Working as an animator
- Lost In Film
- Dec 19, 2021
- 3 min read
Hello, everyone! I'm Catarina, and this week I'd like to talk about my experience working as an animator.
I'm not sure if it's just me, but I've always strived to be useful. I don't always feel that way as an animator.
When I began my second year of college, I knew I wanted to work in animation or motion graphics. I wanted to feel useful in some way. It wasn't easy; the first job was a hustle to find.
After seeing some of my work, a start-up contacted me.
That's where my six-month internship began. Working remotely for a start-up in Singapore. I was on the marketing team (despite the fact that I don't know much about marketing, but don't tell anyone).
My responsibility was to create promotional videos for their app and website.
Here are some examples:
I'm not even going to try to hide it; the first month was a total mess, but it improved with time.
This internship taught me a lot. The most essential thing was to learn how to manage my time without compromising university.
For 6 months, I don't recall a day that I didn't open After Effects. Surprisingly I really liked it.
I made connections with people from the other side of the world. I learned and grew as a person
My first draft was never the finished product; it was frustrating at first, but it all stands to reason now.
One of the most important lessons I've learned is the importance of sharing the process with the client.
Before this job, this kind of openness and the potential vulnerability that comes with sharing one’s process was a terrifying idea to me.
Without this job I probably wouldn't be sharing any of my process in animations. Back then, I saw the process as a weakness.
I feel like this has a lot to do with being human. If there's a story behind it, it's easier to connect with it. People seem to value more the process rather than the final product. Before this, I thought it was the other way around.
This was a turning point to me.
Since I didn't had much time to evolve the ideas, some videos didn't come out as I wanted.
“All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste, but there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer.” - Ira Glass
With this job, I had to remember that what I do is different from who I am. This is especially difficult for me to accept because so much of what I do is personal. I learned to cherish my family, friends, and those who love me for who I am, not just the work.
One aspect I appreciated was the fact that I could rely on a different things. If things didn't go so well at university, I could always try my hardest at work, and vice versa. It was as if I was living in two different worlds that I could escape to.
Next post I'll talk about another part-time job but in a different perspective.
Stay tuned and thank you for reading!
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