Life & Work with Zara Jump

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zara Jump.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Like a lot of artists who grew up drawing, watching animated movies, and playing video games, I just knew I wanted to work in this industry as a kid. A lot of my inspiration comes from my love for nature, chaotic upbringing, and moving around Florida my whole life. Caribbean cultural influence is something I miss a lot as a mixed Latina, but honestly LA has a great community for it.

Back in Florida, I got lucky that a great animation program was nearby at Ringling College. Leaving my home state to attend school was not really feasible for me, So I’m very grateful that I was able to find something that worked with my situation. My college gave me all the foundations I was really looking for, from storyboarding to actual 3D animating.

After school, I was offered a really cool game animation opportunity and moved out to LA relatively right after I graduated.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s definitely been a somewhat rocky road, haha! I think I had a bit of an unconventional upbringing: Occasionally unstable and fairly chaotic is how I like to describe it. My college experience was also pretty similar, I worked some part-time on-campus jobs had some immediate family troubles. I also lived right off campus and rode a bike to and from- even during some tropical storms haha!

It was tough balancing some of these things while also working through a fairly rigorous curriculum. I feel lucky that I got to learn so much despite my very unconventional experiences.

These things have really impacted how much I want to work on media that can provide people, particularly kids, things they can see themselves in while also being a lot of fun.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Storyboarding and 3D animation are my specialties!

In my professional game animation work I try to remember to ‘stay in character,’ making sure everything I’m doing conveys who this character is. A lot of the time I record video references for this, and roughly sketch my ideas out so I have a plan. It’s been really cool getting to animate on serious cinematics with a lot of heart and soul, or fun narrative animations of droids and silly little creatures.

In my personal work, I’m known for having an affinity for involving dragons in anything I can haha. I draw a lot, whether that involves café sketching, zoo sketching, or just doodling at home. Lately, I’ve been focusing on creating stories and characters that have had rough experiences, but despite these things, still find ways to enjoy life as it comes.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Little Zara had the typical introverted personality you’d expect from an artist. Although I did play outside with my brothers and neighborhood friends a lot, I got a lot of mosquito bites haha! I counted 49 on just my legs once.

Most of my interests centered around TV shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Steven Universe. Animal Planet and Nature documentaries were also a favorite of mine, Steve Irwin reruns and anything narrated by David Attenborough especially. I work in games, so of course video games were also a big thing for me. Okami, Super Mario Sunshine, and the Spyro series. I was also an unapologetic fan of the webcomic Homestuck in my teen years, you can tell I was and still am a pretty big nerd haha.

I drew a lot of animals and fan art for all these interests, and in turn they all inspired me to draw my own original stories.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zarajump.wixsite.com/portfolio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zarajumps/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zarajump/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/zarajumps