Life & Work with Julia Gomes Rodrigues

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Gomes Rodrigues.

Hi Julia, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born and raised in São Paulo, the biggest metropolis in Brazil, but my heart was always in nature, and since my mom was a biologist, I was always surrounded by animals and loved traveling to beaches, forests and the Amazon. I loved drawing and making animal sculptures with play doh and clay, but when I finally got access to a computer, I was introduced to the digital art world. Like most artists my age, I started by drawing with a mouse in MS Paint and learning from tutorials in DeviantArt, and years later I finally got my first tablet and started taking comic classes, which introduced me to the animation world.

My family has always been extremely supportive of my art, and the art mentors I met pushed me into trying animation and I loved it. After graduating high school, I took an animation course and a year later, I was accepted into CalArts, an animation college in California. Even though Brazil has a lot of smaller animation studios, I didn’t feel ready to start working right out of high school. I felt like I still had lots to learn, and since there were no colleges that focused on animation exclusively at the time, I decided that the fastest way I could grow would be studying abroad. I chose to go to CalArts because I would be able to learn from top animators and artists as well as producing a short animated film every year.

Moving to California all by myself was probably the biggest risk I took, but I met so many good friends and learned so much from amazing artists that it became my second home. I graduated from CalArts in 2019, and since then I have worked as a 2D animator and storyboard artist in short films and feature animations. I’m currently working at Skydance Animation Studios as a storyboard artist.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
From having to deal with culture shock, language barriers and financial struggles, the hardest part for sure is dealing with the American immigration system. It’s just so much to plan and be aware of that it can consume your thoughts and you live in constant stress thinking about all the steps and qualifications you need to be able to stay and work in the US. But since I have a lot of international friends, our struggles are usually similar and we can always talk about it and try to help each other with all the crazy visa processes.

A recent bumpy road was when Covid started. At the time, the production I was in shut down literally the week when studios started to enter lockdown. All my interviews were canceled and people didn’t know how “work from home” would work. Since I was on a student work visa (OPT), if I didn’t find a full-time job in three months, I would have to go back to Brazil. I already went through so much stress trying to find internships during college and a job right after graduation that at the time, I just decided to not think about it and just do what I enjoyed. So for a while, I was just drawing for myself, and a few weeks before my visa expired, I got a job at Skydance thanks to some connections I had from my previous job. The animation industry in LA is a really close community, so you usually get to meet people from different studios and productions and somewhere down the road, you will probably end up working together.

I still have to deal with these visa headaches every year or so, but I’m trying not to be too consumed by all the stress and not let it prevent me from doing what I want. At least I’m happy I get to stay around for a bit longer, and I’m glad I get to keep working with so many awesome and talented people.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I know some artists are so creative that they can just stay in their homes for a few weeks and just come up with the craziest and most imaginative stories you have ever heard. I think it’s amazing how some people have this ability, but for me the best way to find inspiration is to experience life. That’s why I love exploring nature and traveling to wild places. I started cycling recently and it’s just so crazy how far you can go and explore places with only a bike and see how far you can push yourself. I love when films make me excited about the world and make me itch to just go out there and explore everything! I think if I can pass this idea of freedom and adventure in my work and make people excited about what could be out there, I would be happy.

Besides those experiences I hope to tell someday, I’m also really fond of drawing animals and creatures. Most drawings and stories I make usually have some element of nature into it, but most jobs I have been part of are usually always about humans and cities… it’s not that I don’t like drawing people, but animals are much cooler looking haha! I have done a short film with only animals in my time at CalArts, called Kukuru, and I just hope I get to be part of more stories about nature in the future!

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
There’s already a push to innovate what we view as animation in the US. Western animation is trying to go beyond the “family genre”/”cartoon is for kids” mindset. There’s already so much work with completely new and innovative styles coming out… I think the next few years will be very exciting for animators in LA.

Right now, I think the industry is focusing really hard on making stories and characters relatable and safe, but I think people might get tired of that in the future. There’s only so much you can do by trying to replicate stories from other cultures. It’s getting easier for different countries to produce their own content and expand their voices, and it could be refreshing for us to see different styles of filmmaking. It’s also an opportunity for us to work closer with foreign studios and creators, but it would be nice to see what happens when they are the ones leading the way.

But another thing that could change the industry is working from home. Yes, it’s GREAT to work from home but I wonder if the Western’s animation industry will still be concentrated in California or if it will diffuse all over the world… which could be bad for us living in California but good for other people worldwide. Maybe wages will finally start rising for international workers as well as a healthy work environment. Maybe I could even go back to my home country and work there under a livable wage! It’s crazy how different the wages are outside of America and how abusive some productions can be to foreign studios. I hope we’ll have a happier work environment for international workers and that they can be seen as valuable as American workers.

Contact Info:

• Email: juliarodrigues@alum.calarts.edu
• Website: https://juluia.weebly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juluiar/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKwJ4V8NJaJ5N00JX8fb3zg/featured
• Other: https://vimeo.com/juluia