Meet our amazing Brown Bag Dublin based 2D Designer Gloria Gambino! She finds inspiration for her work almost everywhere (check out her long list below) and when she’s not creating characters and props for our shows she’s learning violin and baking. We talked to her about her transition from Graphic Design to 2D Designer and asked her for any advice that she could share with others who might be thinking about a career in animation.

How did you get into animation?

I wasn't really planning a career in animation. I started out in Graphic Design, but discovered that I didn't really like that world. Soon after, I started working in the Videogame industry. And before I even realised it, my portfolio was more suitable for animation and I was fascinated by it and started thinking about working in the industry. It took me a little bit of time, but I put together enough material to start working in animation!

How long have you worked in the animation industry?

I started as a freelancer and worked that way for about a year before starting at Brown Bag, my first big studio job! I have been here for about a year now.

What's your current role and what does it involve?

I'm a 2D Designer, which means I take care of the artistic development part of the production. Based on scripts and client needs, I design characters, environments and props that are functional and animation/modeling ready! That means what I do has to look cool, but also, and more importantly, be practical for the story and the production!

My job also involves solving problems in a creative way, while making something unique.

What are your biggest influences and inspiration?

Naming every single inspiration could take me forever! There are so many!

Currently, artist wise, I'm really inspired by the works of Marco Bucci, his sense of colour and light are amazing. He's also really funny and creates a lot of nice tutorials! 

Sparth, is another big influence of mine. Also, Eytan Zana, Mingjue Chen, Alessandro Barbucci, I could go on and on. And on!

My colleagues and friends here at Brown Bag are also so talented and amazing to work with that they inspire me a lot too.

I'm also inspired by many different films and TV series; like Paprika, Howl's Moving Castle, Breaking Bad and Arrivals.

Also, although these things all inspire me regularly, nature is probably the biggest and greatest inspiration of all to me!

What's your favourite tool to use and why?

I use Photoshop every day! I love it.

I'm also in love with Procreate, it's a really nice application to use.

Although for my own stuff, sometimes I like to go back to traditional methods, I particularly love watercolours and oil pastels!

What advice would you give someone considering getting into the animation industry?

Never give up.

Never compare your path to someone else's path. Every single artist has their own pace and route to take them towards what they want to do.

Also, it’s important to remember that just because someone is succeeding it doesn't mean that you are failing. Everyone, especially in the creative industry, is working hard every day, every hour, to improve and get better. So keep working hard, improving, and practicing. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Ask for feedback and try again. It’s only through this process of making and correcting mistakes that we learn to improve and avoid making them in the future. It's constant trial and error.

And most importantly, have FUN in whatever you do!

What do you like most about working in animation?

I love that we bring ideas, stories, and characters to life. That what we do here, can reach people from all over the world and it can bring them happiness and enjoyment. Also, that maybe they will recognise a bit of themselves in what we create and that, for me, is amazing!

What's been the most challenging thing about working in animation?

Probably timing, it’s the most challenging part for me. It always seems like we have a short amount of time to get things done and it can push you to your limits to produce something high quality at high speed. You don't have the time to suffer from “artist block”!

But every project is really different, with a different approach, so it's always a new experience which is always super exciting to me!

Outside of animation what are you most passionate about?

I have so many hobbies outside of animation. I really enjoy reading, practising yoga, woodburn art,  playing videogames and baking when I have time. 

I'm currently trying to learn violin and really want to learn to clay sculpt too. I'm also very interested in science.