Women on Sketchfab: Grace Mojica

About

My name is Grace Mojica. I studied Multimedia Engineering 12 years ago, when nobody really knew if this career was going to have any potential; most of my family were worried about me getting a job in the future. It was a risk but I was so in love with the idea of creating 3D objects that I took the chance and enrolled in it. The 5-year program was a combination of systems engineering, computer arts and graphic design. I learned a little bit about everything but not enough to be really good at something specific. The more I learned 3D, the more I fell in love with it, especially the animation part of it. After graduating and working as a 3D generalist for almost 3 years, I decided I wanted to become an animator. At that time Animation Mentor was starting to become a well recognised course and the student reels were amazing so I applied and started to learn 3D Animation everyday after work. It was hard trying to balance working all day and studying all night but it was totally worth it.

My first job was in an architecture visualization studio that was slowly entering the TV advertising world. I started as an intern student working half time but I was good and got hired the moment my internship ended. I learned a lot during my first job. When you show real interest in learning, people love to share their knowledge.

Projects

During these last 12 years I have had the chance to work on amazing projects:

• Multimedia animated content for teaching kids new languages
• Multiplayer online web game
• TV Commercials
• Animated Shorts
• International collaborative project
• 3D Stereoscopic content
• Teaching history of animation and introduction to 3D Software for film students
• Animation for mobile games
• Augmented reality for classic children’s stories
• First VR short film on Sketchfab
• TV series for kids

In my free time I rig and animate characters that my husband designs; we work as a team creating fan art of characters from movies, TV series or video games that we are currently obsessed with. Our latest project is an animated pilot for a new character we invented.

The bad part about being a 3D Animator in my country is finding a steady job with a good salary; most of the jobs are tied to the projects, so when the project ends, your contract ends, too. Sometimes the company doesn’t have the budget to pay what the artist deserves or the project gets canceled for lack of funds, which is why I’m always working on personal projects and sending my reel and resume everywhere. I’m always aiming to become a better animator; I think that’s the best way to get your dream job.

Sketchfab

I love to present my animations on Sketchfab. Viewers can appreciate all the details in the animation and appreciate the model at the same time, from any point of view! Lighting and shading is easy and really intuitive. When I finish a project I want to show it immediately and the best part is that there are no painfully long renders. As an animator, embedding an animated 3D model from Sketchfab on your website can be a game changer.

Website / Behance / Vimeo