Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cameron Burr. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Cameron, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I had wanted to be an animator in high school. I loved art and drawing, but I didn’t have the patience or raw talent to figure out what to do about it. This was before computers and the internet and even digital cameras were in every house, so if you wanted to know how to animate there were a few barriers to figure it out. But then I found out that the only college that accepted me (the Evergreen State College), had an animation program, and I was very determined to get into it.

To speed up the process, I’d seek out the information a little sooner. Also, for me to learn anything I have to break my brain to figure it out. I think I could have been less timid about new (at the time) software. In fact, I spent a whole year learning how to use an antiquated animation table/camera that shot on film for my final project. My project turned out super overexposed and I’ve never used that skillset since. I wish I would have used the time to learn learn after effects more. After college, the learning didn’t stop at all, but I was low on resources to continue my education.

The most essential skills for me was the desire to take on new projects and make them better than the ones I’d just finished. For a long time I just made animations on note cards, it was fun and easy to flip through sequences and figure out how to improve them.

Cameron, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an independent animator and motion designer. I studied experimental 2d animation at college. Eventually I moved to Los Angeles and got a job as a very green vfx compositor. I learned so much doing that type of work, but your job is to make it look like you didn’t do anything. I’ve always thought my strengths were writing and humor. I met a funny fellow named Don Ian Black, and we started making funny short videos under the name CAMDONyes. We found an audience and it gave me an opportunity to develop my style. Don was working on a show called “The Toys That Made Us” with some other friends and they needed someone to make animations. He gave them my name and I had to do an audition shot for the director. I was really sweating it and was so happy when Tom (the director) called me and said that they liked it. Since then, I’ve worked for that company (the Nacelle Company) pretty steadily over the years. That was my first real profesional push, where I could actually show something to friends and family that had a lot of eyes on it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

After college, a friend and I moved from Olympia, WA to Austin Tx to start a video production company. We had no money, and barely any equipment. We’d come out the year before and made a documentary on the 25th annual O.Henry pun-off.
After a month, we got hired to shoot the 26th annual O.henry pun-off, but that was gonna pay 400 dollar in a few months.
While we were trying to figure out how to make our lives work on no money, we discovered that Austin has a lot of pharmaceutical testing. We signed up for a study that paid $12oo for two weekends and we felt rich, and somewhat relieved.
We had a lot of creative ideas that we wanted to show the world and didn’t want to wait for someone to fund us, We’d would have been waiting forever.
We ended up funding another documentary on pharmaceutical testing. The Human Hambone, which did pretty well. It played at a lot of festivals and we were really proud of it. After a year or so and a bad study, we felt it wasn’t a good way to live.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is anytime I hear from my clients/coworkers that they loved what I delivered it. it makes me so happy, makes me feel that I’ve come a long ways from a being a weird kid.
A few years ago, I did a lot of really cool hand drawn animations for A&E Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, and one of the reviews for it mentioned my name and called me an artist. Seeing that in print from someone who wasn’t my mom was a big deal for me. I’d always thought the word “artist” was reserved for a different type of person that wore turtlenecks lennin pants. I don’t wear lennon and my neck is seldomly covered, but I’m more comfortable with the word..

Contact Info:

• Website: https://doctorradical.com
• Instagram: doctorradical_animation
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronburr/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doctorradicalanimation

Image Credits

the nacelle company
critical content
dynasty typewriter