We were lucky to catch up with Vivian Trujillo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Vivian, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
In order to keep moving forward, I think it’s important to always believe that there is an answer or a solution to any problem. While not every solution may not be ideal, for whatever reason, it lets me know that I can persevere. I think my dad was a big part of that growing up, and it’s kind of funny I don’t think he’d market it as optimism and more so, you have to get through things and sometimes that means you don’t have time (or much time) to cry about it. But honestly it’s been so important for me in achieving my goals in life, because you can plan as much as you want and suddenly all your plans go out the window. There have definitely been moments where I really wanted to just cry because things just didn’t go according to plan or have been probably huge set backs. Stop-motion is so much of that, there’s a lot of ways to do something and tons of ways things can go wrong, but to keep going and to find the best ways to do them and see the final product come together is honestly the best feeling in the world. Seeing this multi-faceted discipline come together at any stage, every time has invigorated my optimism now more than ever.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m a stop-motion fabricator & graphic designer, from South Florida, I just graduated from Savannah of College of Art & Design in Georgia. I have always been in love with working with my hands, so I have always gravitated to hand crafts and other tactile things. Growing up I was always enthralled with miniatures and stop-motion films and funny enough if anyone would ask me then compared to now I hadn’t considered that it could be my whole life. Now I can’t imagine doing anything else! I took one step into the workshop at my college and I was home, every day there is something new to learn. I’m currently looking for work, but I’m starting a personal project with my partner.
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?
I would say being determined, setting goals and communication has been important to me.
I wouldn’t consider myself the most confident person, but I think my determination has helped me see things through. having determination has kept me going through projects, I’ve had projects where I wasn’t sure what the outcome was going to be, both independent and collaborative, and the worst thing that can happen is you give up on it. Because once you give up on it then you might not walk away with anything, whether it’s work for your portfolio, pay, or a connection. Your determination shows your commitment to see things through even when it gets difficult. It also brings about incredible solutions sometimes when you do apply that determination.
I can’t stress enough that you have to set goals or objectives. Stop-motion is probably one of the more brutal places I had to learn that, because it’s so multi-faceted. Depending on the scale of the production and how collaborative it is, you can’t do one thing without finishing another, and you would be surprised at how many tasks can overlap. Even more so, how easy it is for tasks to become overlooked or way to overdone when you’re not keeping everything on a timeline. For better or worse it ensures things get done, and I think it promotes letting go of perfection. A lot of times, people want to spend forever on one art piece to make it perfect, but it never sees the light of day. So by setting a goal and holding yourself to a timeline you can find a finish line and learn from what you’ve done, see what worked and what didn’t about what you did.
Communicating with people has always been interesting, it’s really easy to misunderstand someone and to be misunderstood. Moving past those misunderstandings can also be hard, but it’s important to see things from other’s perspective and adapt how you talk to someone. Especially being creatives, being able to communicate your ideas verbally and visually is such an important skill. Remembering that there are so many ways to express a single idea and that the first way you understood it may not be the same for someone else. So be patient and practice expressing them another way and asking what another person understands about it to see if it’s the same or something is missing and vice versa.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Most recently my partner has had a huge impact on me, he’s really so positive and has been really supportive since I entered the world of stop-motion. We compliment each other’s skills, he’s an animator and I’m a fabricator, so we are always teaching each other about what we’re doing respectively and how they intersect. Especially coming from different focuses, we have different ideas and concerns when producing work that sometimes misunderstandings happen, but we take the time to figure out the solution through patience and communication. He’s such an inspiration because he’s so passionate about animating, and he works so hard at it. It’s always a wonder to see him bring stories to life through animating, that it really inspires me to keep pushing the boundaries of what I can make and to continue learning new fabrication techniques.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vtrujillovivian.wixsite.com/vivian-trujillo
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vivid_fabrication/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivian-trujillo-2118a6100/
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