Art is the way I can portray and express my emotions and/or feelings. It’s a platform to not only entertain, but to give an audience informative information through beauty. For me, art plays a big role in my life due to growing up in a past full of domestic violence/abuse. It’s a way to escape reality and show my own way to express my thoughts through drawing and visually storytelling. It’s also a form to include much needed representation of marginalized groups, as well as express societal issues to the public.

Currently, I’m pursuing a BFA degree in 2D & Traditional Animation, and am aiming to work at Cartoon Network primarily but have also considered: Laika, Studio Ghibli, Studio Ponoc, Netflix, Dream Works, ILM, Kyoto Animation, Catsuka Studio, Studio Trigger, and Pixar. I’m not entirely sure on what position I’d like to have specifically but Storyboard Artist, Concept Artist, Character Design, Key Animator or Rough Character Animator are all ones I’ve considered to start with. I have experience with Toonboom, Adobe Cloud (including Photoshop), and Procreate, but have also worked with many smaller apps as well. I’ve also been a Preproduction Storyboard Artist on an ongoing working web series, Steve, in my second year at Academy (2019) and am currently an Illustrator for a children’s book. My main goal in this industry is to lead/open an animation studio as an openly nonbinary trans masc mixed-Iranian but short term wise, I’m aiming to be an animator at Cartoon Network (as mentioned above). I want to broaden my experiences first and also help create/produce several amazing shows like We Bare Bears, Steven Universe, TAWOG, or Samurai Jack while also picking up different techniques throughout the experience working there in general.

As an animator, it’s crucial to use inspiration from everything. From hobbies to daily life to even the nature around you to study and reflect. Of course, inspiration can come from seeing similar types of work from experienced artists. For me, works from Hayao Miyazaki, Catsuka Studio, Disney, & CN have a big impact on me but so do many other companies & individuals, especially ones with a very distinct and unique style to them. Artistically, I have no idea what makes me unique yet, but I’m still developing my style and how I want to use my skill set—this is a given of course. I have a great imagination for concepts & characters as well as the ability to mix a wide array of colors that blend well with one another—Hayao Miyazaki has really made that impact on me. Miyazaki has always been a huge influence in my life for art, mainly because of how he sought to portray his messages in his films and also the way he depicts life in his films. His work on the films also really inspire me to use my imagination to the fullest because you can create so many beautiful things—ie like Miyazaki’s fascination with Airplanes and other technology. 

The fear of failure and falling behind has been a huge conflict I’ve been fighting with throughout my journey so far, but I’ve been learning to overcome that more and more each day. I’ve come to accept that I don’t have to have a certain timeline in my life of when I’ll get to a goal, and have also settled/accepted that it’s okay that I’ll be graduating later than expected. My overall experience is how I make of it, so I’m going to make sure I do the best I can while also still enjoying my craft.

- Milo Soroushian (they/them), aka jellifsh studios