We were lucky to catch up with Michael Ruocco recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
My biggest risk was leaving my home and the ones I loved to move across the country and work in the field I wanted to be in. It was risky, but I knew trying to achieve it was better than the alternative.
Michael, 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?
I’m an animation artist living in Burbank, CA. I’ve worked on many different animated productions for many different studios (including but not limited to BoJack Horseman, Looney Tunes Cartoons, The Cuphead Show, StoryBots, and many other various projects, large and small. While I studied traditional character animation, I got into storyboarding and made a career out of it. On top of my day job, I’ve also moved into the world of indie filmmaking and have been making my own animated shorts and projects outside the studio system and have submitted them to festivals.
There are many hurdles and problems one faces on both a large scale studio production as well as on your own, and they vary based on many different factors, many of which fall outside the individual’s control, but part of the challenges of that, and others, is learning to adapt from project to project and roll with those punches.
If there’s anything I’m particularly proud of, it’s being in the position of working with and alongside many other creative individuals to help create new films and cartoons, and that I’m always excited to try new ventures and learn on each job.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn a lot of deeply ingrained workaholic tendencies because it became detrimental and permanently damaging to my health in the long run. I’ve gotten sick and hurt and lost people close to me because of it, and since then I’ve learned about what’s necessary for the job, and most importantly how to value myself as an individual and not feel compelled to work like a machine.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think a lot of it comes from having an understanding of empathy, both on a basic, personal and professional level. With things like AI art and NFTs and such making a lot of waves by non-creative people and hurting so many artists everywhere, it’s easy to overlook how much work creative people actually need to do just to get by, and how the individual skills and values of an artist mean much more than just the product they create for people to take in. Educating folks on what it takes to be an artist, the risks, the drives and passions that fuel them, and sharing the wealth and knowledge that comes from that journey might be something to consider.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/view/michaelruoccoart/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaeljruocco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.j.ruocco
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-j-ruocco-1b8b4628/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AGuyWhoDraws
Image Credits
Looney Tunes images courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation