How passion and perseverance can get you anywhere you want.

Felipe Medina is a colourful motion designer who enjoys creating imaginary mechanic machines and toys. His animation style is playful and his design aesthetic combines smooth and colour-block details with realistic textures, creating a unique and bold style.

 

How did you get your first job in motion graphics?

After I finished university, I went to an office in Stgo to ask for a job, they didn't have many resources and they offered me a kind of internship where I learned a lot. My first job was not a job as such, but rather an invitation to learn what else I could. It was still entertaining, a great adventure!

From your work, I see that you also like 2D illustration. Do you think it is important to know how to animate in 2D as well as 3D?

Hmm, I don't know if one is more important than the other ... probably there are those who enjoy animating more in 2D than in 3D or vice versa, but for me it is more a necessity to move between the two or explore different dimensions, because I am very curious, I like to mix things up and when I do something I immediately think of how it would look differently and I am always looking for what I could try new, so the connection between 2D and 3D seems very natural to me and everything that can be occupied to express ideas of creatively, I find it interesting to be able to do those twists.

It's awesome that you worked with Buck. How did that collaboration come about?

Buck looks for people from many places, it is not that difficult for collaborations to happen. They’re all very talented, eager to do things and they always challenge you creatively, bringing out the best in you.

I don't think I planned it, I only worked doing what I liked the most with the passion that inspires me to do it, and when those two ingredients come together I don't think that anything is impossible.

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You describe yourself as a "happy freelancer" How did you make your way into freelance? Is it advisable to take that path?

It depends on the type of person you are; sometimes it’s more convenient for me to have a fixed schedule. But when you freelance, suddenly the criteria is to select the jobs in which I get involved in, through the affinity I have with them and not just because someone else chooses that project for you.

I think that if you are an explorer and you like to travel the freest paths, being a freelancer allows you to work in multiple areas with different people and that it’s something that motivates and inspires me to create more things. I think the amount of ideas I have is proportional to the amount of people I work with and share with and that, at least for me, works really well

On the other hand, I understand that when you work with a team in a studio, that they know each other and are part of a structure that supports the process in an organized way, it can also be a plus when it comes to doing things.

I think being freelancers or staff have good things, and in that sense the most important thing for me is to feel interpreted by the formula I'm working on; for now I am freelance and I am happy about it.

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Do you have any advice for people starting out in this industry?

That they continue to develop parallel projects, that they associate with more artists, that they explore beyond the monetary purpose and keep their spirits up to give it all the energy they have, because everything that is going to come from this will help the studios see and consider them as potential employees.

They should think of what their purpose is and develop their own paths, always trying to find happiness in what they do, because nobody is a designer to have a bad time :)

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Experimentation as the proven secret for breathtaking design.

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How to balance the technical and the creative to get those amazing results, with Gabriel Morala.