Q+A with animator Jaeger Vallejera

Jaeger John Vallejera is a successful Canberra based freelance animator and designer. As well as being the Director of Animation at CRUX Media, Jaeger also works with high profile artists like Canberra-based trio SAFIA. I asked Jaeger to tell me about his choice to pursue his passion for animation instead of his university degree, being a member of Generation Y, and what it’s like to be a young person starting out in the creative industry.

Q: What made you decide to pursue animation full time?

A: I guess it started when I wondered if it was actually at all possible to do what I loved and make a living out of it. A lot of good-intentioned people say that animation or visual art is too hard to make a living out of, and I believed that. So I worked a whole bunch of jobs and couldn’t settle or decide on what I wanted to do but I finally had an epiphany: that no matter what I choose to do, I’m gonna have to work ridiculously hard and spend most of my time doing it, so I thought – I may as well be doing something I love.

Being so shy growing up meant that pictures were my way of connecting to people who loved to look at my stupid drawings. That ability to connect ended up leading me to my job of animation where communicating a story to the audience is the heart of it.

Q: What have you learned about yourself since you made that choice?

A: I’ve learned that it’s fully possible to take your life in whatever direction you want to go, with a whole lot of hard work, commitment and creativity… And that it’s always best to go in the direction you’re passionate about.

What I’ve learned that has been somewhat unexpected is: that once you get into the field you love, it stops feeling like work – it’s still tough but the challenges, the people you’re surrounded by and the work you make become the most fulfilling thing in life. Once upon a time I thought the goal in life was to get so rich that I’d never have to work again ha-ha! [But] being in the field I love, making animations and videos with such amazing people, has taught me that I want to work every single day forever because it’s what I love to do  – and I can offer my greatest potential by doing that.

Q: What do you think are the keys to being a successful visual artist?

A: Visual artist is an awesome title that I’m not sure fits me just yet, but that’s certainly the direction I want to go in! Anyway, what I think one of the main keys to success in my field of animation and motion graphic design is… Putting yourself, and your work, out there for people to see. There are so many talented and hard working people but not everyone puts themselves out there. I really understand how difficult it is to show your work to the world, especially when it feels like you’re putting a piece of yourself out there for everyone to see – you feel so exposed!

Q: What is the hardest thing about being a visual artist?

A: There are a lot of difficult things about being in visual art and design – the challenge of staying inspired and creative and fresh is difficult but it’s also one of the best and most exciting things about being in visual art and animation, so really one of the hardest things is finding a way to turn that work into a livelihood. There’ll be a lot of long hours, a lot of people who don’t value your work and a lot of doubt, thinking: can I really do this for a living? That’s pretty tough.

Q: Who are some of your favourite animators/visual artists?

A: Hayao Miyazaki is easily my favourite animator. He does everything from the nitty gritty hand drawn frame-by-frame animations to the writing and directing of his films, and his work stays so creative, unique and evocative! That just makes him a super genius and legend in my eyes! John Lasseter is another legend who transformed the animation industry with Toy Story, and his fresh approach provides so many lessons for us animators. A lot of my inspiration for animation comes from films so my favourite artists tend to be filmmakers. Filmmakers with unconventional and/or idiosyncratic styles inspire me: Spike Jonze, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Richard Linklater, Alfonso Cuaron and the Coen Brothers as well as filmmakers who are simply amazing with their craft: Tarantino, PT Anderson, Scorsese, J. J Abrams, Nolan and boy the list goes on…

Q: What are some of your goals for the future?

A: At the moment, putting my own personal work out there more is a huge part of my future ambitions – I talked before about how important it is to put your own art out there, but honestly, I don’t have much to show of my own personal work because it’s hard for me to do the same thing! Working full time animating videos and creating motion graphics with the amazing filmmakers at CRUX Media has given me the confidence to get better, learn from great people and start putting my own personal work out there. I’m just so excited about what the future holds.

Q: There is a lot of speculation that Generation Y will follow multiple career paths and have a more flexible approach to working life. Do you think this is true? If so, what positives will this bring, and what challenges?

A: I absolutely think this is true – I started out in graphic design, bounced around in business and took up other odd jobs. One of the bigger challenges is decision paralysis – it’s scary to have so much choice. It also means we can fall into things we don’t even want to be doing. Another big challenge is that the flexibility paves way for us to get a bit lazy and not pursue big dreams and difficult tasks because we’re bouncing around a whole bunch of things without knuckling down and committing to something – I’m sure this is one reason a lot of people call us Gen Y-ers lazy! But the positive outweigh the negatives – the freedom we have is probably greater than it ever has been in history and it’s really exciting to see how far we’ll be able to push our working lives to be more fulfilling to ourselves.

By Helena Game