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

Angelica, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.

I was in my first year of animation grad school, exhausted from three part-time jobs and putting together a demo reel for a class assignment at 2:00AM in the school labs. I had no prior animation knowledge under my belt, having a Microbiology background for my undergrad, but I was confident in my illustrative and narrative skills enough to upload the demo reel on social media too (though still hesitant enough to only post in an obscure facebook group of Caribbean animators, with only 5,000 members). At 2:15AM as I wrapped up, I got an email from [adult swim], a well-known animation studio in the United States. They’d seen the reel, and they wanted to talk. “Have you heard about the japanese anime show FLCL?”. At 25 years old, with zero experience in the field, I was about to do my first four animated advertisements for not only a TV channel that I had grown up with, but a TV show that was formative to my artistic journey. That first job taught me the core beliefs that have stuck with me throughout my career since: courage and consistency. Post that animation, or that drawing, or whatever other service you think you excel at, despite what level you think you’re at; you never know who’s watching and intrigued by it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I, Angelica A. Agelviz Rodriguez, Puertorican-Venezuelan, decided at 24 years old to change careers from the medical field to the creative arts. I got my MFA at Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, New York). Though I mainly focus on the Preproduction side of animation – namely that of Storyboards and Visual Development – I also enjoy being Art Director on projects. As VisDev and Art Director, I am responsible for visualising what the specific “look” of the animation will be, how the characters will be designed, the world they inhabit, and everything that will appear on screen so that it has a cohesive and unified appeal. As a Story Artist, I help my directors and writers bring their scripts to life by providing storyboards; a visual “comic” for the script that is timed to dialogue and/or music. You could say that Story Artists are the living lens of the camera. For clients who struggle with visualization, I aim to be as thorough as possible.

Thus far, I’ve worked on projects that focus on diversity and showcasing communities that are under-represented in Animation; as a Latina, I always aim to portray BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ characters in ways that are just another natural part of the story. It’s led me to work for studios like Cartoon Network (“Rey Mysterio vs. The Darkness”), Nickelodeon (“Spongebob Squarepants”), and most recently Illumination Entertainment. It also awarded me a Netflix Spark Grant recognition, and will hopefully lead to more projects showcasing more Caribbean and Indigenous stories in animation.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Be able to direct an original animated series focusing on Caribbean and Native Indigenous Taino stories. To my recollection, it is an untapped demographic in not only animation, but media in general that I would love to bridge the gap for.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As much as I am thankful to RIT and how much it taught me about animation, it wrongfully drilled into me (and other students) the need to be a one-man-show and jack-of-all-trades. This means taking the burden of all the roles in an animation pipeline; an over-abundance of responsibility that has led to burn-out and committing to jobs that I sometimes couldn’t finish to the degree of polish I or the client would have liked. I’ve learnt not to micromanage and feel more comfortable delegating jobs to other animators so that the focus can be more intentionally directed to specific areas a opposed to throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.angelicaagelviz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelicaagelviz
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/angelicaagelviz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoNJltpItb4SAuhz02nDd8w