Women in the Animation Industry

Animation L.A. Film School

We Chatted with four alumnae whose animation jobs include 3D Generalist, Level Designer and 3D Modeler

Animation Program Director Joffery Black moderated a panel with four LAFS alumnae animators who are currently working in the industry. The virtual animation panel included Swathi Ashok, Jennifer Chamorro, Cynthia Hernandexgarcia and Samantha Pedregon. These animators have worked for leading studios such as Splash Entertainment, Dreamworks and Lucid Sight. Watch the full panel to learn about what it’s like to work in game design, production and 2D/3D graphic design for both small and large animation studios.

Find out more about our Animation Degree Program, which offers program options both online and on-campus.

Meet the Panelists

Swathi is a 2D & 3D Generalist in the game industry. She’s been working professionally as an artist since 2017 at Lucid Sight. Swathi graduated with honors with my bachelor’s degree in Electronic Media from MOP Vaishnav in India in 2015, and then pursued her passion for animation, graduating Summa Cum Laude with an associate degree in Computer Animation from LAFS in 2017. She has worked on two AAA games: MLB Champion and Crypto Space Commander. “I aspire to be a Lighting Artist for movies and games and I’m actively working toward that,” said Swathi.

Samantha has worked in the VFX industry for eight years. She is an Asset Lead, and her modeling and texturing work can be seen across a broad range of commercials and video game cinematics. She has contributed to many projects including Apex Legends season-opening trailers, Tide Super Bowl ad campaigns and League of Legends ad campaigns. Samantha currently works as a Modeling/Texture Artist and Asset Lead at The Mill.

Cynthia is a Production Manager at Splash Animation for Netflix features and also a freelance BG Concept Artist.

Jennifer is a Level Designer on assignment at Treyarch located in Santa Monica, where she creates playable 3D environmental content. She graduated from The Los Angeles Film School as a Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in Game Production and Design in 2018. Jennifer originally attended The Los Angeles Film School in 2012 for her associate degree in Game Production and Design but down the road when the bachelor’s degree became available, she decided that she wanted to expand her knowledge by challenging herself to acquire a higher education. After graduating, Jennifer took a year off in 2018 to tend to her autistic son in his first academic school year. Before working as a Level Designer, she was originally hired at Volt on assignment at Treyarch as a Software QA Tester in 2019 and was later promoted to a Level Designer.