We recently connected with Rebecka Petersson and have shared our conversation below.

Rebecka, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I have been very fortunate to have parents who have, from beginning to end, always encouraged me and pushed me to do whatever it is that I want to do. I was only 11 years old when I first realized I wanted to work in animation. It is easy as an adult to laugh at someone so young who talks about their future with as much conviction as I did back then, but my parents never did. They saw my genuine interest and passion for the medium, and I never heard them talk about it with anything else but encouraging words filled with admiration. I was highly impressionable as a child and if I had sensed even the slightest doubt from my parents, I do not know if I would have felt as convinced about following my passion as I did.

They spoke to me with kind and encouraging words, but also held conversations about how to set goals, to believe in oneself and to always work hard and be kind. It is also the feeling of always having someone there that looks after you. I am very aware of how lucky I have been to have that to fall back on, and I am sure that it has helped me push myself a little further than what I actually believe I am capable of. I knew that they were always there to help me back up if I were to fall short.

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.

I grew up in Jönköping, Sweden. Growing up, I was not allowed to watch many animated films, such as my favorite film back then, The Little Mermaid. But as most of us know, what we can’t have we tend to want even more. I was 11 years old when I was first introduced to animation being a possible career. My then art teacher showed me a brochure about the animation medium and it was as if I was hit by lightning, I knew right away that it was what I wanted to do.

I was able to major in Art and Form at a local high school in Jönköping and convinced the local collages to let me join their figure drawing classes as well. In 2015, a year after my graduation from high school, I flew to San Francisco to study 3D Animation at a university there. During those 4,5 years, I made friends with fellow students and teachers, some of which ended up helping me land my first in-studio job at Kuku Studios.

Since then, I have been fortunate to work on both 2D and 3D projects, for television series, and feature films. I am currently working on a Netflix LEGO series at Pure Imagination. I work as a Visual Development Artist, but I am very thankful to my background in 3D Animation as it helps me think of a space in a three-dimensional way naturally, and how the characters might be moving around a space. I think this has helped set me apart when I first started looking for work.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

With the incredible speed at which AI is coming at us, I continuously feel myself struggling to voice my worry about the creative process in the future. I am not against the technology, but I am against the incorrect usage of private data and copyrighted images which is how many of the AI generators today have been trained. But even without considering that aspect of it, as a working creative, I know all the steps and constant decisions one has to make in the process of creating, and that it is deeply personal. Every decision we make as artists are based on our previous experiences and how something makes us feel as we create. During the process, we will hit roadblocks that we need to figure out and find answers to. We do this by going outside of our comfort zone and our box of thinking, and it is here we make realizations about ourselves and also the character and/or the world we are creating, and in turn it is here we find authenticity and originality.

From what I have come to understand about the usage of AI when creating today, it severely reduces these moments when we have these realizations. I believe it is important to remember, and enforce the idea, that technology is a tool and not a master. AI can help us become more productive, but it is the human touch that provides authenticity and meaning.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

For ten years, I was convinced I wanted to work as a character designer. I did nothing else; studied nothing else. During my senior year in university, there was an event in my life which caused me to seriously doubt my ability, despite the fact that I had won an award for it months prior, and I was filled with self-doubt. Luckily, there was a part-time teacher who I had emailed some weeks earlier. He worked as a production designer at Pixar, and he told me my knowledge in 3D (from my background as a 3D animator) along with my design abilities would make me a great set designer. I spent the following couple of months making an entirely new portfolio, and showed it to him every now and then for feedback. I was shocked at how much I loved set designing. It was everything I loved about character designing; finding personality and character, but also thinking about story and camera. From then, my interest in lighting and color has also grown substantially and I am so glad of the pivot I made back then. It was also this portfolio which landed me my first job, which was everything I had been dreaming of for the past 10+ years.

I now try to not set too strict of a goal for myself, but be open minded about where I might end up in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rebeckapetersson.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rvpetersson/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecka-petersson/