Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Palacios.
Hi Christian, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hello! I am an entertainment Prop Designer for Television Animation. I am a Cuban American born and raised in Miami, FL, and I currently work for the television series known as, Rick and Morty, while living now in Pasadena, CA. I always knew from a young age that I wanted to do entertainment involving art, but I wasn’t sure in what exactly for a while. The path felt very in line with Concept Art for video games, and so I trained growing up, attending magnet schools for their Arts programs. I attended Miami’s Southwood Middle school for their Art magnet program, New World School of the Arts for their Visual Arts diploma, and lastly, I became the first in my family to travel out of state for college, to attend Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and study for a Bachelors of Fine Arts and Illustration. While at RISD, I Involved myself in hub communities such as the Brown Political Review, an annual school article organization for Brown University’s school newspaper, and the Brown Risd Game Development community, a collective group of students from both Brown University and RISD, collaboratively working together to design and generate playable entertainment for the public. It was within this group that lead me to helping with the release of a steam video game called ‘JailBreak: Lockdown’ with starting studio, Hi I’m Alec Games, as well as contributing to another upcoming released title called ‘Battle Train’ with studio, Terrible posture Games. Shortly after those experiences, I made a career pivot to television animation, and worked for two years at a local Subway food restaurant to pay bills as I learned under classes at Pasadena’s Concept Design Academy and studies with mentorships to grow my new portfolio. I landed my first break as Prop Designer in animation with Disney Television Animation’s Disney Channel, animated series, The Owl House, and continued to work with more Disney projects beyond that such as Big City Greens: the movie Spacecation, as well as their tv series, Big City Greens, and Primos. After 2 and a half years at Disney, I was fortunate to work on more outside projects with other studios such as Cartoon Network’s animated short with Creative, Nick Edwards, as part of the studio’s shorts program, ‘Cartoon Cartoons’, Lion Forge Entertainment’s new tv series, Iyanu, Titmouse Animation with a new upcoming series called, The Haunted Hotel, and now, entering my fifth year in the industry post-grad, the television series, Rick and Morty. I feel very fortunate for the journey of opportunities that came my way, and for the people I met and continue to learn from as I go. And for my supportive family for raising me to be someone who can keep pushing for their dreams. I plan to continue spreading creative joy, seeking growths, to deliver heights of inspiration to fresh new storytellers, so that they may fight doubts like I did and explore new visions with the world.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
During the period of my career change from Concept Art for Video games to Prop Designing for Television Animation, It was a tough road as a creative to shift gears. From all that I was taught growing up and in school, I was now learning new rules telling me to think of every line I put down on the paper, giving designing a whole new meaning. And not only technical aspects, but the mental growth of needing to learn these rules definitely shared a bundle of tolls as someone starting the industry fresh out of school in their 20’s. I learned video games weren’t my passion, and that the industry was a difficult one to keep a foot in. So through that realization, I made an impulse (immature) move and said, ‘I need to be out there, and show them what I can do’, without knowing exactly who “them” were. I made small savings, packed up, and moved across the country to live in Pasadena, CA “in search of a job”, and to learn what the industry truly is. My time here started with the thought of it being a ‘trial’ bases, meaning I stay for 3 months, see if this is working or not, and make the decision to stay or move back to Miami, FL. But as 3 months passed, I quickly learned how proper networking takes time, and that you can’t literally just march up studio’s doorsteps, drop business cards and expect a call. I knew I needed to stay if I wanted to grow from the resources I was learning and give this a chance. For 2 years of my post graduate experience, I was living in California, across the country from all of my family, working by day as a sandwich artist at my local Subway restaurant, while studying by night taking classes at Pasadena’s Concept Design Academy, and being mentored by industry professionals I’ve met along the way. Animation fell on my lap, and I wanted to learn it. During these two years, I broke my knowledge and portfolio about video game design, and sat down to understand how my tools can contribute to the fundamentals and properties within Television Animation. I fell in love with prop designing, particularly effects, and worked towards achieving that role within animation. The journey came with some hardships, moving away from home meant learning how to live on my own and balance my funds. Being out there meant sometimes literally placing yourself in areas that may help make those opportunities, but going to said places also meant greater spending, which lead to taking more work shifts to re-balance that week’s spending budget. And as funds got tighter, doubt got stronger. all until, as I nearly reached my last dollar, I got the call and began my work with Disney.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As Prop Designer for television animation, I get to work in the pre-production stage of television shows, designing layout turnarounds of black and white lined final models that would go into being animated upon post-production stage. The exciting part of my job is always adding that extra umph to a design, and then seeing it go to good hands entering motion by the super talented animation teams leading post production. Prop designs can range from vehicles that we see character’s drive on screen, house appliances, etc. all the way to smoke debris and explosions for effect specific props. I felt very fortunate working on shows like Disney’s, The Owl House, because a lot of that work meant playing with the playfulness of how magic is casted. Distinguishing the usage between each characters handle with magic was always a fun challenge as a designer. If a character casts a fire spell, maybe one character casts it more aggressively than the other, showing those subtleties as a creative always made the storytelling aspect so much fun! And of course, witnessing the fans appreciate notice of those subtleties, and even blow up my work through cosplays is always a blessing to witness. Catching my work out in the wild in that way always helps me keep going. Reminding me that the work we pour goes beyond a computer screen and touches hearts.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Plenty! If it wasn’t for a little luck of meeting the right people, and being present for the right gatherings, a lot of the opportunities that came my way may had never happened. Being present is a very important rule that I’ve learned and would recommend to everyone needing to learn how to get a career started. If you need guidance, don’t understand how certain things work, always remember to be honest about it with who you meet. Knowledge of your growth spreads like wild fire if your humble and present, and with right timing, luck can enable that first knock at the door.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cpalacios-art.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christianpalacios_art/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-palacios-72a1a6132/
- Twitter: https://x.com/chrishinpalacio
