Veronica Plante grew up and was homeschooled in the South Bay. V had an early interest in the fine arts, but they knew then that the liberal arts career path was limited. The arts, media, and entertainment pathway sparked V’s creative curiosity and they began taking dual-enrollment animation classes at Cañada College at 15. That was the beginning of their journey to becoming, at 21 years of age, maybe one of the youngest animators at Agora Studio, a global network of professional artists providing services to animation studios around the world.
V attributes much of their successful and unique path to Agora, to the support and encouragement of Cañada College Digital Art and Animation faculty, Paul Naas. Recognizing their love for animation and their willingness to go above and beyond, he encouraged them to seize opportunities to learn more. They were introduced to AnimChallenge, a Facebook group and Agora partnership, that hosts a monthly animation challenge open to animators of all experience levels; a great opportunity to sharpen skills, connect with other aspiring animators and have some fun while continuing to take courses at Cañada College. V did all of that and more. In early 2020, Agora had a big need for storyboard artists in a very short time and randomly approached V to help with the talent scouting on a volunteer basis. It was a challenge, “but it was a lot of fun and being on the recruiting side of things definitely gave me a lot of insight into how jobs are actually offered to artists and what they’re looking for in a showreel.” A year of this extra work-based learning impressed Agora and culminated with an offer to do paid animation work last October. This combined experience influenced V’s decision to enroll at Animator Mentor, an online animation school taught by professional animators to continue to build upon their skills.
When asked what advice they would give to community college animation students, V first qualified their response with a reminder that everyone’s career path is unique. There are no consistent, predetermined steps for how one lands a job in animation. That said, V shared that what will set you apart from others with similar technical skills is the ability to communicate and adapt. These are essential skills because all animation work is done by teams, requiring a curious, empathetic, and open mind. So while you’re taking classes to build your skills, join communities like AnimChallenge to get comfortable working with others and being open to new and diverse perspectives. V warns that animation can be very hard work, relative to time and effort. To develop that work ethic, they recommend looking for and offering to do more than what’s expected of you to demonstrate your readiness.
Like most tech-related industries, there is a lack of diversity in animation. V observed that the time the courses require is a problem for students who must work while going to school. Low-income black and Latinx students often have to make hard choices between livelihood and pursuing skills and experience. But on a more positive side, V noted another tech career trend – women in animation are well-represented in the high-paying, production management role which requires more personal/social-emotional skills. PMs are the glue in animation work, where everything gets done by teams.
V’s story about their most recent project epitomizes all that they recommend above. The task was the opener for a commercial featuring rapping birds. V is not into rap. But you wouldn’t know it watching these birds throw down!