Meet Elena Fazio | Character Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elena Fazio and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elena, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
I think work life balance is ultimately about exploring new places, venturing outside your current knowledge, and learning more about the world around you. One of the greatest ways of doing this is by having fun personal passion projects. Having complete creative freedom on something that’s your own helps prevent burnout and keeps the artist inside you going! Personally, I’ve been trying to be an animator by day, illustrator and author by night. Telling stories for illustrated children’s books and ideas for different stories keeps me going. Even animating on passion projects, short films, or one-off animated shots, I think, keeps a good balance. Especially with animation, working through crunch can be challenging. When I was animating at Disney as an apprentice on Wish, we worked long hours for crunch-time to finish the film; however, when work gets tough, it’s always good to have a small break even if it’s just a quick sketch at night. The opportunity to have a space to experiment and try out new and exciting ideas will always help maintain the balance between work responsibilities and personal time.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Well, so far I’ve gotten to work on a variety of great projects including multiple short films, a few games, and a feature film. After graduating from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2022 and creating my own short film “Fiesta Blood”, I started off as an animation intern with Riot Games on Valorant! There, I worked on some awesome projects and got to work with a really great animation team. Shortly after that, I got offered an animation trainee role with Walt Disney Animation Studios. It was a great experience where I got to train and fine-tune my skills as a professional animator through the guidance of my wonderful mentors. After that, I was promoted to become an animation apprentice with Walt Disney Animation Studios, and got my first feature film credit animating on Wish! I was able to work with a variety of characters for shot work and crowds animation which gave me great experience on how to polish my animation and work in a feature film pipeline. Getting to work every day with great friends and artists who inspired me to get into animation to begin with was an amazing opportunity!

In terms of lessons I’ve learned along the way, I am still very early on in my career, but I think taking risks every day by challenging yourself to ask questions can be the most rewarding! It can be intimidating to reach out to the amazing artists around you, but ultimately taking the leap is important and an outstanding way to grow as an artist! Learning new workflows, perspectives, and styles from other artists you admire is so rewarding. Whether it’s studying how someone worked through their shot, or asking to shadow people for the day to see their workflow, I think ultimately you will find that everyone is super open to helping out other artists!

I’m very excited to continue learning and working on new and exciting projects. I pursued a career in Animation because I love to tell stories! Getting to animate is an amazing experience, where you get to bring to life a character and get into the acting headspace of what is needed for a scene. Regardless of the project, the characters are what drive a narrative forward and getting the chance to work with a variety of characters, personalities, and storylines is an incredible experience! Choosing art as a career can be daunting, but knowing that I will never stop growing as an artist and continue to learn throughout my entire lifetime is ultimately why I chose this career.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would probably suggest a lot of hikes! I’m from outside Chicago so there are no hills of any sorts, so coming out here to hike on the huge hills and mountains is one of my favorite activities. Also, everyone’s super nice on the trails so you get to meet some great people and get to hear some incredible stories! I also think the museums and tours are super exciting. Places like the Getty museum and the Warner Brothers Studio Tour are must sees. So overall, if I planned an itinerary, it would be a ton of walking but you would get to see a lot of great nature and art along the way!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have had so many amazingly supportive people in my life, that I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. My mentors throughout my time at College, Riot Games, and Disney were some of the greatest I could have asked for. I learned so much in such a short amount of time through their guidance! Also, of course, my family and friends, who have never stopped supporting me with my ambitions in an art career; sticking with me through it all! I really appreciate all their support and can’t thank them all enough!

Website: http://elenafazio.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenafaz_art/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenafazio/

Image Credits
– Wish screen grab (From Walt Disney Animation Studios Wish 2023)