For as long as I can remember I’ve been drawn to my surroundings, taking note of how things looked, acted, caste shadows, made an expression. Like a scientist taking field notes, I would use drawing as a means to chart down this drawn fascination. Haha, get the pun now? Drawn? Hehe…ok, that was bad.

Moving on.

Ever since I was little I would reenact the cartoons from Saturday mornings and on the big screen, pretending to be the hero, the villain, or just that dude over there with the cabbage cart (and I still do today). I would, and still do, imitate walk cycles I picked up from video games. During school I would create flipbooks with my notepads, or comics with my friends. I was very attached to art, storytelling, and making characters come to life.

The first time I got serious about story telling and animation was in high school. I met a very influential friend who spurred my love for animation and camera work. Things spiraled from there, in a very good way. By the time I entered college I had multiple B-rated or lower, shot on Hi-8 home video camera made movies and animation. One was even a feature-length entirely shot in front of a makeshift green screen with computer-generated background and animated characters created in 3D Studio Max interacting with the actors.

During the college years at Cogswell, I was able to hone my story telling and technical skills, thanks to the amazing people and professors I had the pleasure to interact with and thanks to sugar for those numerous all-nighters. Bless you instant hot chocolate. Since then I have worked on multiple independent films and animation, even completing my own short animation, Metamorphosis.

I look forward to working with more fellow professional artists and creating that next grand story.

“Story builds character, and characters build story.”

--Chelsey Shuder