We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ray Mendoza Landa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ray, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
When I think about where I got my work ethic my immediate answer is my parents. When I was younger I saw how hard my dad worked. It didn’t matter if he was tired or sick, he would still wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning, roll up his sleeves, kiss my mom good-bye and head to work. My father was always a hard and dedicated worker, but unfortunately when the Great Recession hit, he lost his job. My siblings and I didn’t grow up with much, but my dad provided us with the essentials. We always had a roof over our head, food in our bellies and shoes on our feet. Both of my parents worked odd jobs, night shifts, garage sales, even selling our family car, anything to ensure that my siblings and I had everything we needed. I honestly didn’t gain a greater appreciation for my mom until I got older and realized all the hard work she did to also keep us afloat. She bargain shopped, babysat the neighbors kids, improvised delicious meals and put up with all 4 of our ‘tonterias’. When I went off to college my mom picked up a part-time job at the mall to ensure she had spare money to give me in case I ever needed it. Seeing how hard my dad would work to provide for his family, seeing how hard my mom would work to maintain the house, I knew I had to do something to pull my own weight. As a young kid my only job was to ensure I did well in school because that is the reason my parents worked so hard, and why they came to the United States from Mexico to provide opportunities they didn’t have. They were the reason why I kept applying to so many scholarships even while in college to lessen their financial burden. I work hard to ensure my parents’ struggles and sacrifices were not in vain. I work hard to be in the position I am in to give back to my parents for all that they have given me. Finally, I work hard to provide for my wife and my future family. I truly thank and credit my parents for the work ethic they bestowed onto me.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a Mexican-American Storyboard Artist who draws cartoons for a living! I have been working professionally in animation for over 3 years now. My first animation industry experience was when I interned at Tonko House in the spring of 2017 helping as an Animation Assistant for Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems. It was such an amazing experience and I got to witness first hand what it is like to be a part of a real animation production. Robert Kondo, Dice Tsutsumi, Courtney Lockwood, Toshi Nakamura, and especially Erick Oh all served as wonderful mentors to me during my time at the studio. From there I directed an Animated Graphic Novel titled Sol Naciente as my capstone project at San Jose State University. I got to work with such a powerhouse team of artists that helped make my dream into a reality. Sol Naciente is a story about a boy who wants to grow up to be a great luchador like his dad! However, El Sol Jr. isn’t as big and strong like his dad El Sol and has to learn how to be a great luchador in his own way. The story is heavily inspired by the relationship I have with my own dad and how I view myself. If you are interested the comic is free to read at www.solnacientecomic.com. This project holds a special place in my heart and I am happy I had the opportunity and the platform to tell it. Sol Naciente has opened so many doors for me and has put me in contact with so many amazing individuals. I had the pleasure to connect with Kevin Kleinrock, president and COO of Masked Republic, Carlo A. Flores, owner of The Mighty Luchador Store where he sells physical copies of Sol Naciente as well as some of my other artwork, and none other than one of my animation heroes Jorge R. Gutierrez, Director of the Book of Life and Maya and the Three. Finally, one of the recent doors Sol Naciente has opened for me was the unbelievable opportunity to work on Rey Mysterio Vs. La Oscuridad! For those that don’t know, I am a big fan of pro-wrestling and lucha libre and if you were to ask anyone who my favorite wrestler/luchador is, they would all answer Rey Mysterio! The fact that I had the opportunity to work with the Hermanos Calavera storyboarding on this amazing action adventure show about Rey Mysterio has been another dream come true! I was only able to work part-time for them since I was working full-time at Warner Bros. Animation. Up until now, majority of my professional career in animation has been at WBA. I first started out as a Storyboard Revisionist on Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, 8 months in they gave me the opportunity to storyboard one of the episodes and shortly after that they told me I had been promoted to Storyboard Artist full-time for Gremlins season 2. Michael Chang and Danielle Witz really saw my potential and kept taking chances on me and pushing me to grow. I credit them along with Vaughn Ross and Jasmine Goggins for a lot of my success at WBA. From there I worked on Wings of Fire until it was unexpectedly canceled by Netflix. Then I started working on Scooby-Doo! & the Mystery Pups before that was shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery. The second half of my three year tenure at WBA was a bit rocky due to the state of the animation industry. Even though what happened at WBA was unfortunate, it led to my incredible opportunity with Viva Calavera as I am now back with them as an Animation Supervisor to help them wrap up on Rey Mysterio Vs. La Oscuridad! Being back with Viva Calavera has been such a refreshing experience. Even though I have loved every production I have been on, it has always been disheartening being the only Latinx individual on the story team. I never had the opportunity to work alongside or have been mentored by someone who looks like me, and when I did, it was always short lived. However, working with Viva Calavera, which is based in Mexico, I’m not the only brown person on the virtual call anymore. I don’t have to feel like I have to do my best to represent my people because I am already working with mi gente. Again, don’t get me wrong, I have loved all the productions I have been on and have worked with amazing artists of color. However, the representation of Latinx individuals on screen, on the art teams and the production teams is still lacking and we still have a ways to go. I’m very fortunate to work with Viva Calavera and hope to continue working with them to create amazing and inspirational content with a cast of characters that look like me and my loved ones. I want to keep growing within the studio and help bring more stories with LatinX representation to life.
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?
This is a difficult question to answer but if I have to boil it down I would have to say my background in theater, my eagerness to constantly learn and improve and my ability to take criticism have been the most impactful in my animation journey. I didn’t take any art classes in highschool, I didn’t have an art portfolio when I was applying to colleges, I didn’t see animation as a viable career until my senior year of highschool. The only drawings I did were in the margins of my notebooks. The closest thing I did to art was the performing arts. So when I started attending San Jose State University I had zero drawing mileage and was honestly struggling, at the bottom of the class compared to my peers. However, what I lacked in drawing mileage I made up for in thoughtful storytelling. The one thing that was constantly commented on by my professors was that even though my art could use some work they could always tell my art had some sort of view point. That was all thanks to theater. An artist is just an actor with a pencil, it doesn’t matter how pretty a drawing is if there is no thought, intention or emotion behind it. Theater also gave me the confidence when I had to present my ideas to the rest of the class because I always viewed it as a performance. Theater especially became helpful when I started to focus on storyboarding because storyboarding is storytelling, acting, directing, and a whole lot more. That was the one thing I had over my fellow peers and once my mileage caught up I can confidently say I became someone that my peers acknowledged and respected. Which brings me to my next point which was my eagerness to learn. I knew I had to work twice as hard as any of my fellow peers just to keep up and not fall behind. If the assignment was to draw twenty figure drawings from life, I drew forty. If it took my fellow peers ten hours to do an assignment, I would spend twenty because I needed to improve. I remember when I took my first traditional animation class we were animating ball bounces, brick drops and sack drops on pencil and paper. Most would do one ball drop, rework it a bit and turn it in. For me I was so fascinated by how these sequential drawings created a moving image that I did six or seven different versions, each time trying to attempt something different and learn something new. I worked diligently just to improve but when I caught up to the skill level of my fellow peers I still kept wanting to learn and grow because I really enjoyed the process of developing my abilities. As an artist the second you become complacent your journey ends. You should never stop wanting to learn and should constantly strive to improve yourself. Finally, my last quality that has been really impactful in my journey is my ability to take criticism. This is a skill that I definitely gained while attending SJSU. When you are an artist your work will always be criticized there is no way around it. When turning in an art assignment your professor will critique your art and point out flaws. However the criticism is never done to devalue you or your work, it is always to help you improve and sharpen your skills as an artist. When it comes to taking criticism you need to separate yourself from your work. This can be hard to do because you put a lot of yourself in your work and when you show someone your art you are putting yourself out there. So when someone gives you a critique, it can be hard to listen or even want to make changes. However, understanding the critique and learning what you can do to improve your work is really beneficial. I can’t tell you how much faster you will grow when you detach yourself from your work in a professional setting. I want to emphasize ‘professional setting’ because when you are storyboarding on a show, it’s not your show, you are helping fulfill the Episodic Director’s vision who is trying to fulfill the Supervising Director’s vision who is trying to fulfill the Executive’s vision. The quicker you can let go of your drawings the quicker you can apply your notes and move on the assignment. Getting notes doesn’t mean you suck as an artist, it just means everyone on your team is just trying to help improve your work to make the show better. Overall, these are the three qualities that have been the most impactful for me and can help any individual pave the way into the animation industry.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
The current challenge that I’m facing is that there are not enough hours in the day to do what I want to do. I want to work a full-time job to keep providing for my family, work on personal projects, continue doing my podcast that I co-host, maintain a social media presence, travel, watch more movies, workout, have kids, spend quality time with my wife and family. There are so many things I want to do right now as well as the future but I currently don’t have the time to do everything. I am a very ambitious person and I like keeping myself productive. It’s the one quality my wife loves and hates about me the most. It does get difficult to balance all of these things at once and the way I have been dealing with this is thinking what is important right now and what can wait until later. Right now work, the podcast, fitness, and quality time with the wife and my family has been what I decided to dedicate time to. I’m currently co-hosting an animation podcast alongside Yuki Okamura-Wong titled Straight Ahead where we interview BIPOC individuals who are breaking into the animation industry. That project has been a lot of fun and it has been fulfilling me creatively which is why some personal projects have been pushed to the side to focus on this current endeavor. I love being able to talk to and spotlight the future voices of the animation industry and advocating for them..us.. will always be extremely important to me, however this isn’t a project I see myself doing forever and eventually I would want to transition into other personal projects. I would like to grow my social media presence and have something new to post every few days but spending quality time with my wife and going out to see family and friends takes priority. I think I’ll survive if I don’t actively maintain my social media presence as long as I maintain my relationships with my friends and loved ones. I’m only 27 years old, I still have a whole lifetime ahead of me to tackle what I want to accomplish. As much as I would want more hours in the day I need to learn how to maximize the hours I have now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://raymendozalanda.wixsite.com/portfolio
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raydiosilence/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-mendoza-landa-a4446a156/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RaydioSilence
- Other: http://solnacientecomic.com/ https://open.spotify.com/show/6bPr6263tJeZRUI8gqC2sp?si=cd9e567c70564f96
Image Credits
Leanna Lin’s Wonderland, Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
