We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alfonso Petersen O’Farrill. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alfonso below.
Hi Alfonso, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout
Avoiding burnout in animation, as in any field, is challenging, especially when your passion becomes your profession. The pandemic added to this difficulty with its work pressures and uncertainties. Now, as things return to normal, it’s crucial to strike a healthy balance between work and personal life.
While occasional overtime may be necessary, it shouldn’t be the standard expectation. Keeping open lines of communication with supervisors can help minimize excessive work demands. Additionally, making use of weekends for leisure activities outside of work is essential for maintaining well-being. Whether it’s a short getaway, like going camping, or spending time with friends, these breaks are important for recharging.
For those with the option, mixing remote work with office time can be a great choice. There are advantages and disadvantages for both, and what has worked the best for me has been to intercalate between them. That way I am able to get both the social gratification of working in an office, but without the stress of commute every single day.
In summary, avoiding burnout requires a thoughtful approach, including setting boundaries, communicating effectively, prioritizing self-care, and maintaining a grateful attitude towards your work.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a 3D Senior Artist, currently working at Buck Design. I have contributed to animated projects in many areas including modeling, texturing, hair, lighting, and compositing. Some of the clients that I have had the pleasure to work for are Airbnb, Fedex, Amazon, Google, and Meta. I grew up in Guadalajara, Jalisco. As a kid I developed a fascination for drawing and animation. I would fill notebooks with sketches of characters of my own creation, and later on pages and pages of stories about them.
I was about 15 years old when I learned that a bachelor in digital animation was an option in Tecnologico de Monterrey, a prestigious university in my city, Shortly after I found out that, I also learned that they provided a scholarship for the applicant with the best portfolio. For that same reason. I spent the rest of my high school years taking courses and I made sure to develop my 3D modeling skills. When the time finally came, I applied to the scholarship and won, which was extremely encouraging for me.
During my student years I learned the basis of basically every process of animation, but I knew that the knowledge acquired was not gonna be enough to land a job, so I continued working on my 3D modeling skills on my own time. A couple of years later I landed a temporary internship in a local studio called Exodo Animation Studios, and shortly later I became staff. Although I had more of a specialist focus than a generalist, I was requested to learn how to do hair for a specific project. That experience was new and interesting to me.
Two years later when I applied to my current job in Buck Design Los Angeles, the fact that I could do more that just one craft was appealing to them, and ultimately got that job and moved to the United States with a work VISA.
Over my six years at Buck Design, I’ve continued to grow, learning unexpected skills and evolving beyond what I imagined for myself.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
There are many skills that I consider important for success, but I will narrow it to the ones that I think are the most relevant for me. 1) Researching skills: There is nothing more crucial for growth than the ability to solve your own problems. We live in a time where there is so much information online that it is now difficult to find exactly what we are looking for. But I do believe that the more you get used to rely yourself (at least at first) the better you get at solving your own problems and putting out small fires.
2) Perseverance: Although I do believe in raw talent, chances are that the initial attempt at anything won’t be very successful. It is all about not giving up and keep going at it. Eventually the process will just make sense and become second nature.
3) Self awareness: In my opinion the lack of self awareness can be one of people’s biggest obstacles. And it can go either way. Some people may not be delivering the quality that they should, but their lack of awareness and self criticism doesn’t allow them to see it. On the other hand, some people do have great talent but feel the impostor syndrome when they compare themselves to others. I think self awareness is about realizing that you might not be the best one in the world, but that does not mean that you are not good enough or deserving of your current position. It means that you are in the right track, while room for improvement also exists.
How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
One of the main challenges I am currently facing is time managing when working in more than one project at a time. Specially because the expectation is that I will deliver the tasks for both projects as if they were the only one I am working on. My current strategy on this issue is making sure that the expectations from my supervisors are realistic. I keep an open communication with the producers of both projects to make sure they are aware of my time being split, and keeping on eye of what task has a tighter time constraint.
It is also extremely important to delegate. Sometimes we feel that there are jobs that only we can do, but lately I have found helpful to spent some extra time on training less experienced artists on the needs of the project, so eventually everybody can contribute at the same level.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artstation.com/alfonsopetersen
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petersen_3d/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/ponchopetersen/
