Episode 13 - Work Life Balance

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Can I work in the animation industry and have a normal life? What if I want to have a family? Is the industry all just all-nighters and unpaid overtime? We are pleased to announce that in episode 13, we sit down with married couple and industry veterans Rebecca Perez and David Stodolny, to answer these questions and more as we talk all things work life balance!

UPDATE: On 11/2/2020, we re-uploaded the episode with a revision. We incorrectly stated that Germany gives a minimum of 6-weeks vacation leave (it's actually 24 days). If you've already downloaded the episode, feel free to delete it and re-download it to pick up the changes! Sorry about that!! Thank you :)

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meet the guests: rebecca perez & david stodolny

REBECCA PEREZ

Rebecca Perez started her animation career working in the games industry for Lucas Arts for 7 years.  Her love of animated films inspired her to join the very first class of Animator Mentor where she learned feature style animation.

Rebecca got her first feature job at "Walt Disney Animation Studios" as an assistant animator on "Meet the Robinsons" and from there was promoted to animator on "Bolt"

Since then she's worked at Sony Pictures Imageworks on "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and for Dreamworks Animation where she worked on "How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda 2, Megamind and Turbo." 

Rebecca joined Pixar Animation Studios to work on "Forky Asks a Question, Onward" and their upcoming film, "Soul".

Rebecca is currently back where it all started, animating for Disney on their latest film, "Raya and the Last Dragon."

DAVID STODOLNY

David Stodolny has been a professional character animator for the past 20 years but has been animating since he was 12 years old. Since he could hold a pencil, he's been drawing for himself and others.  He graduated from Sheridan College's Classical Animation program.

He started his career in Toronto, Canada working on animated TV shows and commercial work.  He worked on his first feature film, "The Wild" which gave him the experience to apply to some of the bigger feature studios in California. 

David worked at Sony Imageworks for 5 years on "Open Season, Surf's Up, I Am Legend and Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs".  He then moved over to Dreamworks Animation where he animated on films such as "How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Turbo, Home and Penguins of Madagascar". 

He joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2014 on the film "Zootopia" which went on to win the Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards. Since then he's worked on "Moana, Frozen 2 and a variety of short films and special projects for Disney. Currently he's just finishing up on "Raya and the Last Dragon".  

Beyond his feature animation job David continues to make his own 2D cartoons and content on youtube.com/stodoe 

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EPISODE OUTLINE

1) 0:03:20 GUEST INTRODUCTIONS

2) 0:10:40 WHAT IS WORK LIFE BALANCE? HOW DO YOU DEFINE IT?

3) 0:20:38 HOW DOES WORK CULTURE IN THE US COMPARE TO WORK CULTURE ABROAD?

4) 0:24:50 HOW DOES PARENTAL LEAVE WORK?

5) 0:31:30 WHAT WORK LIFE BALANCE ISSUES ARE SPECIFIC TO THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY? CAN YOU HAVE A FAMILY AND WORK IN ANIMATION?

6) 0:41:47 HOW DO RESPONSIBILITIES CHANGE AND EVOLVE AS CHILDREN GET OLDER?

7) 0:52:06 HAVE YOU EVER WORKED WITH EMPLOYERS TO FLEX YOUR HOURS AND ADJUST YOUR SCHEDULE FOR YOUR FAMILY?

8) 0:57:00 DISCUSSION ON TOXIC WORK LIFE

9) 1:08:00 WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A COUPLE WHERE BOTH PARTNERS ARE IN THE INDUSTRY AND SOMETIMES AT THE SAME COMPANY?

10) 1:34:50 WHAT IS BURN OUT AND HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH IT?

11) 1:47:50 HOW DO YOU STAY CREATIVE OUTSIDE OF WORK? how do you find time for personal projects?

12) 1:56:30 what do you do to decompress and have fun?

13) 2:17:33 INSIDE THE ANIMATOR’S STUDIO

14) 2:41:09 TIP JAR