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

Alright, Edric thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Ahhhh! I love telling this story; I started my journey into the industry later than most I think. I didn’t start down this path until well into my 30’s and I highly encourage anyone that it’s never too late to re-invent yourself.

I’m an 80’s kid and I grew up with the idea that to pursue art professionally would result in being a starving artist. My destiny was to be an engineer or doctor. I flunked out of college, where I was apathetic and unmotivated by my classes and my older brother got me a job doing simple graphic design at a mutual funds company.

I only intended to work for a short period of time while I figured out what I wanted to do with my life but as you know time flies and before I knew it, 9 years later, I was still in the same place. I was about to turn 30 and I had an epiphany; that if I was there any longer, I’d be there for the rest of my life and that thought saddened me.

My wife told me to quit and go back to school, get a degree and maybe it’ll open my eyes to something new. It was the best advice I had ever received and so I did! I put in my two weeks, applied to our local community college and started a new adventure.

For the next two years, I knocked out my GEs and took as many art classes as I could and then made the transfer over to San Jose State with the intent of getting a degree in graphic design. By pure serendipity, I got a little turned around and ended up in the animation/illustration orientation by mistake. I raised my hand and said, “I think I’m in the wrong place.” And a man by the name of David Chai smiled and replied, “Actually, I think you’re in the right place!” He asked me to stay and see what they were all about and that any of the early classes could be taken as electives.

That first semester I took an intro to 2D animation and we got to animate on paper with light boxes and pegboards. The first project was to make a simple ball bounce. I vividly remember watching those 12 frames of roughly penciled circles bouncing on my screen and it was like a lightning bolt had struck me. THIS is what I should’ve been doing my entire life.

The next day I headed straight to the administrar’s office and changed my major to Animation/Illustration and started my next great adventure.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hello! Hahaha, this feels like a job interview question! Hmm… dang, where should I begin.

So… to start off, I’m currently a senior animator on the ExDev team at Santa Monica Studio. My main function is helping coordinate, provide feedback, and act as a liaison between our outsource partners and the internal team to meet their requirements and deliver them animation assets that meet our high bar in quality and performance. I’ve been an animator for a little over 10 years now, having had the honor of working at studios such as PDI DreamWorks, Google, and PixelOpus and also taught 3d animation last year at my alma mater, San Jose State University.

My journey into the creative arts as a profession was definitely not a straight line. I always have this image in my head of the old family circus comic strips when Billy’s mom would ask him to do or get something for her and when he gets back, she asks him what took him so long. Behind the scenes he, of course, took the scenic route to get from point A to B. Looking back to where I am now; it’s been a somewhat convoluted path and a wonderful mixture of exploration, serendipity, good people, and hard work. I definitely took the long way around to find my way home.

Animation aside, there’s a few things that I do pride myself on and feel that these are the strengths that I can bring to the table to any team or project.

First off, I’m a tinkerer at heart and love to build and fix things… I have far, far too many hobbies and they currently include designing/building custom RC aircraft, 3d printing, resin casting, and fixing anything that the family places on my bench that needs repairing. Game development is constantly filled with problem solving and it definitely tickles that nerve and keeps the projects interesting.

Secondly, I cannot understate the importance of the ability to collaborate and communicate, whether it be with your team, outsource partners, clients, etc. It’s something that I stress constantly with my students and mentees as a skill to develop alongside their art. One’s skills as an artist is what will get them that interview, but the soft skills they can demonstrate is what will get them the job. I received some of the best education in how to engage with people in my time working retail gigs. I think one of the best takeaways was learning how to simply listen, and that has served me well throughout my career.

This is getting a little long so I’ll keep these next two a bit shorter. I love to train and mentor students. There honestly is no better feeling in the world than helping someone reach that next step in their animation journey. I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring kids to adults and there’s just something so amazing about seeing their faces light up when that little puzzle piece falls into place with that satisfying click (metaphorically speaking).

Lastly… a personal hero of mine, Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame of course) put this super simply in few talks that I’ve seen of his. the idea of “Be easy to work with”. The first part of this are some of the soft skills I mentioned above. Collaboration, communication, initiative, etc… all integral parts of being a good teammate. The second part I believe are 3 tenets which are on a t-shirt that Adam often wears on his show. They are: Empathy, Kindness, and Respect. Adam stated that everything good that has ever happened to him in his life were because of those three things… and that thought really resonated with me because I strongly believe that if we put good out into the world, it’ll assuredly come back around, both in our careers… and heck, just life in general.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I like to share this experience with anyone that cares to listen because I think it’s paramount to know that depression can happen to anyone, it’s far more common than we think, and most importantly, we are not alone.

It happened to me when I was studying for my degree in animation. It was right after I had wrapped up my third year; I had passed the mid-program portfolio review and that specific semester, I had loaded myself up with more than the recommended amount of classes and I was also a new’ish father of a 1 year old. I honestly had no idea of how stressed I was and for how long. When the semester ended and all that pressure was suddenly alleviated, I completely fell apart. I won’t go too far into the specifics, but I was a mess, dangerously so.

It was a long climb back out; it’s really surprising how I was able to fall apart in what seemed to be an instant but it took over a year before I started to feel really right again. What helped me most though it all was talking to people. I had an incredible support network to whom I shall be eternally grateful. I talked to people that I trusted, and it was comforting knowing that my experience, though it was its own unique brand of it, was also something that so many of my loved ones had experienced as well, in so many different ways. Healing isn’t something that is done overnight; some days were easy, others were really hard. I had a sketchbook to complete to finish my mid-program review and that became another avenue of mending.

I grew tremendously from that period of my life and learned a great many new things about myself, though it’s not something that I wish upon anyone because boy howdy, it did suck.

Some takeaways:
– Your personal mental health should never be dismissed; take the time to give yourself a break. We do our best work when we’re rested and healthy. Pushing ourselves beyond our limits will just yield increasingly diminished returns at its least, but can lead to bad burnout or worse.
– Take the time to check in with your friends and colleagues. I’m sure other artists/creatives can relate, but when I drop into a flow, I oftentimes forget to surface and stay under for too long. Helping each other get back up to breathe is something we can all do for each other.
– Asking for help is not a sign of weakness or defeat. The only failure is when we don’t ask for the assist and we miss a deadline or have to scramble at the 11th hour to get something delivered. Not just in a professional sense but also in our personal lives, we are at our best when we lift each other up. I’m a huge believer in the idea that the sum is far greater than its parts.

Though this anecdote doesn’t feel like it illustrates my resilience, (rather it’s a victory of many good people who were there to pick me up), I do think it does take some strength and the courage to say, I don’t have the answer to this problem. Can you please help me?

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

As a kid I grew up on stories of heroes; good vs. evil, the little one vs. unbeatable odds… the one that, no matter what, always gets back up to fight the good fight. I remember being inspired by fictional beings, in books, tv, movies… and being moved by tales of a nerd bitten by a radioactive spider, a mighty and noble leader of alien robots from a far off planet, or a red haired wandering swordsman with a cross-shaped scar on his cheek, just to name a few. My favorite stories still revolve around these ideals and if I can help create something that resonates with someone or bring some light into this world, then I feel like I’ve done something worthwhile.

Working on PixelOpus’ “Concrete Genie” was an absolute joy; not only because I got to work alongside some of the most amazing people in the biz, but also because of the story and experience that we got to share with our players. PixelOpus’ mission was to strive to make beautiful, imaginative games with heart. :Concrete Genie: is about a bullied boy who through his imagination and magical brush, has the ability to paint his beloved town back to life. It’s really a beautiful story with themes that lean into using art for healing and change, emotional states and their relation to our environments, and the idea of empathy and forgiveness. Another significant part of our development goal was to give players the ability to create something beautiful, no matter their skill level.

The reception that we received after the game launched was truly incredible. Testimonies from those that grew up under the shadow of a bully, parents of bullied kids, people that claimed they didn’t have an artistic bone in their body were sharing their creations with us. The ability to create a meaningful connection with someone out there through my work is definitely one of the best parts of doing what I do.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grymlock13/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edricyamamoto/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@grymlock13