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

Brendan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I have made art my entire life. As a kid I only knew how to draw, so that is what I did. I made comics with all of my favorite characters meeting each other and fighting that filled up a mountain of sketchbooks. I watched cartoons all the time, but it never occurred to me that someone had to make those. I remember the first time it clicked was watching “My Neighbor Totoro,” because someone referenced Hayao Miyazaki as the creator and I had an epiphany that this is a job that people do. From then on I became obsessed with animation, learning Flash, making stop motion films with action figures, and eventually learning 3D modeling and animation.

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?

I first began learning 3D modeling and animation during my undergraduate program at Virginia Tech, where I tried to be a generalist and good at all aspects of the pipeline; concept art, modeling, rigging, animating, rendering, etc.. It was not until I was given the opportunity to intern at a small company in Tokyo, Japan that I realized I wanted to specify. I was hired as a 3D artist, meaning I covered all aspects of the pipeline, but I found that I only ever enjoyed my work when I was animating.

I went on to study 3D Animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where I branched out as much as I could in the subject of animation. I studied cinematic animation, motion capture, and game animation. I interned with Activision/Blizzard, and eventually got my first job at Warner Brothers Games working on Hogwarts Legacy. The majority of my work involves bringing characters to life in the game, whether it is through handkeying animation or motion capture.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The idea that I had to unlearn in my journey to the animation industry was that I needed to be good at everything. It is ok to be a generalist in your personal life and work in multiple mediums, but the reality of the animation industry is that you will be hired for only one medium/part of the pipeline. The stress I put on myself to be perfect at everything I tried eventually went away as I realized my goal was to be hired as an animator, and so I only need to focus on being exemplary in one field.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative to me is that my favorite thing to do is my job. I think lots of people enjoy what they do, but I do not think a lot of people can say that their job is their favorite thing to do. If I were not working in the animation industry, all of my free time would be spent on art hobbies, drawing, animating, etc.. So the fact that the one thing I would want to do with all of my free time is the thing I am paid to do is truly a blessing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brendanmcasey.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendancaseyart/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanmcasey12/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brendancaseyart