Congratulations! You stumbled onto my man-bear-pig of a website! This is where I share anything about my journey within animation.

This is me, Stephanie:

– and I love animation and vfx because I think it’s the closest you can get to making magic.

Currently I live in Queensland, Australia and work as an animator for Luma Pictures!

My Journey into VFX

Study

My interest in vfx began in university.

Picture the beautiful campus of Griffith University near the Brisbane river. I was studying a Bachelor of Animation and my amazing peers were questioning:

How do I bring 2D cowboy pumpkins to life?

Can I create an animation about fire tigers by myself?

Meanwhile I was asking different questions.

Who gave John Knoll the talent to be a VFX supervisor AND invent Photoshop?

How the HELL did they create the hallway scene in Inception?

I left university yearning to really take my 3D animation to the next level and find out how the magic spells in VFX are cast. My father told me that people who do great things have great teachers.  So I sought out great teachers and enrolled in an animation fundamentals diploma at the online school Animation Mentor.

And my teachers WERE great! They had real experience to share from top studios like Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney and Industrial Light and Magic. And my animation did step up in quality! Again, I felt like the odd woman out as the majority of my peers wanted to work in character animation for 3D feature films and TV. But I was determined to work in VFX.

First Steps

I started with a few of the “rights of passage” roles – the unpaid internship. The render wrangler (The Post Lounge). The client service/runner girl. Anything to get my foot in the door because when it comes to film and tv, this girl was keen beans!

It was while working in client service at Alt.vfx that I learnt an important lesson – VFX animation in particular is a niche focus. The smartest way to be hired would be to focus on a reel with real-world physics (nothing too cartoony) and most importantly – creature animation.

Eventually I worked up the courage to show my reel to the studio (please like it, I’m a bundle of nerves!). It must have been up to scratch because I was given a role as junior animator!

The role required me to animate for high-end TV commercials (TVCs). The real job was to keep up. Deadlines were tight. Clients were picky. I was thrown in the deep end.

And I loved it!

Sure I had to learn to swim but the skill of turning out (quality) work quickly accelerated my path in the industry. 60 TVCs later, I’m extremely grateful for the fast pace as I haven’t worked faster since.

Taking A Leap

I learnt as a junior animator that even with a contract, you’re never quite guaranteed a steady flow of work. A fellow artist gave me a tip:

Once you work in film, the ball starts rolling and it’s way easier to find work.

From then on I set my sights on transitioning into long-form content (film). Brisbane itself had a very small media industry after the global financial crisis and so I needed to move elsewhere.

There were 2 major VFX hubs in the world: London and Vancouver. So I compared the cost of living. London – too expensive. Vancouver – we could swing it!

I saved enough money with my partner at the time to move to Canada in 2016. It was risky; no job and about 1 month to get myself one. It was at a recruiting fair that I was fortunate enough to land 3 interviews and a role at the company I’d set my sights on: Dneg!

The experience was amazing. A talented, multi-cultural crew who always had fun. 18 months later I returned to Australia with 5 film credits under my belt, new skills and new friends. Most importantly, my friend was right – the ball started rolling!

The Ball is Rolling

From there I’ve hopped around and I’ve loved every moment: Pony Up Pictures (Brisbane), Luma Pictures (Melbourne), Animal Logic (Sydney), a 1 year stint as a lecturer at TAFE and back to Luma Pictures. It’s been a blast!

Pleasant Surprises

There were two unexpected surprises I’ve experienced from that “rolling ball”.

First – most contracts in the industry work like this: “I’ve got 2-3 months left on this contract. I better look for another role.” And the rush begins to find another contract to keep the cash coming. You ask your friends. You initiate talks with recruiters.

NOW I’ve had recruiters initiate conversation with ME, unsolicited. Little ol’ me. I have no problem chasing a role but everyone wants to be wanted at some point too.

Secondly – working on cool projects means you get to have THIS conversation on a regular basis.

THEM: What do you do?

ME: I’m an animator.

THEM: Oh cool! Like drawings and stuff? Have you worked on anything I know?

ME: Um maybe? I’ve worked on Marvel stuff like Deadpool 2 and Spiderman: Far From Home.

THEM: WHAT? Are you serious? That’s so cool!

And then you inevitably dissolve into my favourite nerdy discussion that begs the question: which one of us is the bigger geek?

In Summary

I’ll finish by saying this line so cheesy it’s a-brie-gious: I. Love. My. Job.

Please drop me a line any time! The languages I speak include film, art, script-writing, creatures, tomato-sauce-in-the-fridge-VS-the-cupboard, and the ancient dialect of All-Things-Food.

Happy reading!