We recently connected with Mathew Tretola and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mathew thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

The short version of my video and animation journey: It began nearly twenty years ago when I was somewhere around nineteen or twenty. I was watching South Park and thought to myself “I want to make a show like this”.
I wrote a few short scripts in notepad documents on an old Dell pc my younger brother gave me and my dad drew a few sketches of main characters while I tried to explain what I wanted them to look like. I ended up giving up because I had no idea how to animate and didn’t know where to begin to learn. This was a time before internet was available where I lived and I didn’t know anyone that had a clue how to make cartoons either. So those couple scripts and sketches ended up living on a USB drive for many years before I came back to them. I honestly don’t remember how I got the sketches onto the USB drive because I didn’t have a cell phone at the time either.
In 2016, I was living in Perth, NY and working at a Walmart warehouse. I was kind of getting into 3D printers and was watching a tutorial on YouTube when an ad popped up for a Wacom Drawing Tablet. That sparked my memory and I went looking for that old USB drive. That drive had been living in an old beer pitcher for around a decade. I dug it out and popped it into my desktop, and to my amazement, those files were still there.
I immediately went onto Amazon.com and ordered that tablet (it was $60 at the time). My original plan was to draw everything frame by frame with the Wacom Tablet and put it together with Anime Studio Debut 10 (The Wacom Tablet came with a free license for Anime Studio Debut 10)
When the tablet arrived and I installed all the software, I realized I wouldn’t even need the tablet and could draw everything inside the software. I began watching tutorials on YouTube and it took me just under four months to make my first animated short, which ended up being three minutes and thirty three seconds long…. and it was pretty terrible. lol. But I was proud of it.
Now, seven years later, I have three IMDb accredited short films and I have won nearly 80 film and script awards. One of my short films is also distributed through a reputable distributor.
After the success of my most recent animated short film, Brownies, I landed a part time gig making reels for an MMA organization and stayed with them for about 9 months. I now work at a local production studio in Tallahassee, FL and film/edit for a TV show that airs on FOX, along with filming and editing a slew of other events and happenings around the region.
I largely credit South Park for inspiring me to create humorous cartoons that ultimately led to me working full-time in the creative space. If it wasn’t for that inspiration all those years ago I probably wouldn’t have ever gotten into any of this.

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

I elevate things.. Whether it’s by adding animations, transitions, special effects, adding movie clips for humor or drama or writing a script. I take other peoples work or ideas and add my own creative visions to them to bring them to the next level. I have completed video and animation projects for major clients and consistently learn and improve my skill set. My bread and butter are short highlight reels and ads, but I have been doing a significant amount of long-form content recently and working on a TV show that airs on FOX. If you need cute or funny 2D cartoons, unique transitions and effects, cool 3D text animations and highlight reels, I’m definitely your guy. I also voiced all the male characters in my recent animated short films and have a pretty wide vocal range. I’m a pretty good writer as well and have won a significant mount of awards for the scripts I write in various genres. Mostly Comedy, but I have written an award-winning Action/Drama script and an award-winning Horror/Thriller script as well. Feel free to send me an email if any of this sounds like something you need for your business or projects.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I would like to produce at least one season of my animated series. That’s my biggest goal.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My main mission is to produce my animated series. I’ve put a lot of work into writing and learning to animate. Up to this point in my creative career I have only produced short films and I really want to see at least some of my long-form scripts come to life. I don’t care if I have to do most of the work myself on a ridiculously small budget, It’s going to happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tolacraftproducts.com/
• Instagram: @mathewtretola
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathew-tretola-5a704621a/
• Twitter: @MathewTretola