Made it to DreamWorks

Everyone’s probably wondering why I haven’t updated Polterguys in weeks.

Well, that’s because I started working at DreamWorks TV Animation in Glendale last month so I’ve been a little distracted!

AHHHHH seriously, you guys, I’m super excited to be here working with an awesome team and on an actual show. It was a lot to take in this month and I can still hardly believe it’s for real. 

Towards the end of December, one of my classmates from Concept Design Academy recommended me for a storyboard revisionist position on the show she was working on which is Puss in Boots on Netflix. They needed someone to start right away so the last two weeks of 2016 was a blur of training my replacement at Soapbox, preparing for my holiday trip and getting ready to join the PIB team immediately in January.  

A few moments from that crazy period stood out to me though. Calling my mom in the parking lot and telling her I got the job which made her cry (and made me cry, too.) And surprising my family with the news over dinner in the Bay Area. I honestly didn’t think it would happen this quickly since I only seriously started considering storyboarding as a career option in 2014. I’m extremely grateful for everyone who’s helped me find my way here in LA and I just know I couldn’t have made it this far without such good and wonderful people looking out for me. 

I’ve been excited, anxious and I’ve just been learning as much as I can this past month so thank you so much for your patience with updates, too. I promise we’ll be back in the swing of things again soon.

Moana and Me

Kickass lady from the South Pacific

It’s been over a year since I started at Soapbox Films and I just wanted to pause and celebrate the fact that I have been making a living off my art for over 12 months! That’s…a pretty big deal for me. I never went to art school and I’ve long ago thought I’ve missed all the opportunities to pursue art careers. One year ago, I moved back to Los Angeles anxious and uncertain about my future; I’ve decided I was going to take a chance and give storyboarding as a career option. I guarantee you in my wildest dreams I had no idea I was going to end up drawing animated characters from Disney, Dreamworks, 20th Century Fox and that I was going to be part of the industry I’ve always had a deep and lasting passion for.

Moana is special to me because she’s the first Disney “princess” I’ve had to draw in my first week at SBF. She’s brown-skinned, beautiful and easily reminds me of women from my own culture. I was fighting back tears driving home my first few days thinking how lucky I was to be in this position. I remember how special it was to watch Mulan onscreen so many years ago and feel that connection with her. (I’m Filipino-Chinese, by the way so I get to identify with these two characters!) I know Moana is going to be just as special to so many little (and not so little) girls. I am fiercely proud to be even just a tiny part of that. I want people to fall in love with her, too.

Technically, yes, I don’t draw for the actual movies- I draw little animated cycles to help market them for our clients. It was an insane journey to see the little doodles I work on go through the process and get finalized as fully-rendered sequences. It’s exciting and humbling knowing that I’m collaborating with some of the best artists alive today. You can see some of them here! (Moana moments on Twitter, Kakamora Haka, Moana and Kakamora)

I’m so grateful for the people who have made it possible for me to get here and I want to keep learning and growing from this point on. The second volume of Polterguys is still chugging along! If I get enough pages done, maybe it’ll mean I can release a printed book next year. I’m still working on a storyboard portfolio too, saving up for more classes and taking in as much as I can to understand film and storytelling better.

Thanks for reading this and go see Moana! 🙂

Polterguys now has a Patreon page!

Click to visit my Patreon page!

I’m back!
Now that I’m settled in a new place here in LA, I can finally get back to the business of comics! I’ve decided to finally set-up a Patreon campaign so I can let you guys help me create more Polterguys pages and art. Please check it out and consider helping out other artists as well!

While I don’t have an update when pages will go back up, I’ll be doing my best to build up a considerable buffer again to avoid hiatuses like this one in the future. Again, thanks so much for your patience, everybody.