We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vivian Amaro a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Vivian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I have worked on has been Marvel Studios’s Ms. Marvel. This project is meaningful to me personally because I was able to check the box on a lot of firsts in my professional career.
In 2022, about 1 year after I started working in this industry, I had the opportunity to watch an early screening of the first episode of Ms. Marvel and be a part of the team pitching ideas to Marvel Studios for the title sequence of the show, something I had never done before.
The experience of coming up with a concept and designing frames that would accurately portray the character and the show as a whole was amazing. The process of researching this new world I was quickly inserted in felt challenging but, at the same time, exciting. After anxiously waiting for the client’s decision on which direction they were going to move forward with, I felt a big sense of accomplishment when I found out Marvel Studios had selected my idea.
This was the beginning of many months of long nights and a lot of learning. The level of involvement and creative freedom I had being the Lead Artist on this project made me fall in love with the art of making title sequences and allowed me to experience being part of a project from concept to delivery. That was important to me because I gained experience in other parts of the process that I, up until then, didn’t get the chance to work on professionally. For example, planning for a shoot in the streets of Jersey City, compositing, color grading, and many other skills I obtained while working on this project,
Another reason why I consider Ms. Marvel one of the most meaningful projects I have worked on is due to the public’s reaction to it, more specifically, the Jersey City residents. I understood that being from Jersey City, New Jersey, was an important fact about Kamala Khan, the main character of the show, and I wanted to portray the city and its connection to Kamala as best as I could. By incorporating bright and colorful murals that featured important moments from the Ms. Marvel comic book runs into the streets of Jersey City, I felt like we would be able to accurately encapsulate this beloved character.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Absolutely, my name is Vivian Amaro, and I am a Designer and Animator with years of experience in the motion graphics and visual effects industry. I feel most proud of my work when I can combine both my creative and technical skills in order to create meaningful work that inspires me and others. I have a degree in Visual Effects from the Savannah College of Art and Design and, ever since, I have had the opportunity to work on many incredible projects.

My work with title sequences includes Marvel’s PS5 Spider Man 2, Hawkeye, Thor: Love and Thunder, Loki Season 2, What If, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and Agatha All Along. I enjoy working on these types of projects because the challenge of starting off with a blank screen is weirdly exciting, and I am able to overcome new obstacles each time. My experience crafting title sequences varies from leading artists, coming up with concepts, designing pitch frames, building assets, animating, compositing, and editing. Being able to jump on at any point and help the team on each of these steps is another reason why I love working on them. It allows me to expand my skills and learn new techniques by collaborating with the rest of the team.

I have also worked on user interface design and animation withing the film industry. Some examples of that are Spider-Man: No Way Home, Shang Chi: and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, Gurdians of the Galaxy: Vol 3, The Marvels, and Amazon’s Citadel Italy. What I like the most about designing and animating futuristic user interfaces and heads up displays for movies is understanding that sometimes it is better to successfully tell the story with your visuals instead of showing off a cool looking design.

Which leads me to talk about storytelling. Some of the most interesting projects I like to be a part of are the ones in which the client needs help telling a story. These projects require problem solving skills and creative thinking. At the end of the day, I know that my work will be more successful as a tool to enhance the narrative.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I believe that being an artist is incredibly rewarding because of the deep personal connections to our work we allow ourselves to explore. Even though sometimes this might be a negative aspect of the job, it is also what makes it extremely gratifying. It is like a self-sufficient cycle that feeds off of passion and perseveres as a result of fulfillment.
In addition, when you care about the final product you are creating and the message and/or impact it will have when shared with the world, the process of making it can be rewarding as well. Seeing yourself overcome a creative challenge, being proud of the projects you make, coming up with original ideas, sharing your knowledge, collaborating with other artists, seeing people talking about your work. All of these things are examples of when I feel like I am on the right track of achieving my mission.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission as an artist is to create work that makes me happy and, at the same time, evokes some type of emotion from others. I want my work to be meaningful, relatable, inspiring, and true to itself. I hope my work is able to connect and resonate with people in different ways as a result of my efforts to help enhance the story/narrative of the projects I work on.
Furthermore, the belief of still having a lot to learn and achieve is another motive that drives my creativity. I am encouraged to keep pushing my boundaries by watching other creatives in the field do so and set up higher expectations for myself.
I want to keep making myself proud and keep having the opportunity to work on these amazing projects that allow me to do what I love the most, creating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vivianamaro.wixsite.com/portfolio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivian-amaro/
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13169966/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0