Erick Estrada
westrada@uwm.edu
Bio
From doodles to full-fledged characters, 12 years worth of drawing has allowed Erick to develop his drawing skills and his characters as well. Through his experience in the design program he has become skilled in the use of Photoshop, Illustrator, Audition and After Effects, and has begun to develop skills in the use of hand drawn animation, both traditional and digital. On the side, Erick continues to improve his drawings through redrawing old ideas and trying different art styles, while also learning to take new ideas from just about anything such as conversations. Design may be a lot of work, but Erick feels that allowing his imagination to run free and create new ideas makes it fun. Sure, some ideas may be bizarre, but they’re the ones the world has yet to see, and the ones that define him the most. Risks should be taken, fears should be faced, and limits should be pushed; Erick believes that one should embrace their inner weird and give the world something new to experience.
Description
My manifesto is intended to be a timeline of not only a designer’s journey, but my own journey as an artist. Learning to animate has been a strong desire of mine for those twelve years, so finally putting it to work through my manifesto project is a way of saying that I’ve reached the peak of my journey and am now the person I’ve always wanted to be. Even so, this animation gives the viewer a look into who I used to be and how much I’ve changed alongside my work. The way the animation works is that the first phase, when I realized that drawing is something I really love to do, the quality of animation is very simple and akin to an animatic. This is meant to represent my beginnings as both an artist and an animator; as the animation goes on my drawing style is shown to improve as it did before, and the animation increases in fluidity as I learn to animate along the way. The overall purpose of this is to motivate others in the field of art & design and give an example as to what can be done when one works to improve their skills and themselves to reach their ultimate goal. I may not be the best artist or animator out there, but I hope that my example motivates those just beginning their journey to stick to it and reach their own peaks.