Today we’d like to introduce you to Miranda Dorantes.
Hi Miranda, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Rainy days at school was really where it all started. It was the end of the week and it has been pouring all day. It was right before lunchtime, and I was in my fourth-grade math class. My teacher, Mr. Espinoza, proposed to us to get in line to go grab lunch, then we’d come back to watch a movie. We all got up, excited as hell to do that. Usually, we would go grab lunch on a rainy day and sit at the cafeteria, bored out of our minds since many of the lunch ladies would tell us to hush. Coming back with wet shoes and a tray of food, we sat in our desk and he turned on the projector and put in a copy of How to Train Your Dragon. I was seated the entire time. I almost didn’t even blink! We got the movie cut short since our lunch was only 45 minutes long and we were at the climax of the movie! I was devastated! I needed to know what happened to Hiccup and Toothless! We begged him to keep playing the movie, but rules are rules! We had to keep going with our regular class time. He was then nice enough to let us finish the movie the following Monday at the beginning of class. Ten-year-old me didn’t know why at the time she felt really identified with Hiccup, but I felt so seen. I felt like a fish out of water growing up and watching such a wonderful film like How to Train Your Dragon was like a warm, cozy hug to me. I didn’t know it at the time, but this movie came to show me later on that I could do art for a living! Later on when I was a teen, I watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 and that led to me discovering art books on films were a thing! I looked everywhere within the LA County library system for those books, as they were really sparse. I checked out as many as I could multiple times. I drew over and over and over again the character turnarounds in my tiny sketchbook, learning how to capture the likeliness of my favorite characters. I owe so much to How to Train Your Dragon and how it brought me comfort and joy in finding art as a career.
My parents separately packed their bags and emigrated here to California, their hopes and dreams wrapped well in their jean pocket. Their journey here wasn’t easy as they didn’t have the legal status to work when getting. However, they found ways to make it work, to live life here and pursue other things they couldn’t do in their hometowns. Their perseverance, determination, and hard work was instilled in me. Senior year arrived faster than I could’ve imagined. I had been preparing my whole life for this moment. Everyone yapped about college and how we should go, but didn’t really give guidance how to? I researched extensively on animation and careers. I followed artists from my favorite movies, looked into their work, what school they went to, and how they got there. All the questions in the world I had! I looked into private schools, Cal States, communities and UC’s. I eventually chose Cal State Fullerton for their Animation/Entertainment Art Program. As a first-generation college student, I was going into this journey with no guidance, no mentor. No one in close proximity had gone to college and neither did anyone in my friends’ families, so we were jumping in headfirst.
I’ve been drawing longer than I can remember. Every scrap of paper, behind or on the side corners of every multiplication table worksheet, inside the corners or empty spaces of my English workbooks. Sticky notes on top of sticky notes with my doodles of whatever I was into at the time. Song lyrics, movie and book characters, all scribbled down with a lead pencil, pen or whatever highlighter I found on the floor. There were teachers that enjoyed my scribbles during class, others…weren’t so cheerful about it. I’d stick those sticky notes into the sleeve of my school binders, repping all my interests, hoping it would spark conversation between other fellow art nerds I didn’t know of. I kept holding onto my art, making it, and molding it. Getting to college, despite all the drawing and learning I had done on my own, I never felt more behind in my life. I felt like I had to shove seven years worth of fundamentals and work within the first two years.
Nevertheless, I worked really hard, did my own research, and asked more questions than humanly possible. I felt so welcomed, and I had finally found my people at CSUF. I joined numerous animation clubs, became a member of Women in Animation for the CSUF Chapter, and continued building within that community later on. For the first time in my life, I was excited about school. I was excited about learning. I was excited about being surrounded by people with the same enthusiasm for animation as myself. Around my third year, I knocked on several studios’ doors (not literally!). I started applying my sophomore year for internships while I was working retail and being a board member for WIA. I didn’t have much experience in my belt as I was so young into my college career. Regardless, I applied. I had interviewed with Warner Brothers Discovery for several positions, I didn’t know if I would nail any! Around my third year, I got a call back from Cartoon Network Studios. They were offering me an internship position for production for a little big preschool called Jessica’s Big Little World. I had worked so hard to that point, knocked on so many doors, sent so many applications, and changed my resume and cover letter more times than the earth has rotated around the sun. I couldn’t believe I was getting to intern at the studio that I grew up with!
Months flew by and I walked into the tall, black CN building that you can see from the five freeway. It was a surreal moment to be there. The production team I worked with were some of the nicest and most talented people I had ever worked with. They were so quick to make me feel welcome and show me the ropes in production. I worked closely with the Craig of the Creek crew, who were also just as wonderful as the Jessica crew. I met the other CNS interns, one which I knew from class. We had a total of three out of five interns from CSUF! How cool is that? I worked closely with the Craig of the Creek intern, and we both worked through the ten weeks. We even got to pitch our own show to the studio as a practice pitch. It is by far one of my favorite work experiences I had the privilege to do.
I’ve now graduated from CSUF with my BFA in Animation/Entertainment Art alongside several of my art friends, whom I had the privilege of sharing my journey with alongside them.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Oh, definitely not! It’s been a challenge since the start. I went head-on into college without any notion as to what was the right thing to do. I was also pursuing an industry I knew nothing about at the time. So going to college by myself, holding my own hand, then trying to get my foot in the door in an industry that’s really competitive is hard! I didn’t have any friends or academic support until I had settled well into college. From there, I slowly met people from different majors and others within my major. It got easier once I had people who had walked through those roads already. It was having to find those roads in the first place that takes the most work. I never thought I would’ve landed an internship ever. I didn’t know anyone! We were in a global pandemic when I was a freshman in college. Many in-person events such as Lightbox were canceled, and so were many in-person club events. Though I still attended events virtually, I do feel that many pandemic graduates missed out on a large portion of networking during the time.
So far, the hardest thing I’ve had to face within my journey is learning to be comfortable with myself in every new space I enter. Of course, we’re all uncomfortable on first days at school or work, but it’s the way we go about it that I feel makes the difference. When I started entering into more professional spaces after moving on from retail, sometimes I felt that I was small. Not because anyone made me feel that way, but because I would make myself feel small. Thinking things like ‘Oh you’re just a student in a professional workplace”. I was dismissing my own experiences. I was insecure and unsure whether I belonged within those spaces or not. I felt that these feelings arise from also being a first-generation student and how we are the first ones to enter such vastly different spaces in which other people in our family may not have. Confidence is our skills and ourselves, I feel, comes with time and experience. Eventually, I flipped the narrative and was like “Heck yeah, you deserve to be in those spaces! You contributed to the team and worked so hard to get there!”. First-generation students are trailblazers. We build the roads, then the next crowd makes it better for the rest of the crowds to come through. Our work is not any less because of where we came from, it in fact is stronger because of it.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in background design and storyboards for animation, with graphic design on the side! I love too many things within animation that it was so hard to choose just one track! It really all boils down to story. I love a good story and experiencing a character’s journey to wherever they need to go. Story brings people together. It gives you the warm hug when you need it the most. It makes you laugh your butt off. It makes you cry like a baby. Story is everything. It is fundamental. I add those elements into my work. Story goes into designing new worlds where characters will live and breathe in. I love designing down to the tiniest detail of a character’s chair in which they will sit in to eat breakfast to the place where they see a falling star crash into a building for story reasons. I also love finding the perfect composition and framing for shots. What shot fits better for the emotion I want to convey. How can I best communicate to the audience how this character is really feeling. Seeing a good story inspires me every time because there is so much power in telling people your experiences. It makes us feel connected!
I am the most proud of my Cartoon Network Intern Pitch! The pitch was originally developed for a short film while I was in school. Then, I continued to develop the short film into a slice-of-life concept and eventually showed him off to the studio! Though I am continuing the development of that concept, I was so excited seeing how I was met with such excitement and wonder about my work, while getting amazing feedback from industry professionals.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mirandadorantes.wixsite.com/miranda-dorantes
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorantesdraws/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dorantesdraws
- Other: https://dorantesdraws.carrd.co
Image Credits
Miranda Dorantes
