Today we’d like to introduce you to Fernando Caire.
Hi Fernando, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Growing up, I always loved animation, especially anime. However, my earlier goals were to work in concept design for film and video games (my two other passions). Eventually, though I realized I lacked the drive and skill for painting environments and characters. I would work a basic 9-5 job to survive while doing the occasional design odd job for a while.
It wasn’t until a few years later I discovered something called “storyboarding” for animation. No one had even told me about this before and it intrigued me. On a whim, I signed up for an introduction to storyboarding class at the Concept Design Academy with Alan Wan, to say it changed my life is an understatement. I instantly fell in love and made it my goal to become a storyboard artist.
The class also made one thing abundantly clear, I had become very rusty with my drawing skills since college. My classmates were practically at a professional level already, some of which were hired by Alan to work on TMNT Rise (including Kevin Molina-Ortiz, a super cool guy!) and it made me realize a lot of work had to be done if I were to catch up to them.
I would continue to take storyboarding classes as well as work on my fundamentals. Unfortunately working a full-time office job made it difficult to make any big strides in my goal of making a storyboard portfolio. This would come to a head after the pandemic.
Whether it was frustration with my employer or with seeing my peers advance ahead of me so fast towards their goals, at the end of 2021, I had a frightening realization. If I did not commit to my storyboarding portfolio full-time, I was never going to break in.
After that revelation and receiving a huge confidence boost from my mentor Andy Cung, the decision to quit my job on May 5th, 2022 (oh wow…almost exactly one year!?) was easy. I would live off my savings and focus on my story art full-time. Was it reckless and risky? Absolutely. And it is the best decision I’ve ever made.
I would take one last storyboarding class with ZeSung Khang who would become a new mentor and friend who pushed me to my limits to not only create 3 portfolio pieces but get them done within 10 weeks. I had hoped to break into the industry in a year, maybe two depending on the circumstances.
I would land my first animation job as a revisionist in 4 months. This was the result of hard work but is also thanks to my mentors and the loving support of my friends.
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?
I’d say the biggest challenge was just finding the spare bandwidth to create after working an 8-9 hour day. Improving as an artist while working full-time is certainly possible. But I struggled with time management.
I would consider myself a failure for not finishing an assignment or not meeting a goal deadline, but eventually, I realized a full-time job of any sort is draining and that any progress forward (no matter how small) was still progress that would add up to bigger improvements over time.
Something I also struggled with was networking. As an introvert, I always had trouble connecting with people. I actually didn’t know that many artists and had made it a goal in 2020 to network more and forge those meaningful connections… but we all know how that turned out. Luckily I still managed to make some connections on social media and keep in touch with classmates. When things opened up again I joined groups like Sketch Toonz LA and attended events like in-person figure drawing or Lightbox Expo.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a storyboard artist in animation. My style leans towards action/comedy but I love opportunities that allow me to flex my acting/drama muscles!
I am still very fresh in the industry so it’s difficult to say what separates me from other story artists.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
A mentor named Chris Copeland gave sage advice once. It is simple and short, yet it shook me to my very core and I think about it every single day before drawing anything.
“Ya go dope, or ya go home.”
And I have no intention of going home.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://fcaire.wixsite.com/fernando-caire
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/botsandmagic
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/fcaire
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/botsandmagic
- Other: www.twitch.tv/botsandmagic
