Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Parker.
Hi Alex, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Hi there! Thanks so much for chatting with me. For a kiddo with big dreams to be an orthodontist, animation was an absolute 180 for me. Having more of a technical personal background, it wasn’t until sitting down for a casual movie day with my dad led to us both grabbing for the remote to watch every special feature we could find on our Monster’s Inc. DVD, us both realizing that 3D animation was this complex and beautiful machine of both art and technical skills, and so much more than we’d both initially written it off to be. From then on, everything I did revolved around animation and design. I made a routine of all-nighters in Texas A&M’s Visualization program learning 3D animation software, and then continued on across the pond in Bournemouth University’s MA 3D Computer animation program. (Fun fact: Animation in the UK is just as fun as animation in the states, just with way more tea and at 25 frames per second.) Once landing back in the states, it was tough starting over networking-wise, as so many of the connections I had forged were back in the UK.
It wasn’t until several months crammed with personal work later that I was able to land a full-time gig I really enjoyed at Infinite Fiction, a post house in Dallas. This job shaped a lot of how I approached projects and managed clients, and it was bittersweet to have to leave once I got married and needed to move to Bryan, TX so that my husband could finish out his PhD. (Isn’t marrying a handsome genius just the worst??) Moving to what felt like the middle of nowhere ended up being the push I needed to jump both-feet-first into full-time freelance, a dream I’d had for a long time but didn’t feel like I was qualified enough to pursue. Crafting my freelance brand Ladybird Animation ended up being an absolute blast, and within a few short months, I was working with dream clients like Google and Expedition Roasters, all with a cat in my lap and no commute.
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?
“Easy” is maybe not the first word I would use to describe launching a full-time freelance career in a small town during a global pandemic, but it’s definitely been interesting! Landing clients in this pandemic era where handshakes are taboo and cold-calls are sometimes really your only option has definitely been tough, and I’m thankful that I’ve been able to keep up old relationships and even make new ones this season. One of the hardships I had really underestimated though, was the solitude that comes with going solo. Shouting across the studio to fellow designers for critique, ideas, or even to gab about the latest episode of ‘Chernobyl’ is something I really miss. Especially in this Covid environment where motion graphics meetups have all been wiped from the calendar, it’s tough to not have that camaraderie, so Slack communities for freelance designers have been a godsend this past year. (I’d also like to add “freelancer taxes” to the list of things that will never be fun.)
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
So I’m a full-time freelance animator and designer, meaning I’m either designing something or making it move, or on a good day, both! 3D character animation is my go-to, with 3D illustration rocking a close second. A lot of my work is heavily influenced by midcentury design aesthetic, and I’d be lying if I said a lot of it isn’t pink. I heard my work described as “delightful” once and that really stuck with me; I really enjoy making work that makes people happy. Full-blown animated shorts to simple little loops of the Disneyland castle, anything that just makes people take a second to sit back and smile.
What are you most proud of in your career?
Not that it relates to 3D animation at all, but I do enjoy painting in my free time, and ended up stumbling across a call for entries to the Chuck Jones Red Dot Auction back in 2019 and entered a painting of these two orange slices. I got an Instagram message a few months later telling me that Chuck Jones’ great-granddaughter had bought my painting, and that will always be a career highlight for me!
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I love this question, I’m always looking to meet new people! One of my goals this year is to partner with more illustrators to bring their work to life via animation, so if you’re an illustrator, hit me up! The animation process from start to finish brings me so much joy, from those initial napkin sketches to style frames to final animation and rendering, and the collaboration it takes to pull off quality animation is one of my favorite things. My email is alex@ladybirdanimation.co
Contact Info:
- Email: alex@ladybirdanimation.co
- Website: ladybirdanimation.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexparkerdesign/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexparkerdesign
- Other: https://dribbble.com/AlexParkerDesign
Produced at Infinite Fiction
