Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1021376
FALL 2018 13 T H E C L I M B The only obstacle? International schools are very expensive. Her solution? Take up modeling—a surprising choice for a shy girl who wasn't interested in makeup— but a lucrative way to earn tuition money. "I was very shy back then," Martinez, a petite blonde with delicate features and a bright smile, confesses. "I needed to run for the cameras to show the brand and blow kisses, and that's something I'm not. But I forced myself. What was blocking me from studying animation was the money, so I found a way to pay for it." After two years, she had the cash to pay for a year at the Vancouver Film School, where she studied classical animation. But she finished the program in 2007 and job prospects were scarce. For Martinez, the answer was simple: Keep working toward her goal in any way she could. She found a job back in Mexico City animating jokes for a famous comedian. Over a year and a half, she fine-tuned her work ethic while pouring herself into the project. "Canada really trained me to keep deadlines, to be efficient, and do something with a low budget," she explains. The team loved her, and she loved the job, but she also realized she was running herself into the ground with too many sleepless nights and so she decided to move on. After hand-drawing animation for two different films (alongside other animators who'd gone abroad for their training), she opened a boutique studio with a partner in Mexico City creating animation for an advertising-heavy client base. After five years and a six-month stint back at VFS for a CG intensive, Martinez reached another turning point. "I want to tell stories. I want to touch people. I want to work on something bigger," she thought at the time. She left Mexico again, this time to network in Los Angeles. "Don't disregard networking events and special venues to connect with people who can get you closer to your goals," she advises others based on her own experience. "If money is an issue charge the expense to your credit card and pay off the debt monthly, this is what I did early in my career; look at it as an investment building new relationships and exposure to your work." She made great contacts during her first visit to CTN but she also wrote down one producer's email wrong. It took a bounce-back, some heavy searching, and ultimately a LinkedIn message to get a test. Fortunately, they loved her work, and hired her for a five-month gig as a storyboard artist on Original Force's Duck Duck Goose—they provided her an employment letter but she had to secure her work permit. She wound up working there for a year and a half. From there, she needed to find her next job. Despite reaching the end of the hiring process and all but being offered the position, some companies just weren't interested in signing the extra paperwork she needed, even though she was willing to secure her own visas. Ultimately, she was offered a job with The Simpsons, and later moved over to American Dad. The journey has taken her a long way from her home in Mexico but her creative drive remains the same. Now, as an established artist she hopes to cultivate her own voice and pitch her own animated shows. "My father passed away from colon cancer before he got to see my success in Los Angeles, when I prospered in the animation industry," she says. "I like to think my father has a huge smile now, that I'm living my dream and had the courage to take a risk." – Jean Bentley top: Invoking her Spanish heritage while dancing Flamenco. bottom: Studying classic animation at the Vancouver Film School.