Meet Yaxaira McNear-Echeverria

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yaxaira McNear-Echeverria and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yaxaira, is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
What I’ve come to learn about working in the animation industry is that: it’s Hollywood, baby!

While our production pipeline looks very different from live action projects, the end results are still the same. We make movies and television shows to entertain people. Same business, different mediums. As such, the whims that affect the entertainment industry as a whole also affect animation. Many are quick to make a distinction between the two industries, but they are one in the same.

When someone asks how to break into animation, I always reframe the question into how to break into Hollywood. Because that’s what you’re doing. If somewhere were to say that they were trying to break into Hollywood, it would be met with a Herculean response; knowing full well how difficult, competitive, and unstable a career in Hollywood can be. Animation is no different. Leveraging relationships, knowing the right people at the right place at the right time, and all that jazz. It took me a year to break in. Some lucky few will break in right away, others can take multiple years.

C’est la vie.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I hardly know what my work even is. All I can say is that the vision in my head of what I want my work to be and what it currently is, pales in comparison. But this permanent lack makes me excited for the future. Always learning, always chasing, always striving, knowing you’ll never reach the final goal. It’s in this chase that I believe the real satisfaction and beauty of being a creative lives.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Go to all the art museums in Los Angeles: the LACMA, the Norton Simon, both Getty museums, the Huntington Library, all of it. Extra points if you can hit them all up in a single day and never hit any traffic.

Find a doughnut shop in a nearby strip mall and eat doughnuts for breakfast in the parking lot. That, in my humble opinion, is peak Los Angeles. Can’t get any better than that.

Go to the beach at night. Eat tacos at 3am. Put on a great album and cruise down the near empty highways and freeways when the city goes dark.

On the topic of Mexican food: good Mexican food is harder to find in Los Angeles than one might assume. Better yet, just drive down to Mexico.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to thank the online art school Warrior Art Camp for giving me the artistic tools to land a job in the animation industry. The instructors there are some of the most caring, passionate, and skilled creatives working today. Through the community they’ve built, I’ve had the pleasure of growing a wonderful group of friends, colleagues, and collaborators.

If I’d never enrolled in their courses, I would most likely be stuck as the proverbial struggling artist. So any success I’ve gained is a testament to them.

Website: https://www.yaxairamcnear.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaxaira-mcnear/