Julia Vickerman | Animator and Storyboard Artist

I live in Los Angeles and work for the interactive and animation studio, Puny Entertainment, as a writer, animation supervisor, and storyboard artist for the Nick Jr. show – Yo Gabba Gabba. I was offered the job out of college when the founder of Puny watched my senior film. The process of making the film, from ideation to final edit, was an incredible capstone on my MCAD education.

I grew up in the South, and I wanted to go to college in the Midwest. MCAD seemed less pretentious than other art schools that I’d looked at. Also, I appreciated that they offered courses in comic art, which were extremely helpful to me as I learned the basic skills for storyboarding.

MCAD really changed the way I approach new projects. And doing everything from writing to animating to sound, I quickly learned how to function in areas outside of my comfort zone. A lot of young people use college as a time to screw around, and screwing around is important, but knowing how to work hard is vastly more important.