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Meet Nicole Ham

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Ham.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was spawned on the east coast, somewhere between Maryland in DC (Known to locals as the DMV). I grew up on cookouts, crab boils, and big family reunions. I was always an odd, introverted kid with a handful of friends, was a huge crybaby, and brimming with social anxiety. Naturally, I connected to cartoons and animation at a really young age, seeing the medium as a conduit for my outward shyness (but inward ideas). I spent a lot of time at grandparent(s) houses watching the same three cartoons and movies nonstop. Genndy Tartakovskys and Craig McCrackens — the allure of their simple but accessible style was a great In for a kid like me who was a terrible artist but compulsively drew all the time.

High school I was lucky to have some really strong art-related role models through my extreme social awkwardness. A teacher who put me on to the Japanese super flat movement, art as protest, all types of things. Outside of art class though… going to an all-girls catholic school while being a fan of the most raunchy era of web and flash cartoons? Didn’t mix! I got in a lot of trouble just for drawing things from my head. I had a year-long bout with counselors and my parents, who legit were going to near commit me. Fun stuff!

Zipping past college, I realized something; I had absolutely no social, financial, or survival skills. Despite immense understanding of art and animation (things I had to invest on my own time, even through college!) I was completely broke! I didn’t know how to market myself! I worked in photo packaging, making buttons and plaques for things like James Cameron’s Avatar™ themed dance teams. Yes, you heard me right.

Years of being completely lost but drawing hundreds of things ensued.

I started to push into the advertising industry as a JR. to Mid-level art director for around five years. That landed me in Dallas TX, a place I said my whole life I would never want to move to… But MONEY TALKS! My Eyes still set on animation as an industry, and my foot halfway out the door. I got an op to move to LA for my advertising job, and I don’t think I ever made a decision so fast. In 4 weeks, I packed up everything from my home of 5 years and booked it to LA. Starting over again and enduring the advertising world for one more year.

It was a grueling, painful, and difficult year at that. Childhood and college friends fell out all over the place. I endured an absolutely horrible boss situation, one that really snapped my brain in half. I reached my limit and started applying to Netflix and all types of animation ops I could find… Finishing what tests I could. Rejection. Rejection. Rejection. No dice. Not enough experience. Industry work in my book wasn’t relevant enough. By March, I’d given up. Then the Pandemic hit. Then 2020 in general hit.

Around mid to late June, I found a test in my inbox for my favorite show of the decade. Just sittin’ there. My current job had me at my complete and total wit’s end by that time, and I was exhausted. But I did the test- it was work more suited towards my (then near dormant) skillset in flash cartoons and rig-building. Probably one of the most difficult tests I’ve ever done, strictly because I was so out the industry for so long, and I had to balance the work with my advertising work. Exhausted and mentally in pieces, I finished it, turned it in. And now I’m ON the show. Tuca and Bertie. The show that got a second chance. Fitting.

Has it been a smooth road?
Bumps all the goddamn way.

For starters, my brain. I’ve wrestled so long with mental illness… specifically depression and ADHD, with a drop of obsessive compulsion in the mix. I have always been my own worst enemy. As long as I could possibly remember, I haven’t had anything resembling confidence. My first inclination when I draw or animate anything is to doubt everything about it. Too many artists… This is normal, but to those who know me? I’m steeped in depressive language and perfectionism to the extreme. I’ve only JUST realized how much it’s held me back my whole life.

Though through self-doubt comes coping mechanisms. I replaced my doubts with pivoting to being extremely interest-based and chasing dopamine at all costs. Reading way too many books, learning how animatronics were made. Getting obsessed with grindhouse films, early Peter Jackson movies– Sinking my teeth into performance art, coding, web design, and game design. The history of comics, animation, and the sociopolitical roots of these industries.

Another hurdle? My Wallet. I was broke for so long. We’re talking 10-20 bucks in the account … on a good day. We’re talking completely no concept of making money. Oh yeah, that shit was hard. EXTREMELY difficult having no direction and doubt from yourself and your entire family. I was backed into a corner and decided I needed to work in an industry I knew nothing about. For five years.

To me, the biggest obstacle of all? Time. It was time ticking away. I spent my 20s being fairly aimless. But I kept HOLDING ON to animation. Knowing I didn’t go to a technical animation school and that I was basically self-taught on that front. SO MUCH stacked against me, and still is! But with the grind comes experience, and with experience comes solutions. I started actually planning and *actually* doing things to help me reach my goals. That thinking *really does* help, even if it’s small!

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m an animator! A….? “Generalist”? Motion graphics, 2D art, animation across a few mediums like 3D and more. Also, an art director, which in modern advertising means “Do a lot of the work while a senior/ creative director makes three times what you make and tears it apart”. Ha! Can you see I’m *JADED*?

But for real though, whatever job title I have, I’m passionate about motion, animation, and animation history. I love annoying everyone on my team with obscure animations and videos from the recesses of the internet. I’m *that* type of person, always sampling things, taking things in, adverse to repetition and trends.

It sounds EDGY! But it’s T R U E!

I have no idea if that ‘sets me apart’. People say my art is ‘unique’. I don’t know what that means! I’m not used to doing things a very specific way *or* being ‘consistent’. So maybe that’s what the *secret* is.

What else? I love to write and I have a passion for music, despite not being skilled at either. And video games. Dont forget the ol’ video games.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
LA is beautiful, fun, and vibrant– even during a pandemic. The nature and the opportunities to get away for a whole are unparalleled to anywhere I’ve lived. Want to zip to the desert for a while? You can! Pay pennies to see a beautiful secluded beach out of a movie? You can! It’s really is accessible, strange, and oddly comforting to feel the possibilities of this city 24/7.

Tips on “starting out?” Here comes the LA ‘Cons’… It’s imperative to have one to a few things lined up if you’re going to live here and/or transplant. This place is wild from a renters, housing, and job standpoint. Stuff ebbs and flows like crazy, even when you think your plans are air-tight. I’m extremely fortunate to be disciplined across multiple industries and know SO MANY wonderful and talented people! It didn’t happen overnight. Things take time, even with plans, and even when things are going well. Some things happen fast, others slow. Pace yourself, and don’t beat yourself up. You have support even if you *think* you don’t. Thats FAX!

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