point #2

Take responsibility for your own journey. Sit down and write your goals out, give yourself targets to hit, and hold yourself accountable. So what if you can’t find a mentor, that shouldn’t stop you. Most mographers don’t have a mentor, only a lucky few.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

My work and personal life have always been very closely tied as my past can attest. I think part of the reason I really struggled in my first 2 full time positions as a motion designer was that my personal life was suffering. I was surrounded by people who didn’t go outside, who didn’t ski, who rarely exercised, who I just couldn’t connect with. And when you can’t connect with your team on a personal level, it’s hard to become a well oiled machine. For me, the two have to be very well aligned. Perhaps that is just my desire to have meaningful relationships, perhaps it is because the mountains have always been my first love, or perhaps I was never meant to separate the two.

When I take time to go out for a ski tour in the mountains, take a week off to disappear out of cell range to hang out with old friends in a cabin in the woods, I come back refreshed and feeling grateful for the time I just had. It is an opportunity to recharge and refocus.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

I used to be a workaholic when I was in the ski industry. I could never seem to catch up so I’d work long hours, not take care of myself, my stress levels were constantly running high. That’s when I made a mistake. One that resulted in my world coming to a grinding halt with a 14 month concussion, and it also left my team limping along for an entire season. Since then I’ve had no desire to be a full time workaholic. There is so much more to life. Family, personal, and time in the mountains.

So if I am not accelerating as fast as someone else, it’s because I’m playing the long game. While they are up at 1am watching tutorials I am sleeping because I want to be able to ski tour up 1000m to admire the view, and remind me of why I am alive. There is a culture within mograph that tells us we need to put in the time and practice to get better, and this is absolutely true. But the timeline that we all seem to hold ourselves to may not be the most realistic for staying healthy.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Be kind to yourself. Find out what motivates you and utilize that to manage your time and your priorities.

Take courses with School of Motion, Mograph Mentor, and Learn Squared.

Watch and do hella amounts of tutorials. If you are happy with the work you made with a tutorial, give the creator of the tutorial credit if you publish it online, but don’t claim that work as your own (I see this all the time, someone posts some work on Dribbble or Instagram and says they’ve been experimenting, but I know exactly what tutorial it was based on. If someone credits the tutorial maker, there is no harm done.)

Don’t use tutorials as your sole learning tool. Create personal projects, and don’t look at tutorials to carry you through it. Use experimentation while you have the luxury of time to work on that personal project. Your personal style will develop out of this, not out of tutorials. And consequently so will your confidence.

Listen to Podcasts (School of Motion, Mograph Mentor, Motion Hatch, Animalators, & The Futur).

Get out an network, physically and online. Both are important. Develop those relationships, they are everything in this industry

Go to 1 - 2 conferences per year, they are worth every penny. Get inspired, meet the people whose work you idolize, then use that to fuel your next sprint.

Create A LOT of work. Publish it.

Take care of yourself and stop judging yourself against others. You don’t know their journey, priorities, sacrifices or motivations.

[momentumgo]

Charlotte Heyman

Freelance animator and illustrator, part time digital editor at Swedish Radio www.charlotteheyman.com Göteborg, Sweden 48 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I’ve been in love with animation since I was a child. Before the era of internet and digital animation I couldn’t find a way to learn animation and I got into photography and graphics instead. I went to art school and studied photography for a couple of years and then started to work as a photographer. This was in 1993. But after a couple of years I got bored with photography and wondered what to do with my life. Having used computers a little bit in an advertising agency where I worked for a short while and being curious I went to university to do an arts course with computers as a tool. At this time computers were very expensive and slow. Anyway, I started to learn Photoshop on Mac and 3D on a silicon graphics machine. There were no teachers who knew how to use this technique and you had to use the pile of manuals to figure out how to do things. After much frustration I managed to do like 3 seconds of 3D animation and was thrilled.

After the course I started working in a games company making a 2D point-and-click game (in 256 colors!). I was mainly working in 2D, animations and graphics in Photoshop. I started using 3ds Max and Maya when it first came out. The games where pre-rendered even though we used 3D.

After working there for a couple of years I went to Bristol and attended the stop motion course at UWE since I wanted to learn traditional animation.

I got a job at DICE, a mayor game developer in Sweden. I was doing 3D modeling and some animation. I worked there for a few years, shipped a couple of games. Then I got pregnant and the company moved to another town and I was out of work since I didn’t want to move.

What to do?

After being home with my child for a while I started freelancing. I made a lot of photorealistic renders of cars and architectural visualisations and it was booring as hell. I really don’t like procedural shaders and photorealism. But since that was what I filled my portfolio with, that was what I got. I did some fun jobs too, animations for a museum and some animation for e-learning. I got a big project to develop a 3D game for a museum. It was THE best project I have ever worked on and so much fun and it lasted for two years. But after the project I found myself a bit lost. I didn’t want to go back to making photorealistic renders of cars (I wasn’t very good at it anyway) and since I had been working for such a long time for one single client, my network wasn’t very updated. I didn’t have the energy to go looking for clients either. And I wanted to do 2D animation and that wasn’t exactly what was in my portfolio.

I took a break from freelancing got a steady job as a project manager in a cultural venue. At this point I figured that I didn’t want to waste my talent and energy on boring jobs and wanted to do only my own projects. And I wanted a steady job since I now had two kids.

But eventually I wasn’t happy with that either. I love making images and animation and at the cultural venue, even though they hired me because of my background in games and graphics, I never seemed to get any use for my knowledge. I wanted to get back into graphics and animation. Now I am working as a digital editor at the Swedish radio, children’s radio, making content and managing their social media platforms and web. And part time I am freelancing. And I have to say that this is really a great balance for me.

What are some best practices you use today?

I sketch a lot. I try to make time for drawing and creating just for fun.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

For me success is to be able to work on projects that give me the opportunity to work creatively, experiment and not being owned. It is easy to get lost in wanting to work an a cool named company and get lots of credit, thinking that that is success. In a way it is, but looking at my life as a whole I think success is being able to get a balance during the day. Work with something you enjoy, having energy left to spend with family and friends and doing all the other things that I love doing.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

During times in my career I have had periods of crunching and all nighters. It has alway left me numb, angry and bitter and has never, ever paid off in the long run. I will never do that again. It is NOT worth it. (Unless you are freelancing and they are truly paying you big cash for it). Now I have my priorities strictly ordered: My health, my family, work.

If you are a caretaker, how do you arrange your life so that you can achieve your professional goals while being responsible for others, (parents, children, etc.)?

I have the privilege of living in a country where children’s care is free and great. But that said, I have worked a lot of part time. I divide the caretaking equally with my husband. I am also fortunate to have a big family to help us out whenever we need it. But also, it did affect my career. I was not willing to go crunching in a games company anymore and have avoided those kinds of companies.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

Apart from being a woman and sometimes not being taken seriously or having to deal with sexism from time to time, I consider myself being very privileged. That is the only kind of discrimination I have ever have had to experience. I grew up in Sweden where education is free for everyone. I am very grateful for my family and the people I met that have believed in me and given me opportunities.

Mostly it has been circumstances and chance leading me to them. “Luck is when opportunity meets with preparation”. My own mind and my own inner critic is probably what hindered me most. What helped me most is being able to stay curious and passionate about my work.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

During some periods of crunching and doing all nighters I realised that it is so unhealthy. Friends stopped calling, and my lovelife went up in smoke and my health suffered to. I decided that I didn’t want that kind of life, and if that what it takes to make a career within the industry of games or graphics, I don’t want it. I got a dog. I spend a lot of time outdoors and in nature. I try to yoga and swim. And I try to stand up and work whenever it is possible. This might not work very well in an office, but when I work from home I take a break every now and then and dance.

And do fun stuff, my own projects to keep the energy and love for animation and artmaking. Meet up with friends.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Learn the craft, not the tools and don’t spread yourself too thin. I spent far too much time trying to be good at everything, learning some new plugin or tool, learning stupid things like modeling with nurbs and curves that I have no use of whatsoever. Now I only do that when I need it and otherwise I use whatever tools I have at hand. Keep in mind that the industry will change, it has many times during the years i have been working. Don’t look for affirmation, look for satisfaction in the work in progress. Please take care of your passion for your art. It can disappear if you don’t nourish it properly. Have fun. Be curious. Sack your inner critic.

[momentumgo]

Asavari Kumar

Creative director/Art director @ Supernova Design www.supernovadesign.net/ Los Angeles/ India

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

As a child I loved to draw - mostly to escape the banality of school and the real world. Over time it become a tool to help me navigate and make sense of the world around me. Characters became extensions of myself and animated worlds became safe parallels to investigate real spaces and situations. I pursued a BFA in Animation Film design from the National Institute of Design in India and proceeded to work in the field of broadcast design and advertising in Mumbai. That seemed to be the natural space for me to practice since there was no established animation industry at the time. A desire to cultivate my own voice as an independent artist led me to pursue an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the arts. In 2015 I founded Supernova Design with the intention of creating an Animation and Design collective that reflected my personal values, helped me have more autonomy in the terms of engagement with clients as well as forming an umbrella under which I could create meaningful personal work with like minded artists. I was joined in this journey by my younger sister Shaivalini, and even though we are several time zones apart, over the last few years we’ve created both commercial and personal projects under the name of Supernova Design.

As a generalist, although I had decided to devote myself to animation, my commercial career was not planned and was primarily driven by what seemed interesting/exciting as a project at any given point in time. Taking on each assignment as an opportunity for discovery and mastery led to the next one and over time got me to where I am. I started out working at an Indie music channel as an animator creating promos and Idents for TV. After two years of working as a staff animator I started freelancing and have been operating independently ever since. After moving to the United States and upon graduating from CalArts , along with the immigration challenges that most international students face, I was also starting from scratch. Having pushed hard to transition into design from animation though a series of internships - first at Shilo and then at We are Royale, I was able to work on design and illustration gigs, slowly making my way into art direction while staying independent. In the past 10+ years, I’ve created design and animation work for broadcast, feature animation, commercials, web, digital Products, AR and VR. I’ve gotten opportunities by reaching out to people I wanted to work with, though friends and through word-of-mouth and through my internet presence. (website, instagram, Behance)

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Success for me translates to autonomy, flexibility and respect - to be able to do the work you want on your own terms. Not being shackled by the expectations and limits that accompany race, ethnicity, gender, geographical location and socio economic backgrounds.

Ideally I would love for Supernova to be a more sustainably functioning collective beyond just me and my sister and include other artists over longer period of time so we can continue taking on larger, big budget projects and create more expansive, meaningful work that challenges the status quo.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

This has been an eternal struggle as I imagine it is for most artists that have to make a choice between earning a living and pursuing their passions. After struggling with it for several years I’ve decided to treat it as a never ending jigsaw puzzle. After placing it in the paradigm of an ongoing process I am able to take time out and feel proud of being in a better more balanced place than the year before.

I typically intersperse commercial projects with personal ones. With a more flexible schedule during personal projects I’m able to have time to explore dietary and wellness options that can sustainably fit within both flexible and fixed schedules once I get back to commercial work. Taking time out to create meaningful personal projects definitely leads to getting commercial commissions that are in a similar vein and over time the gap between the type of personal and commercial work decreases significantly. I put everything on my calendar since I don’t trust my memory. Being a compulsive list maker I try to not schedule more than 60% of my day and try to automate as many things as possible so It’s easier to manage.

For my business I work with a CPA, I use Gusto for HR and payroll, Bench for business accounting, Asana and Slack for project management. In my personal life I use Google Calendar, Wunderlist and Mint.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I belong to a middle class Indian family and have had a safe and happy childhood for the most part. I was fortunate that despite a private school education at a school like calArts being significantly beyond my parents means, their lifelong sacrifices, planning and hard work along with a multitude of scholarships, several school jobs, internships and saving up from my working years in India ( after deferring a year to stabilise my finances)  I was just about able to scrape through grad school debt free. Despite having constant anxiety and a nervous breakdown due to the extreme financial pressure while still attending school, my largest struggle and obstacle till date has still been contending with the immigration process in the United States which has gotten significantly more unforgiving and complicated in the past decade. It drastically limited my ability to work and the financial cost of paying for visas and legal assistance along with the emotional cost of being in a state of limbo for 6+ years definitely took its toll and the process is still ongoing. Along the way there have been many allies that have supported me in this journey for which I am eternally grateful. As a first generation immigrant chasing the illusory American Dream I have learned that if your career is the only thing you are worried about, it is a privileged position to be in. No one is truly self made - we just forget about the tiny bits of support we’ve had along the way and randomness and luck are an integral part of success and meritocracy is an illusion at best.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Continually mastering your craft is the most important thing. As your career develops standing up for what you deserve is just as important as not throwing anyone under the bus. Authenticity, persistence, resilience and patience are incredibly useful traits and I’ve personally found them to be most beneficial when dealing with rejection and failure. Personal portfolio sites, online challenges, Behance and Instagram are wonderful tools to get your work out there but it’s important to not get distracted by short lived ‘trends’. Trying to decipher whether you want to use your craft as a service ( solving problems for other people ) or as art ( expressing your personal voice ) or straddling the grey areas in between, is definitely helpful in organising the way you approach your career and make choices about projects.

[momentumgo]

Caitlin Cadieux

Motion Designer/Animator/Illustrator caitcadieux.com Troy, NY Age 28 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I always wanted to be an animator. Seeing The Lion King in theaters when I was a little kid blew my mind. I was always getting in trouble in school for drawing in class, and I had class credit requirements waived in high school so I could take more art classes.

I wanted to go to SCAD for 3D character animation. My mom drove me two hours to Tulsa to a portfolio review event they were holding, and there I found out that I would never be able to afford the tuition, even with scholarships, without taking out massive loans. I decided to go to a state school instead, for graphic design. It felt like I was giving up on my dream, but I was hopeful that I’d be able to make it work if I was lucky and driven enough.

In my junior year at OU, we were assigned one After Effects project, making a title sequence for a film (I chose Cronenberg’s Videodrome), and I was hooked. I stopped doing the regular design assignments and started working independently on animation and motion graphics projects instead. None of my professors knew motion graphics, but I was lucky enough to land an internship with an alumnus who freelanced in LA. That summer in LA taught me all the basics and was completely invaluable, as I was otherwise entirely self taught.

After graduation, I picked up little low budget freelance jobs and managed to turn one into a full time job at my alma mater. It wasn’t a glamorous job and I was still the only animator around, but it afforded me time to continue learning and freelancing, and let me stay in Oklahoma while my partner finished his undergraduate degree. I lived at home with my parents for a year.

When he graduated, we moved to upstate NY, where he got into grad school. I kept up freelancing and got a job at a local news station. My day job was extremely unfulfilling, so I spent most of the day working on personal projects and most nights freelancing. I was working such long hours that I ended up injuring my right arm, which is still plaguing me today and for which, years later, I’ve had to get physical therapy. I wish I’d taken on fewer freelance projects at this time – it was NOT worth it.

Being from Oklahoma, where there’s still very little in the way of a motion graphics community, I did everything I could to get involved online. I started actively participating in #mochat, a motion graphics twitter chat that I eventually would help moderate. I went to every conference I could afford to, including NAB, F5, AIGA conferences, anything. I relished every opportunity to talk with other animators and share work and techniques.

Because of connections I made this way, The Atlantic reached out to me when they were searching for a new animator. I moved to Brooklyn in January 2016, leaving my partner in upstate NY, to work out of the NYC office. The move was extremely difficult for me; leaving your live-in partner to move in with roommates in a new city is not remotely fun, but it was a choice I was willing to make at that time to further my career, and I’m glad that I did it. I’m also glad that after nine months, when the long distance was getting overwhelming, I asked to transition to full-time remote.

I’ve been working remotely from Troy, NY ever since. I’m still learning new things all the time, and trying to push the envelope at work as well as balance my personal projects and development, and even working remotely, it’s STILL hard. I did have to put my relationship on the backburner for a time, but I made that decision with full awareness, and have been fortunate enough to keep work and life in a general balance. Sometimes you do need to focus on one or the other, but you don’t need to throw either one away.

There are so many avenues to explore with animation that I really don’t know what my future holds. I’m getting more interested in UI/UX and game animation, excited by the work mograph studios are doing all over the world, wondering what it would be like to work in TV. My biggest dreams and aspirations are still on the horizon–I want to work in feature animation, and I’m not sure yet how I’ll make that happen. But for today, I’m extremely proud of the career I’ve been able to build.

What are some best practices you use today?

I try to take my time and be patient, especially when making major career decisions. The biggest thing you can focus on is craft. Spend as much time as you can learning how to make beautiful, compelling, well-designed and well-executed work. Beyond that, all you can really do is be open to opportunities and then make choices when presented with them. Being persistent is key – I’ve been rejected for so many opportunities, but there are many times where I just kept slamming my head against the wall until I broke through to the other side. Work hard, but more importantly, work smart. Share with others and participate in the greater animation community, because it absolutely will come back to you.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

It definitely helps if most of your hobbies and interests are related. I love to draw and paint and I love movies, all of which has the lucky byproduct of keeping me growing and learning in my career path. I try very hard to do things that don’t involve sitting on the computer, though. I took up martial arts, which gets me out of the house, is really engaging and keeping me fit, and incorporates a lot of stretching (which is critical for maintaining your precious joints!). Animation can also be really isolating, and remembering to go out and hang with your friends is crucial. It’s amazing how much better and refreshed you feel when you take a night off to play board games with your friends.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

My parents paid for every cent of my schooling. While they weren’t able to afford art school tuition, they made it possible for me to graduate from a four year graphic design program without taking out a single student loan. My grandma covered books and supplies in college. I also attended private school from 1st grade through high school. I’m so extremely fortunate in this regard and I don’t think I’d be able to take on some of the opportunities I’ve had without that help.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

Eating healthier and getting enough sleep have a trickle-down effect, I think – sleep especially. Your productivity and general wellbeing are significantly boosted if you’re rested. Eating better also makes you feel better, which helps you to focus and get work done. The more you’re taking care of your basic needs and mental health, the easier it is to be in the right mindset.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Make good habits now. Achieving greatness absolutely requires sacrifice, but you don’t have to burn up your life or your body in order to succeed. Find ways to save yourself time and money so that you can invest it where it counts and get a full night’s sleep as frequently as you can. Be a sponge for information, but take all advice with a grain of salt. Life is short, but we also have so much more time than we truly realize – if you feel like your only choice is to risk your life or your health to get where you want to be, remember that there is ALWAYS another way, even if it means slowing down and taking your time. Many people don’t get their ‘big break’ until much later in life.

Try not to be too dazzled by your heroes, and don’t try to follow anyone else’s journey to success. Nobody else’s path can be retrod. If you’re focused, you can make your own way.

[momentumgo]

Sabrina Chaney

Freelance Motion Designer www.sabrinachaney.com Brooklyn, NY Age 25 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do? I majored in the Animation program at SCAD and started making the switch to Motion Design late in my junior year. By the time I graduated in May 2016 I had a few motion media classes under my belt, but my portfolio was not where I wanted it to be (you can view it here, password is sabrina2016). Out of 50+ internship applications sent over the course of junior and senior year, I was either rejected or I didn’t receive a response from anyone. I moved back home with my parents in Spring, Texas and spent the first month out of school not knowing what to do next. I only knew that my portfolio was not the same caliber as the reels from studios that I admired and desperately wanted to work for, so I decided to try and close the skill gap between my work and theirs.

I developed a game plan to polish my demo reel, resume, and personal branding. Recognizing that I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, I used the steal-like-an-artist approach. I identified my dream studios and used them as a guide for the type of work I wanted to create. I referenced the reels and websites of my SCAD peers who had graduated and immediately found work, like Joash Berkeley, Crosby Ignasher, Eli Orth, and Sarah Beth Morgan. I also enrolled in School of Motion’s Animation and Design bootcamps. Ideas for personal projects kept jumping around in my head, but I wanted to dedicate the rest of 2016 to learning, so I started organizing each idea in a notebook including details like a 2-week breakdown of each project with daily to-do lists, sketches, and lists of the materials or assets I would need. My New Years’ Resolution for 2017 was to open the notebook and go through it project-by-project with the goal of finishing a new demo reel and portfolio website by summertime. I ended up finishing it in early March (you can view it here). Blend 2017 was announced that spring and I snagged a ticket before they were gone. I’m extremely introverted but I didn’t want that to get in the way of meeting new people, so I looked into who was attending and reached out to the artists I admired in the hopes of introducing myself and not being a complete stranger at the event. I was acutely aware that I was a newbie, but to my surprise I received many responses and ended up meeting almost everyone I contacted. It was a magical and intensely motivational experience!

After Blend I continued applying for internship positions and quickly learned that my location was a hindrance, as very few studios would help pay for relocation. I tried to send 5-10 applications a day. Finally I received a response from Matt Vojacek from ZwellyCo after spotting his call for interns on Twitter. We had a phone interview, and we’ve been working together on and off ever since. Working with Matt taught me what it means to be a true mentor; he opened the lines of communication so I could work remotely, he didn’t take advantage of my low experience level by making me work for free, we did weekly Skype calls where I could ask him questions about motion design or freelancing, and when he felt that my skills had surpassed the level of an intern he promoted me to Motion Graphics Designer and gave me a raise(!!). I wouldn’t be where I am now if he hadn’t taken a chance on my potential. Still, the type of work I wanted to do wasn’t in Houston, Texas. During a short trip to New York with my family, I used the same technique I used at Blend and contacted a few producers in the hopes of introducing myself personally. After visiting with Daniel Castro, Emily Collins, and Todd St John, it became clear that if I was in New York I would get freelance work, which was all I needed to hear. Back in Texas I ordered the Freelance Manifesto, packed two large suitcases with necessities, and flew back to New York 2 weeks later to live in an apartment my parents and I found through Craigslist. Timing was on my side; as winter approached, there were more job openings because clients steadily liquidated their budgets before year’s end. I also took advantage of the abundance of networking opportunities in the city, involving myself in Punanimation NYC. This lead to several jobs from referrals, but more importantly a tight-knit support group of kind and immensely talented artists. Most of my initial freelance bookings came from cold-emailing producers, politely introducing myself and my reel. The first few jobs were short-term, lasting only a day or two, but the relationships established during those bookings has lasted far longer. Most of my current clients are return clients that contact me directly. Dedication and strategy helped orient and prepare myself for career risks. My goal for the future is to help others do the same.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I’m an only child, and my parents viewed my education as a team effort between all three of us. I maintained my academic and artistic scholarships and they helped me pay for SCAD with the additional aid of low-interest loans. I had very little debt by the time I graduated due to their financial support, and the rest was paid off within the year. Freedom from the burden of debt is a huge privilege that allowed me to make decisions that not everyone has the opportunity to make. It’s a gift easily taken for granted and I try to honor that by budgeting responsibly and paying it forward to marginalized artists. Luckily, SCAD isn’t the be-all-end-all of motion design education, especially with the resources available online for a fraction of the cost.

What are some best practices you use today?

I love animation but I wouldn’t die on a hill for it, so I make an effort to eat healthily and keep to a schedule. I avoid pulling all-nighters at all costs. Once work ends, I declare myself done for the day and I can run errands, cook, or go to an event. I also like to physically write to-do lists to keep my thoughts organized.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

Like many others who spend time online, I got to the point where social media was largely negative and emotionally draining. I downloaded browser extensions like Facebook Fluff-Buster to curate my Facebook feed, and I’m not afraid to unfollow or unfriend someone if I find myself feeling consistently annoyed or angry at their posts. I’ve also completely erased my Twitter a few times, removing all of my tweets and starting over from scratch. I try to keep my social media limited to following my family, close friends or acquaintances that I plan on meeting again, animation studios, and a handful of artists I like. I’m not concerned with followers whatsoever; the goal is to dip my toe into everything without drowning in the current.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Identify your weaknesses and find a balance between healthy competition and imposter syndrome. You shouldn’t work in a vacuum, but you also shouldn’t psych yourself into thinking that it’s impossible to reach your goals by comparing yourself to other people. Instead, take what you know you’re good at and combine it with the influences that make you excited to learn more. Take advantage of the knowledge that’s available online and apply your own twist to it after you learn the basics. Get out of your comfort zone and involve yourself in communities--the more you can do in-person, the better. Finally, you don’t have to suffer to prove your dedication; if you’re suffering, allow yourself to get the help you need. Animation is cool but it’s not worth isolating yourself, falling prey to anxiety, or losing sleep.

[momentumgo]

Andrea Schmitz

Motion Graphics Designer/Animator www.andreaschmitzzz.com New York City Age 27 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I originally wanted to be a writer, and I faithfully wrote buckets of fanfiction and short stories up until the end of high school. I had actually planned on going to college for creative writing, but I was afraid of job prospects for fiction writing, and ended up going to Northwestern for film instead. Once I was there, it was clear to me that I hated film. For the first two years I felt like I was wasting time and money because I wasn’t learning anything that felt practical or interesting to me. It was also freezing in Chicago, and I quickly discovered that I hated filming on set (and I hated that most of the other film students only wanted to talk about film). Then, in 2012, I took the only animation class on campus, which taught puppeted character animation in AfterEffects. I was good at it, and it was fun, and so I decided to do that for the rest of my time there, along with sound design (because you could do both from a warm, snug bed).

I was one of three students interested in animation in my year, and one of three women killing it in sound design. I spent my time at school working project to project, designing opening credits for other film students’ web series, making a short animations for class, and sound designing other people’s short films. I tried to learn something new with each project, and eventually I worked with the animation teacher on an explainer series as an independent study in my third year. I also had two unpaid internships – one in Santa Monica making background screens for a 3D kids show, and one in my hometown of Little Rock where I did not do much actual work, but my supervisor gave me access to his Animation Mentor account so I could take some lessons. 

In my last year at Northwestern I was terrified that I was nowhere near ready for a job in motion graphics or animation, and I didn’t want to do another four years of school. Over my senior year winter break, I showed a former Disney/Nickelodeon animator who had recently moved to my hometown one of my old sketchbooks that I had on hand at the time, and he told me that I was four years behind everyone graduating from an art school that year. I went back to my car and cried. I had been trying so hard to make something from the limited resources for animation at my school, and I still had so far to go. I made a plan to do everything I could to make up that time as quickly as possible. 

This feedback triggered 3 years of panic-fueled creativity that I still have mixed feelings about because, although it kickstarted a creative growth spurt, it came from a place of fear, which affected the quality of the work. I took five classes that fall, blindly guessing pre-production for an animated short that I did not end up making in an independent study. Northwestern did not provide a 3D class, so I took the train once a week an hour south to take night classes in Maya at Columbia College on top of my regular workload (not for credit, because taking this six classes wouldn’t have been allowed by the school). Near the end of the year, I frantically applied to any and all jobs listed online, figuring that I would crash-course learn whatever I needed to and move wherever I had to to work. By the time school was ending, I had no job offers, but I had found a grad program that put equal emphasis on writing and art that felt just so me.

Two months before I graduated Northwestern, I applied and got into the MFA Visual Narrative program at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. I left NU three weeks later to start the program, and flew back every weekend to wrap up classes, graduate, and move out. The MFAVN program functions as an on-campus high-volume program for June and July every summer for 3 summers, but is an online course during the 2 years in between, so you can attend grad school and hold down a job in another state at the same time. 

After leaving the first summer, I moved to Austin, and shortly after got a job making graphics for standardized tests. I couldn’t keep any work from this job for my portfolio since all of it was confidential, so sometimes it felt like I was making art all day and throwing it into a hole, but I learned vector illustration from that job. The next year, I moved to NYC for thesis year in order to be closer to the school and its resources, and worked 9am-2am every day for 6 months on a 10-minute frame by frame animation. By the time I left the MFAVN program I had three 5-10 minute animated shorts under my belt ( x, y, z ), but remained anxious about their quality because I had rushed all of them. I would try to fit huge concept projects into a tiny timeframe and overextended myself to reach my own goals. It took me a long time to physically and mentally recover after thesis, and the scale of the production did not achieve equal scale success. I learned a lot, but it took me a year to want to draw anything again.

It took me four months to find a job after graduating. I applied constantly – hours and hours each day searching and applying to anything that remotely sounded like what I did. I made short motion experiments in the meantime, and took CE classes at SVA. I ended up getting my first job – a paid internship – through networking on the Motion Design Slack. It was an internship with a pharmaceutical marketing company. I worked there for 6 months until it became clear they would not hire me full-time and I was very overextended. I got my next job, again, by talking to other motion designers, at New York Magazine as a motion designer. I had the opposite problem there, where I was free to do what I wanted when it came to explainer design, but I rarely had fully animated projects to work on, and had a lot of downtime. I made a lot of side projects during that time. A few months ago, after a year and a half at NYM, I got my latest job at Insider, where I do more character work than at any previous job and have similarly free reign over my explainer designs.

It’s only in the past two years that I’ve felt safe and secure enough to let the panic-fueled mania subside and start to focus on what I really want out of my career. I’ve started writing again, and exploring ways to introduce story back into my work. Although the ‘advice’ that I was four years behind lit a fire under my ass to work as hard as I possibly could to become a professional in the shortest amount of time, my work definitely suffered for it, and I think a positive reinforcement would have left me with a better mindset. Maybe then it would not have taken me so long to start thinking about what I really want out of my career. 

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way? I come from a privileged background. I am very lucky to have two extremely supportive parents, and they encouraged me to go to whatever school I wanted and pursue whatever career I wanted as long as I could make it work. They paid for both schools, and I had no loans. After I graduated, I lived off of leftover college savings money until I made my own income. Financial security and unwavering trust, love, and encouragement from my family gave me the time and safety to discover what I wanted to do and the means with which to learn it.

What are some best practices you use today?

I diversify the projects I invest my time in. If I animate all day at work, I’ll read or write or draw on the train, and bake or write at home. I’ll always have several projects going on at once, but I delegate them to specific times and places that work around my schedule. This way when I work on them it doesn’t necessarily feel like work, because rather than a constant slog, each task feels fresher and easier to jump into.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you? My primary goal in life is to write and publish a book, and then to sit on the floor of a Barnes and Noble and read the book without buying it. It would make 12-year-old me proud, and that’s the only standard I hold myself to. 

Success in motion graphics to me is making a living and having enough time to comfortably make my personal projects on the side. Creating and animating stories is fun for me, but motion design is the job. I really want get into developing more narrative fiction animated work, but that’s going to be a long journey to make that a job.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

My boyfriend used to work odd hours, and now he goes to school in the evenings, and that’s greatly influenced my schedule. I try to get work done while he’s out of the house, and that way I can try to put my work down whenever he gets home so we can spend some time together. 

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself? I’ve been trying to go on more walks to break up the work day at my fulltime job. I try to stretch my neck, hips, back, and and knees as often as I can (IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START STRETCHING). I got an ergonomic mouse that changed my life. I try to take long breaks between the freelance projects I take on on the side. When I have a project assignment, I often feel like I have to get it done IMMEDIATELY, and will push myself into working long hours at nights and weekends to achieve that. If this is the way I’m going to keep working, the compromise is that I’m teaching myself that it’s ok to say no, and to not respond to the person looking for animation help that I am perfect for if I am not 100% up to it. I didn’t draw for about a year after I made my thesis film – I know now I need time to recharge.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Talk to people! I’ve learned so much from the women of the Motion Design Slack and the people of Punanimation! Make friends, let them know when you’re looking for a job! (Don’t make friends TO let them know you’re looking for a job, just make friends and hang out.) 

Make your projects! Don’t wait for validation! I wanted to make a short film post-grad but had no reason to make a short film, so I made Things Took a Turn so I’d have a reason to make a short film, and it held me accountable because then other people also had to make short films and I was in charge. Don’t do that exactly because that was an insane idea, but just know that you have the power to create opportunities for yourself!

Don’t panic! Make side projects because you want to, not because you feel like you’re competing against the world. Scale and volume can help you grow, but time and thought can help you stand out.

Find where nobody is doing the work and do the work! Aim to be different! If you think your work does not look like the work of someone else’s whom you admire, that’s okay. Lean into your differences! 

Explore other fields, you never know how different media could work together!

Avoid hero worship! Just because people make good art does not mean they would make a good mentor. Find your own standards and hold yourself to them.