Insights by the Pros with 3D Animator Rachel Hansard

3D Character Animator and iAnimate Alumni, Rachel Hansard with experience at MPC and Digital Dimension shares how to make a lasting impact through animation.

“I do feel the skills I learned here led me to break into the industry.”

Meet Rachel Hansard, a talented 3D Character Animator currently based in Montréal, Canada. With a diverse portfolio that includes working on the animated television show Kitti Katz, Rachel has also contributed her skills to major feature films such as Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Argylle, and Spaceman. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Rachel's passion for animation stems from a desire to evoke emotion, tell compelling stories, and create impactful work that resonates with audiences worldwide.

Rachel is currently looking for her next studio.

Alumni Interview

Animation Journey and Inspiration

iAnimate: Tell us a bit about your animation journey and throughout your time with us. Who or What inspired you to become an animator? How did you become an animator, and when did iAnimate become part of your journey?

Rachel: I always knew I wanted to do something creative for my career. In high school, I remember looking at a book of college majors and seeing all the classes for the animation degree and was sold because all the classes were something I was interested in. Also, growing up Disney was a huge part of my life. I grew up in south Florida about 3 hours away from Disney world, so that definitely shaped me wanting to create animations and tell stories. When I was little my favorite movie was The Little Mermaid and that was an inspiration for me becoming an animator as well.

After I received my BFA in animation from SCAD I went to iAnimate to keep pushing my skills to a higher level. In 2019, I attended CTN to figure out my next steps in life and determined that taking classes at iAnimate was the best thing I could do. I took workshops 3-7 during 2020-2021. IAnimate became a part of my journey after my degree from SCAD.  

iAnimate: What's it like working at your studio?

Rachel: Currently I am looking for my next role, so will speak to the three studios I have already worked at. L’atelier Animation was my first animation studio job, very soon after completing my iAnimate program. This studio culture was a dream, everyone was so kind and helpful. I worked on the TV show Kitti Katz. My next studio was MPC doing VFX work and that was really cool as I got to understand a completely different style of production. As a fan of feature film, it was fascinating to see the original footage of the actors working. My most recent studio was Digital Dimension, the team at this studio were amazing and everyone worked really hard to collaborate and make something awesome.

iAnimate: What do you do to stay inspired and motivated animator?

Rachel: I absolutely love this question! A lot. I think just a passion for the craft of animation, knowing I will always have something to improve upon. After I graduated from SCAD and took iAnimate classes during 2020-2021, I really found these 3 things helpful in keeping me inspired and motivated.

1. Keep going

My mentor Mike Walling used to say this after our critique and I found it encouraging.  It always stuck with me.

2. Trust the process 

This is an overall just trust the process of making animation, from step to spline to polish. Just know overall that I am making steps towards being a better artist and creating better animation in this process.

3. Every day I am a better artist and animator

This one is my favorite, basically you are never going to get worse, only better each day. I even say it like “Today you are the worse artist you will ever be” it is a strange way of looking at it, but it helps keep me going knowing I am ALWAYS improving my animation skills.

I had these things handwritten out and taped to my desk during COVID and it helped keep me inspired.

In addition to these 3 things, just absorbing life and staying centered in pursuing my dreams.

Animation Lessons and Growth

iAnimate: How did iAnimate help prepare you for the industry? What were the most important things you learned at iAnimate?

Rachel: iAnimate helped me be prepared for the industry so much. I had Mike Walling and Tal Shwarzman for my mentors and learned so much from them. I do feel the skills I learned here led me to break into the industry.

The most important thing I learned was defining my process in creating my animations. My skills really leveled up during this time. I also took with me the motivation to just keep going as that's what Mike would always say. I also learned lots of practical tips and tricks on animation and really spending the time to make my animation great. iAnimate was an amazing experience for me.

iAnimate: What is the most challenging shot you’ve ever animated, and why did you succeed at the shot?

Rachel: I would say the personal shot I'm doing now. It's a musical acting shot of 2 characters and 470 frames or 20 seconds. It has been a challenge to create, but really fun! I chose to animate a part of the song “see I am smiling“ from the Broadway musical The Last 5 Years. I wanted to do a musical shot because I love musical theater.  I do a TON of improv in my free time and that really helps me be a better animator. The show The Last 5 Years has a lot of sub text in the lyrics and writing that I wanted to play with in this shot from an acting perspective. 

For this shot I also recorded myself singing, it was fun to combine my two passions. I collaborated with an audio engineer to bring the music to life. That was a really cool and special part of this project, creating original audio to animate with.

This shot has been challenging because of the length, as well as two characters acting, walking and making sure it all flows and looks believable. It's been a huge joy to create this Animation.

As far as “success “ for this shot, I would say it's a story that’s interesting and something I'm passionate about.  I showed it to my friend who is an animator and they got chills from watching it. Additionally, I took some time to show my musical improv teacher after class and she got misty eyed and said “ahh its just a cartoon” in that moment I knew the shot was successful. The story was working even when I showed it to her in blocking, she was emotionally moved and that's what I want. This shot has been a huge win for me, and I can't wait to finish it, because I know story and acting wise it's working.

[Rachel's Current Reel]

You can reach Tatsu via:

iAnimate: Do you have any demo reel or interview advice you can share with animators on the job hunt?

Rachel: Create your best work first in your reel, show what you can do. If you can show acting, body mechanics and an interesting story in 1 shot go for it. Be entertaining with your shots, comedy, drama whatever it is show something that's uniquely YOU! I would say make animation that speaks to who you are and what you want to say creatively. Do something interesting, really spend time in the beginning of your shot exploring ideas and shoot reference to help. This all really applies for personal work, but also can apply to professional work as well. 

As far as the interview, I would say be prepared and ask good questions, listen, be present and just be yourself. They already like your work it's just a vibe check at that point. You got this!

iAnimate: What other advice do you have for current or future iAnimate students?

Rachel: Have Fun! This is your passion so treat it as such. iAnimate was a fantastic experience for me and I learned a lot that I use in my Animation today. My advice is to take it seriously, you get out what you put in. Show up, ask questions the mentors are there to help you so take advantage of their time.

Animation Career Advice & Tips

iAnimate: If there’s one animation tip or technique you’d share with someone wanting to animate in a feature film, what would it be?

Rachel: I'm currently trying to break into feature animation myself. From what I have seen, its animating to a very high level, making really interesting and believable acting choices. Also being a great storyteller with your animation, making the acting feel grounded in what the story is.

iAnimate: Given that there’s so much to learn, how would you recommend a brand new animator start their training?

Rachel: 

When starting out I was really overwhelmed with just learning the software of maya, but with time things get easier so just keep going. Also keep things simple when you're starting out. Look at your arcs and poses that's a good place to start, study animation, movies and life. Software can be learned but stay true to what you want to say creatively, that's something only you can do. 

Ask questions and know that you are making progress even if its small.

After I had graduated from SCAD and finished the iAnimate classes, I put all the animation I had even done in chronological order of oldest to newest to visually track the progress of my work and see how much I had improved. I could see my animation getting better with each shot. I would recommend saving your work to look back on how far you have come.

iAnimate: What makes a great animator or an animator a studio would hire?

Rachel: A few things, passion, animation skills and knowing you will work well on a team. Passion about your animation. Then your actual skills to be able to handle the tasks of the job. Lastly being a team player, you have to be nice to work with, animating is a team sport when working in a production environment.