We were lucky to catch up with Dorron ModernAnimator recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dorron, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One deeply underappreciated facet of being an entrepreneur or creative is the kind of crazy stuff that happens from time to time. It could be anything from a disgruntled client attacking an employee or waking up to find out a celebrity gave you a shoutout on TikTok – the sudden, unexpected hits (both positive and negative) make the profession both exhilarating and exhausting. Can you share one of your craziest stories?
So a crazy story for which I think really pushed me to try things out and learn what I can cause “you never know what can happen” was years ago I was taking more time to learn how to do editing and digital art. I took photos of my own, friends and family, and did what is now I believed was called Topaz filter, which gave a stylized based look almost blocky or pallet knife brushed work (which usually is a flat triangle shaped knife either metal or plastic not really used for cutting anything, but splitting up paint). Anyway the filter was real basic then so I would use brush tools over to quickly change it up a bit since I actually used pallet knifes in oil painting myself. Fast forward I thought it would be fun to do one of the rapper/actor Ludacris, which I don’t recall how soon after I did that and posted on Instagram, the rapper then shared what I did on his own Instagram. For me it was so random, cause I was just trying to learn how things work in photoshop, but amazing for me to have that shared by the artist for something I used purely to share what I was learning.
From there I got motivation messages from family, friends, those that seen he shared that to keep trying stuff and on top of that motivated me do more of “try whatever, you never know what can come from it.” Because of that moment, which was craziest story to tell for me at the time, further put me into mindset to do what I found fun to learn or for the sake of creating cause you never know who will see it or how much it sticks with you years later.
Dorron, 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?
Hello, I go by Dorron or ModernAnimator or Modern. I am an Fine Arts Major from Ohio that graduated college in 2016. Originally I wanted to get into video game design or the industry as a whole, but at the time there wasn’t a lot of schools I had offers from or could afford even. I went into Fine Arts after graduating High School cause I had a interest in drawing as a result of favorite anime such as Naruto, to favorite video game series such as Ratchet & Clank. I always had a passion for drawing and illustration since I was in middle school playing Defender for the Playstation, but going to the Scholastic Book Fair in middle school, getting my hands on my first manga (Japanese Comic) Naruto got me to want to recreate those characters. From my first manga and more after, I would look at those to try to redraw them to learn how the characters were made. MANY times I got the face, eyes, and hands pretty wrong, but for many friends and classmates, I was doing amazing. I just kept at it which got me to read more and more with visiting the fairs or library.
With my middle school years I came across the book series Bone by Jeff Smith, the art was simple, but bright colors, use of longer words in a comic style bubble dialogue. The book Bone was something that was interesting enough that idk when or how exactly, but it got me into learning more about art styles, getting “how to draw” books, and learning that eyes are simple to do when you finally get them as a place to start before creating creating the rest of the face or story.
The reason I shared all of that, in short, It got me started and eventually to the point where I loved drawing people/characters, which eventually got me into portrait photography, cosplay, and music videos. I mean I did need a camera post college to take nice photos of my art, but got to use it for other stuff eventually right? That can be a long story in itself, but the best way I can put it is bullet points cause most I will remember as I go or get asked.
– 2015 I went to my first convention that was at indoor and outdoor waterpark called Colossalon. First convention, didn’t know there was any in Ohio or Midwest as I only knew about San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, and Anime Expo.
– Going to Colossalcon was a great experience, but extra for me cause I got to meet artist in their artist alley area and see those that had a similar and different creative journey doing what they loved.
– I got more into going to conventions, to artist alley and generally networking which helped me learn about the industry and create long lasting friendships with artist to convention runners.
– I wanted to get into doing more at a convention different than what most people were doing. Around 2016-2017 I seen interviews and thought, not everyone wants to be on video talking. So I took my windows phone, a whiteboard from a Walmart, and asked people “What do you do for a living outside of cosplay?”, write on the board, and taking a picture with it. called it Behind The Cosplay.
-After my first convention doing this, many loved what I was doing, said it was different, many that was the first time anyone asked for their photo ever, and got shared a lot to made their profile picture (some I seen even in 2024 as their profile still).
All that above got me asked to this a more and more conventions. Eventually got into doing video too that then got me asked to do shoots, weddings, event coverage, growing my YouTube, doing small to bigger projects with Broadway & theatre, small assistance with a Netflix documentary with Video Games Live, and more. In between that, I would apply for Press or Media for conventions, I didn’t get accepted for all of them, but the few I did motivated me to try for more. Most recently I got to attend Anime Expo in LA for the first time as Industry. An event I only heard of I was not working partnering with other creatives in the industry and working with videographer for a video game company.
In what feels like a real real round about way, I got to work in and around the video game industry which is something I always wanted to do for college, but could afford to study it. Dr. Seuss was on to something with the book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”. Now #BehindTheCosplay, I have taken over 3K plus photos and still doing it when I can cause it is fun and nice to see people bond over mature careers, or feel less alone in what they love to do.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In college, I was able to get grants and scholarships that for the most helped cover school, but still had to find what work and internship I could, cause it only covers so much especially when around 2014/2015 tuition in the US started to go up. At several points I worked in I.T, mentoring program for fellow students, was a new student orientation leader, helped run a departments social media, was the president of the Art Departments Student Organization, was head for Student Government public relations, did tutoring briefly, graduate school, university’s mascot, cheer and dance, almost anything that had an opening I think I did or took part in. All the stuff I did was the help pay for school , but also if I am paying all this for school, I will experience all that I can.
In my last year of college, for some odd reason I had to take another class required, but it was only offered a year later. I didn’t have “A year later class” money just for one class so took it in around 4-5 weeks. that effected my GPA, but was much better than 20K plus to spend. Ended up even then getting into Business Master’s program just for that summer, getting my GPA up to I think near or at a 4.0. Which thank you to the teachers and me being involved as much as I was in the school doing random jobs or events, cause that very much helped me in the long run.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I knew there was conventions as close to in the same city as me YEARS ago, cause that would have helped motivate me much sooner. For a long time I didn’t know or see options for me besides moving far far away. Now knowing there is conventions and other events going on almost every weekend, has been a huge thing for me that I try to share with people around me as much as I can. I didn’t have access to the info I do know, but I know many starting out or that didn’t know much about conventions I went to school with, learning about them because I go/work at so many now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://modernanimator.wixsite.com/modernanimator
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ModernAnimator
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ModernAnimator/?paipv=0&eav=AfZMTy7tO5-XCDiJ2NKkCoR8RAuR-ABg-4Ug3xDQOmw66CFMUNaeUvZpRrUxcAGc-GU&_rdr
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ModernAnimator/status/1403066621527199754
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModernAnimator
- Other: For all other links/secondary website: https://dot.cards/modernanimator
Image Credits
@ModernAnimator (all photos taken)
@Dtjaaaam (personal picture of myself submitted)
@houndorable (Arknights: Ch’en Lunar New Year)
@nerdsgonemildcosplay) Horizon Zero Dawn: Aloy, character with Bow)