Breaking Into The Animation World: Pt. 1 - When We Decided To Go For It

My husband Tyler and I in front of our old house in Georgia (right before we moved). 2018.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been in Los Angeles for 5 months now! I got my first animation job as a storyboard artist on Joe Murray’s show Let’s Go Luna for PBS. It’s been such a whirlwind of a transition (from moving to starting the full time job) that I’m now ready to write about my journey into the field! I’m breaking it up into 3 parts because it’s honestly too much for one post!

Where It All Started

At the beginning of 2018, I left my full time job doing marketing and design to pursue my own work and run my business. I was doing anything from design work to illustrations for clients and half way into the year I grew really unhappy. I was having a hard time being alone so much working out of my home studio. I was also struggling to get enough decent paying jobs. I wanted to get back into animation but all the jobs were either underpaying or not the types of jobs I wanted to pursue.

My Breaking Point

I felt like I kept hitting walls. I was trying to land a contract job animating for a studio and they counter offered me half the rate I was asking for… First off, contracting means no benefits, so the number I was asking for was fair for a person covering their own benefits/expenses/equipment/taxes/etc. I stuck by my number but in reality I was second-guessing myself and struggling with whether I made the right decision.

In desperation, I was going back and go down on my rate. That’s when Tyler challenged me with “Why are you going to settle when you know what you’re worth.“ I said I was really wanting to work in animation and felt like a failure because I had been out of the industry for a while. Honestly it pushed me to my breaking point… I lost it in the car in the middle of a Costco parking lot.

Later on, Tyler encouraged me to try and apply to studios in Los Angeles.

I said “Well if I get a job, are you ok with moving and leaving everything because that’s what would happen.“ We wanted to think it over for a week and seriously consider it.. By the end of that week, we realized that if we wanted to go after a better life, we’d have to take the risk and go for it.

Making A Game Plan

So we put our heads together and came up with a plan.

We decided to start working on the house and fix it up so we could sell it. We were going to wait to put it on the market once I got a job, but then decided to move forward anyway and list the house in faith. If I didn’t get a job by the time it sold, then we’d either hang out in Georgia while I kept applying or we’d just go for it and move anyway.

I decided to scale back on client work so I could focus on updating my portfolio and apply to jobs. As far as making ends meet in the process, I catered weddings on the weekends with Tyler’s mom’s company. It was a lot of fun and I got to eat amazing food every week. Taking on work that had nothing to do with art was perfect because it freed up my mind so I could put my creative energy towards my portfolio.

My Husband’s Support

Tyler was my rock during the whole process and believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. He knew how much I loved animation and he was willing to leave everything behind so that I could have a shot at my dreams.

He was juggling different jobs at the time and we knew that if we didn’t go for it now, then we would never know what could have been… and we didn’t want to ever have regret for not trying.

In my first art class in college, my professor gave us some advice: Marry someone who supports what you do. I honestly was taken back because I was thinking art professors said stuff like “sketch everyday“ or “never stop creating“, but that professor was giving us dating advice. I was like “why would that matter, my art is MY thing and I’ll go after it no matter what because I’m an independent women, blah blah blah”. But looking back, that was some of the most practical advice. The person you choose has a lot of influence on your life and vice versa.

All of this started because Tyler called me out when I was wanting to settle and encouraged me to go for it. I’m forever grateful for his love and support of what I do.