Hillary Bradfield, '13 Animation, has the opportunity to turn her love for cartoons into a summer internship at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank (Hillary Bradfield photo).
By Amanda Holst, Public Affairs Assistant
(This summer, SJSU Today hits the road, visiting students and recent grads on the job across the country and around the world. Our Spartans at Work series continues with the Class of 2013′s Hillary Bradfield.)
Hillary Bradfield, ’13 Animation/Illustration, has turned her love for cartoons into a summer internship at Nickelodeon Animation Studios.
“You are surrounded by all of this art; you learn just by being around it,” she said.
Bradfield is one of 30 intern production assistants this summer working on the “Spongebob Square Pants” cartoon. Nickelodeon is a children’s network known for popular TV shows such as “Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness,” “T.U.F.F. Puppy” and “The Legend of Korra.”
She has spent the last six weeks learning how to make cartoons from beginning to end, including putting together storyboards and preparing to send them out to studios that animate them.
Even though her internship is a non-art one, Bradfield has learned valuable behind-the-scenes skills in the industry.
“It’s more important to really prepare yourself for making your work good enough to pass off to the next person in the pipeline, and being a person who could be useful on a team,” she said.
Bradfield says the most rewarding aspect of her internship is that she’s been able to set up meetings with artists and other production assistants to get her artwork critiqued.
“Right now, I am working on a revision for artwork I showed a story artist,” Bradfield said. “It’s really great to get tips from them.”