School of Motion Podcast

One the of the hardest parts of freelancing is managing your risk. Lucky for Colin Hesterly, he's never been afraid of taking a chance. Whether it's crossing the country for a degree, landing an internship with Buck off a student film, or jumping headfirst into freelancing only three months into his career...Colin is ready to take the plunge. We finally managed to lock him down long enough to extract some golden nuggets of advice, so crank that volume and break out a pen and paper. Class is in session.

No one arrives in this industry ready to jump straight into freelancing. You don't instantly get the skills just because you downloaded the software. Nuria Boj put in the hard work—and the homework—to find and define her strengths as a designer/illustrator. Along the way, she's worked with some incredible studios and clients...including on a project near and dear to our hearts. Get ready to meet one fantastic artist.

What if you had an amazing idea for an animated series, but had no idea where to start? That's where Matthew Senreich and Seth Green began, chasing a funny idea across Hollywood to bring their dream to life. The end result, after 15 years and going on 200 episodes, was the legendary Robot Chicken. We sat down with Matthew to talk about his start with Wizard Entertainment, running rampant over pop culture, and his plan to dominate future. Don't miss this one!

Imagine setting out into the world as an artist, traveling from country to country, with each step in your career taking you further from home. Motion Designer Jiaqi Wang began her journey in China, but she's practiced her craft from Shanghai to Turin, Italy, to sunny Los Angeles, California. Still, she's only looking toward the future, and what tomorrow might bring.

At some point, every artist struggles to find their voice—that unique style that makes everything they do specifically theirs. We often talk about the structure of animation, or the foundational elements of motion design, but all of that is just the groundwork for your art. To learn more, we sat down director Cat Solen to learn how she found her voice in her new Adult Swim show, "The Shivering Truth."

Adult Swim is known for shows that push the envelope for both what you can show on TV, and how you bring your stories to life. "JJ Villard's Fairy Tales" is a twisted and hilarious take on the Grimm Brothers' famous works. In this episode, JJ joins us to discuss the incredible show, overcoming numerous setbacks, and what it was like to work with the cast of his dreams. If you're hoping for a creative career, don't miss this one!

Territory Studio has become one of the biggest players in the game when it comes to FUI work with huge feature films like Avengers-End Game and Guardians of The Galaxy under their belt. Lately, they have seen ventures into Experimental and Future Design by creating the UI for the cars of the future. In this episode, Co-Founder and Creative Director Marti Romances explains how the right mindset and smart business decisions can pave the way to success.

Youtube has become an incubator for content that blurs the lines between VFX studio and hobbyists with contributors creating some pretty impressive stuff with consumer gear. Daniel Hashimoto; AKA "Hashi" AKA "Action Movie Dad" has shown us what ingenuity, technical chops and a couple of cute kids can do with budget filmmaking. Oh, did we mention that Hashi happens to be Senior Content Creator at Red Giant Software?

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" Director Kris Pearn joins us to discuss his new Netflix Original Movie, "The Willoughbys," how they achieved such a unique visual style, and what it's like inventing new worlds. https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/animated-feature-film-director-kris-pearn

Studio ownership is unforgiving when you consider the great effort it takes to get one up and running, never mind operating for a long period of time. Block & Tackle is one of the very few studios that have existed since the pioneer days of Motion Design, and they are still thriving. Owners Adam Gault and Ted Kotsaftis join us on this episode and talk about how they have maintained their sharp edge in the industry while producing an expansive collection of different looks and styles.