INTERNSHIP STORIES

Animation Internship at a Studio I found out about this internship through my friend who started working there before me, and she had recommended this internship to me because we are both majoring in animation. I secured it by applying through their website, and I had a short interview with the head of the studio where we agreed I would start working this fall.  Animation Libation Studios is a small animation-focused studio that is currently working on producing a couple TV shows, and amongst each team there are character, background, and prop designers, animators, and story boarders. My direct supervisor was in charge of overseeing all of the productions on the show, and meets weekly with each team to check up and give feedback on our progress, as well as keep us up to speed on what we need to work on to meet our schedule deadlines. My responsibilities involved mostly background art, with some prop design. The TV show I am working on is called Champions of Eternity, which is an a...

I found LAIKA's internship opportunity through LinkedIn. I had a Zoom interview with three supervisors in the camera team and they shared a little about the practices of LAIKA and the expectations of me as an intern, and that was to learn as much as I can during the time that I am there. My direct supervisor was in charge of all things that happened on stage. There was another camera intern along with myself.  LAIKA specializes in stop motion feature films, and as a Camera Intern, my position was to assist the animators in getting the shots they needed. The program used the majority of the time was DragonFrame, a stop-motion animation program, and Kuper, a software that controls rigs for motion control. We helped in assisting animators in their testing units, taking images for puppets, props, and other landscape or miscellaneous items that were needed to be submitted for approval.  As the internship progressed, they also spent time teaching us how to use the software Kuper, wh...

Illumination Studios is an animation studio which specializes in kid-friendly feature films. Illumination Studios has two locations: Los Angeles and Paris. The Los Angeles studio does the script, voice acting, and marketing. The Paris office focuses on the creation of the film’s visuals. When exchanging emails with a previous teacher, I let her know my family was moving to Paris. She then offered to speak to her connection at Illumination Studios Mac Guff about securing me an interview for an internship. I agreed and after a phone call, a Zoom interview, and an in-person interview, I was all set to help out in the Art Department. Although I can’t say which movie I was involved in because of NDA, I can say that my role was to pitch prop designs, receive edits, and enact them effectively. Essentially, my supervisor would tell me that a villain needs a cane. I would look over the existing character design sheets and color schemes for the character, then research canes. I would draw severa...

For my internship, I worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. My main project centered around helping out with an Astro-Animation Exhibition, but throughout my ten weeks I also got to work as a graphics support artist. I had multiple mentors for the exhibition and for my graphics support work. This summer, I worked on researching and prototyping potential animation related activities for the exhibition as well as many other graphics projects, including photography assistance, photo processing, logo design, and creating an illustrated poster.  I found out about this internship in my Astro-Animation class last semester taught by my mentors. They were already familiar with my work from other classes I had taken with them and so I applied for the position, went through a short interview process and got hired from there. One of the exhibition mentors is an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard and so I was given a desk in-person in the office of my graphics support mentors. Despite tech...

  I had the honor of interning with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as an animator, creating an animated film that will be a part of the temporary exhibit Cellphone: Unseen Connections that opened up in June 2023. The exhibit discusses everything from how cell phones are made from raw, earthly materials to how we can help the environment by repairing our phones instead of constantly replacing and upgrading them. My biggest takeaway from this experience is that working with a professional team for a creative project is incredibly valuable and fruitful, as every member has something very different to offer and their own unique perspective. I also appreciated how much everybody genuinely cared about the message and purpose of the film. When working collaboratively, the most important thing I learned was how to translate the core team’s ideas and words into visuals that they approve of. They helped me push my own ideas and also gave me some of their own to work with ...

  Imagine This Women's International Film Festival aims to empower women and non-binary filmmakers worldwide. They promote these great filmmakers so that more people can see women's power and provide them with educational and professional opportunities. I found this opportunity through LinkedIn. It's the first time I have tried social networking with unfamiliar people. For this internship, I did a virtual interview with my supervisor, and she told me I got the Graphic Designer position after one week. We had a total of 4 Graphic Design interns working together. We all work through a platform called Asana. Every week we have a virtual meeting for 30 mins. Sometimes it's 1 hour. We also share our progress on different projects so we can easily get suggestions from others. For this position, my major duties included: ● Opening Credits(Typography Animation) for the 7th Annual Imagine This Women's International Film Festival ● Sales for tickets Motion Graphics ● Design ...

I first met Cinema Chef Productions at the MICA Internship and Career Fair, where the creative director first interviewed me. There, I presented a portfolio of my work and gave out my business card. After that, I received many follow up emails and a phone interview before I secured my position as an environmental concept artist and illustrator. Cinema Chef Productions is a small production company looking to make a name for themselves through their new animated show, Cypher Drive. My responsibilities were to create environmental concepts and then illustrate backgrounds for an animated short. I was also occasionally given the task of illustrating key frame concepts or splash art for characters. I’m most proud of the environments I’ve textured and colored throughout the internship, I feel as if my concept of color theory and texturing has grown a great deal. Throughout my internship I learned  the 3D program Sketch Up,  how to texture and paint over 3D models, and how...

The Maryland Science Center is an interactive museum aimed towards kids and teaching scientific concepts. They were looking for people to help conceptualize and fabricate new exhibits, working with the in-house fabrication studio. I had a lot of experience with what they wanted, particularly robotics, coding, installations, and 3D modeling, and I love science and science education. I applied via the internship faire. My direct supervisor was Jessica Ann, who was the head of Exhibit Fabrication. They ran the whole department, as well as outreach to other departments and managerial stuff.  When I arrived, a new exhibit had just been completed. So, I ended up doing a lot of  fixing and developing on prototypes. My main task was completing these “light wands,” a  casing for handheld LEDs that could light up an exhibit. Since kids would be tugging and pulling  on the cables, durability was essential. I went through 4 iteration...

My name is Shoshana Schlauderaff and I am a senior animation major. During the summer of 2018 I was an astrophysics animation intern at NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center . I have always had a passion for science, so in my Junior year at MICA I decided to take a 2D Animation and Science class that has a built-in partnership with NASA. The class gave me the perfect opportunity to combine this passion along with my animation skills, and I was lucky for this to turn into an internship offer once the course was finished. During my time at NASA Goddard I completed animations for the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope . These animations were used for social media and press releases, as well as for educational opportunities. During my last five weeks I worked on a minute and a half long animation explaining how one of Fermi’s instruments called the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor operates and retrieves data that is in turn used for science. This project was definitely my most successful piec...

I interned at ICmed, a medical social app, for the Summer of 2017. My official position was classified as a “Digital Marketing Intern”. My responsibilities included curating and creating videos, animations, and occasionally illustrations, that would be used to promote the app on social media platforms. In addition, I also assisted in editing blog posts, making campaign emails, and participating in marketing meetings. Starting off in the beginning of the Summer, I only had a knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. I also some 2D Animation skills as well as Illustration skills.  Over the course of the Summer, I learned how to intermediately use Adobe After Effects, to the point where I can make animations well over 2 minutes long. Seeing as I had little to no knowledge of After Effects beforehand I would call this a huge improvement, and a beneficial skilled gained. I also gained valuable people and marketing skills, by engaging in meetings which I had to work with...

During the summer of 2017, I had the privilege of interning with Discovery Communications as a Motion Design and Animation Intern in Los Angeles. I started my internship my sophomore year at MICA – I went to the career fair (already knowing that I wouldn’t get an internship since I didn’t have the portfolio for one) and decided to learn about all the companies at the fair and figure out here I would apply for next summer. I met with Discovery and was enamored by the thought of working for a company that inspired my passion for being curious and wanting to learn more about the world. I decided to spend my summer preparing a portfolio, working on my resume and cover letter, and setting up a nice website. Not only was I determined to work for Discovery, but I was also determined to get an internship in general. I created a spreadsheet of 70 places I wanted to apply, and applied to all of them. I started this process in early September of 2016, and finished up in February 2017. By M...