The Year I Broke into Animation
My 2017 Year in Review: from being a junior in college to getting a job at Dreamworks
At the turn of the new year in 2017, my junior year of university was half-over and things were looking bleak - at this point in my college career, I had sent out hundreds of applications to all kinds of game and animation studios, and had yet to hear back from a single one.
The constant ghosting was wearing down my hopes, and in the event that my situation didn’t change soon, I was mentally prepared to accept the worst-case scenario: that I just wasn’t good enough to pursue this as a career, and it was time to face reality and move on.
Little did I know that the year to come would finally give me the opportunities I was looking for, and by December I’d not only be done with school but also have found a job working in the animation industry. I’m forever grateful for this period of my life for making it possible for me to make a living doing the thing I love most in the world. Join me as I look back on 2017, the year that set my journey as a professional artist into motion!
Note: This is a loooong post and may get cut off if you are receiving it via email. To read it in full, click on the title!
Tekko 2017
David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh | April 6-9, 2017
Spring in Pittsburgh started off with a local art opportunity - an anime convention called Tekko was scheduled for that April, and I got to share a table with a fellow student in order to sell artwork there. Upon making prints of my illustrations and doing all the prep work, I had a blast getting to experience tabling at a typical Artist Alley for the first time. It was so much fun and I’m so thankful to have had the chance early-on to get my feet wet with selling prints!
I did a full write-up on the experience here:
BOOM! Studios Comic Cover for Steven Universe
BOOM! Studios | April 27, 2017
Later that month I got my very first freelance illustration job - an editor at BOOM! Studios had found my work online and reached out to me about illustrating a variant cover for the Steven Universe comic series. As a huge SU fan, this was incredibly exciting.
The subject matter was open-ended and I was invited to draw any of the characters, in any environment of my choosing. The pay was on the extreme low end for a publishing gig (only $200 for the illustration and rights, barely better than your average deviantArt commission!!) but with the position I was in, I was willing to accept anything just to get my foot in the door. I knew this was a work opportunity that I could put in my resume, and any official credential I could get at the time was worth more than the money to me. Overall - a good experience!
Cartoon Network Party Dash Freelance
Tiny Monster Studios | April - June 2017
Earlier that year when I was doing my quarterly application/emailing blitz, I had cold-emailed an Atlanta-based animation studio called Tiny Monster Studios. I reached out with my resume and portfolio explaining my situation, and asked if they might consider me for possible internship programs or summer work. I had written hundreds of similar emails and was used to receiving radio silence in return, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to continue trying.
To my surprise, they actually responded - and were the only company I reached out to that ever did! Although they did not do internships, they did have an ongoing project that they could use some extra help with. I accepted in a heartbeat, and starting that April I did a few months of freelance prop work on a mobile game called Cartoon Network Party Dash at a rate of $20/hr, typically working on it on the weekends and in the evenings after classes.
Sadly I couldn’t find images of my assignments since I wasn’t great about archiving my work back then, but from what I recall it was mainly line art and color for props that would appear on the various levels of the game. I remember the staff at Tiny Monster as being incredibly encouraging and kind, and I’m so grateful to them for working with me as an unproven college student (thanks Jeff!!)
Cartoon Network Summer Internship
Cartoon Network Studios | June 6 - August 26, 2017
At long last a massive opportunity dropped into my lap, the exact kind of opportunity I had nearly lost faith in entirely. That spring, my application to the Cartoon Network Summer Internship Program had gotten past an initial round of evaluation, and after a couple more interviews I was confirmed to be one of 16 interns who would get to work at Cartoon Network in Los Angeles that summer!
Those 3 months, from June through August, were a complete whirlwind of new experiences. For the first time, I got to:
work in-house at a major studio and learn the behind-the-scenes of how CN shows are made
meet other artists who also had a deep love and passion for art and animation
develop my very own story pitch, to be presented to CN staff at the end of the internship
do allllll the fun tourist-y LA things, as well as visit iconic spaces specific to the animation industry
To this day I still look back on that summer as one of the most joyful and formative periods of my life, and it will always hold a very special place in my heart!
You can read a full in-depth write-up about the experience here:
Nick Artist Program Semi-Finals
Nickelodeon Animation | September 29, 2017
I returned to school that fall, with renewed hopes from my internship and the determination to power through the rest of my time in college. Just a few weeks later, I received an email that another one of my applications had been reviewed, this time for something called the Nick Artist Program.
There were two tracks to the program: a General Track, for applicants more interested in art and design work, and a Storyboard Track, for applicants who wanted to pursue storyboarding. Each track would take only a single Finalist per year, making it very competitive. It seemed to be more similar to an apprenticeship rather than the production internship I’d had at Cartoon Network, since the 2 finalists would be trained in skills that directly corresponded to artist jobs (such as doing background design or board revisions.)
Along with 7 other candidates, I had been selected as a Semi-Finalist for the General Track. After another month passed, I was informed that the field had narrowed down to just a few applicants, and I’d been scheduled for one last video interview on November 9th.
In the end I wasn’t chosen as the General Track Finalist, but I was honestly glad, because it meant another deserving artist would get to have this life-changing opportunity. I’d already had the good fortune of interning at CN, and knowing how difficult it was to be selected for these programs, I was happy that someone else got to share a similar type of experience!
Inktober 2017
Pittsburgh | October 2017
That semester, I decided I wanted to push myself to draw more, and committed to doing Inktober, an art challenge that encourages participants to draw with traditional media every single day for the month of October.
I would do an initial pencil sketch, and then hold the sketch up to the window and use the light from outdoors to trace the final drawing over it, a bit like a makeshift lightbox. Kind of a janky solution but it worked as long as the sun was shining! The final drawing was on vellum paper, and colored with layers of alcohol-based ink using Prismacolor markers.
I started the challenge feeling pretty good - I had given myself a few days buffer by starting in late September, and it felt freeing to draw on paper after primarily drawing digitally for so long. However, as the month went on, it became an uphill battle - I’d spend my classes anxiously penciling out rough drafts instead of paying attention, and I’d only start working on homework assignments late at night after the daily Inktober was done.
I ended up stopping after Day 20 from sheer exhaustion, but I’m glad that I gave it a shot! Here’s a selection of some of my favorites:
Hired on Kipo & the Age of Wonderbeasts
Dreamworks TV Animation | November 2017
After my internship ended, I posted the artwork for my intern pitch online - it was mainly a series of character designs with a little bit of world-building mixed in. I woke up shortly afterwards to a brand-new Twitter DM - a show creator at Dreamworks TV had liked the art I had shared and was curious to know if I’d be available to help on his brand-new Netflix series.
The show, Kipo & the Age of Wonderbeasts, was still in early stages of production, and offered me some color design freelance, which involved taking existing line-art for characters and props and designing color palettes for them.
I was definitely a bit nervous at first - I’d had my first little taste of freelancing earlier this year, but this felt higher-stakes and I knew I wanted to prove myself and do a good job. Luckily, my efforts paid off because after freelancing for about a month, the show decided they wanted to bring me on as a full-time Color Designer! From there, I was set to start officially in-house early next year, giving me some time to finish up the semester and move to LA.
In Review
With a full-time job offer in LA secured, I knew I wanted to start working ASAP, despite still technically having one more semester of college to go. After speaking to the program head about my situation, she approved me for early graduation since it looked like I had pretty much all of the mandatory credits I needed anyways.
I had started off the year knowing that with the way things were going, it might be time to throw in the towel for the time-being. I badly needed a sign - for anyone or anything to tell me to just hang in there, and stick it out just a little longer. Thankfully I kept on pushing, because this was the year that the trajectory of my life changed. I think that in 2017, my artistic skill level had finally reached a place where I was good enough for studio work, and that put me in a position to take advantage of pure luck and make the most of every opportunity that came my way.
To anyone who read this far - don’t ever give up on your dreams, because you never know what might happen or how quickly your circumstances could change. I know that this year changed everything for me, and I’ll be forever thankful for the way it kickstarted my journey in the animation industry!
Next Year in Review (2018):
you are amazing and im so grateful your persistence was rewarded, bc now more of the world gets to see and enjoy your work!
Thank you so much for sharing Kat! I find myself in the same situation, thinking in panic about plan b careers. Your post is the first thing since a long time that gave me a little bit of hope!
You mentioned inktober in this post, so I just wanted to ask if that was more of a personal achievement for you or if you think it helped you get hired? Congrats on getting to 20 haha