My Creative Life in WordsHi, I'm Jess an art director, creative production artist manager.
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Hello, It has been a long time since I have written. I find myself in the thick of my career and wondering if I could be doing more. I really love working with developers, artists, and creative teams in this industry. Sometimes I feel like this is too good to be true. I think back to a time when I never thought in a million years, I would be working for the companies that I have and gathering the skills to be great. It is amazing what determination and perseverance will do. Now that I am here, I am wondering if where I am is where I am meant to be. I love what I do and working with artists, creatives and having my opinion valued on projects means everything to me. I am just looking forward to what the future holds for me and finding the perfect fit. Till next time, Jess 
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Hello again, It’s been so long since I wrote. I will make it quick, because I have been so busy working. I am pleased to announce I started with Treyarch back in June and have been quite the busy bee working on Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (Activision 2018). I was lucky enough to start right before E3. So yes, I was able to attend! What a great experience! Words cannot express how amazed I was. Being able to see so many game developers under one roof was inspiring. I am looking forward to more adventures. With the release of the game in October I have been able to take a deep breath, but only for a short bit. I am happy to be a part of a great team. It has been great so far and I am looking forward to all the DLCs. On other fronts it’s that time of year again! CTNX 2018 is here and I am very excited to attend tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing past faces and meeting new ones. Hope to see you there. I hope I am able to write again soon. Jess   Hello April!
I can’t believe the beginning of the year is flying by so fast. Where did January, February and March go? I have been staying busy which is good. These past few moths have been full of job prospects and finding the right path for me. I can’t believe it will be a whole year since I moved to the LA area. I still feel like I just got here. I have really enjoyed attending WIA & Creators Society events and meeting new people in the industry. As for my path right now I am going to keep moving forward pursuing my passion for animation and all of its facets. I am thinking about a project that I will be starting soon and I plan to update my blog on its progress. Until next post, Jess  As I enter the New Year I am happy to put 2017 behind me. There have been a lot of ups and downs this past year. I am happy to say I have overcome great obstacles and I feel this New Year will be full of blessings. It has taken almost 9 years since I graduated college to finally get to Los Angeles! This has been my goal for as long as I can remember. The sacrifices my family and myself have made to support this goal have been insurmountable. Not just the support getting through art school then getting into the career path I wanted. Also just being so supportive even when I fail. Oh and I have failed this is not a glamorous journey, but one that has taught me to never quit. Follow your heart and what it’s telling you.
I probably would not have made it this far without the support and love from my husband. He helped support me emotionally and financially while I finished school with a new baby. He has never given up on me, even when everyone else said “your crazy you will never get a job in animation”, “Don’t waste your time moving to LA”. These are the tiny voices I hear when I get discouraged and then I remember why I’m here. I’m here because I know I’m good at what I do and I love doing it! I have also shown support for my husband and his career goals as well. He graduated three years ago and in those three short years we have moved from Tampa, Fl to Tucson, AZ and finally Los Angeles, CA. This change in scenery has been amazing! I never knew moving from my home town would be so hard and eye opening all at the same time. It has been an incredible journey and I know this is just the beginning. I miss my friends and family terribly, but when they visit it feels so wonderful. I get to show them places they have never experienced before. Going back home to visit is great too. Now that we have made it to LA I have attended the biggest networking expo for animation: CTNX Animation Expo. The event happens once a year in Burbank, CA. This has been my second year attending and there aren’t words to describe the amount of talent and industry knowledge that is packed into three days. This year was especially good for me. I met a lot of great contacts and I am hopeful for 2018 to bring great opportunities. I have also been attending WIA events as well. Women in Animation are a great organization, I have joined and it has open up doors for me as well. As I sit here this New Year’s Eve getting ready to face 2018 I can’t help but feel thankful. I am thankful to be healthy and alive, I am thankful to have the roof over my head and the jobs that support us, I am thankful for the love and support from my family and friends and I am thankful for all of my loved ones even my furry babies. I am thankful for all of my prayers being answered, and there were a lot this past year! My family and friends surviving hurricane Irma, family and friends surviving California fires, moving and finding housing (it took about two months in a hotel before it happened but we love our new house) finding work, schools, doctors, etc. all these things we take for granted I am thankful for the outcome. We as a family made it happen and now that the struggles are behind us we are ready to face a new year! I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us 2018, bring it on! Till next post, Jess Paz  Hello All,
I apologize I did not update this blog as I originally intended. I was so busy and I got home so late I was knocked out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I mean it was a whirlwind, but what an amazing event. There was never a dull moment and I am so glad I attended. I met so many people in the industry and had some really great conversations. Where do I begin? The panels were wonderful I got to listen to some really insightful talks about specific films all the way to what the industry is looking for in talent. I attended one panel that was really exciting. Pixar had a super secret panel that was revealed to be production management, the unsung heroes. I was so excited to find this out because the same question everyone is asking you is what do you want to do? When you don’t say animate, illustrate or something along those lines you sometimes get a baffled look. I always answer that I am an artist but I love production and working with great artists to make something amazing. Attending this panel really supported what I am interested in doing and made it feel so supported. The artist tent never fails to amaze me, with the talent within it. I got to meet great recruiters at Disney, PIXAR, DreamWorks and Nickelodeon. Not to mention the smaller studios as well. I also got to talk with artists at their own booths and made some really great connections. I also ran into people I met last year and they actually remembered me. This was huge for me in building my self-confidence. People were actually interested in my resume and I got two meetings through raise the bar recruiting! Those meeting were great and I really hope something comes out of them. I hope the people I have met will keep in touch, as I know I will try on my end to reach out to them. If you have never attended and you are interested in animation in some form I highly recommend it. Who knows you may see me next year with my own booth. Till next time, Jess Paz Hello, for those of you who don't know me my name is Jessica and I am from Tampa, FL. I have since lived in Arizona and now the greater Los Angeles area. I have lived my life with a passion for the arts, especially animation. As the days grow nearer to CTNX 2017, I thought documenting my experience would be a fun challenge for me. You see I am not a writer by any means and putting my thoughts on paper and online for all to see is a little intimidating for me. So with that said please be kind as this is a new venture for me, same as the moving to LA to find my "dream job" part.
My dream job, what is that exactly? Well here is a little bit of history. I come from a family of artists and have grown up drawing the things I love, like cartoons, animated film characters, things I see and like. I didn't pursue art as a career until after I realized biology wasn't for me. You see I was a pre med major out of high school. One day during bio lab when I had to dissect a cat, it came to me I can't do this. How could I possibly dissect something I love? So then I switched my major to marine biology. That was something I loved, living by the sea and experiencing it. I thought, "I could do this right"? Well sadly I ended up hating it and I didn't want pursuing it as a career to make me hate the one thing aside from art that I loved. The beach means so much to me. My childhood growing up was going to the beach, enjoying ice cream while running from seagulls before I dropped it or they stole it from me. Playing in the waves while getting a mouth full of saltwater. These experiences I will treasure forever and I did not want to pursue a career that was going to ruin that for me. So I took a "break" from school so I could figure it out. What do I want to do with my life? All that kept coming back to me is my passion for art. When I am creating something I feel a calm come over me a feeling of peace, no stress just in the zone. I remember my mom telling me that pursuing a career in art is not something I should do. You see my mom was a commercial artist and had a great job. Then something terrible happened. She and her entire art department lost their jobs. The company let go of all their artists because they replaced them with computers. It was terrible that she did not have the opportunity to learn the “digital” way. After being on my “break” from school and contemplating my life and which direction I wanted to go in. It hit me so hard. My mom is so talented, my dad is talented, and so are my grand parents on both sides. How could I let this talent in our family just stop? At that moment I realized I wanted to learn everything there was to learn about technology and the arts. Where was art going and how could I be a part of it? So art school commenced. It was a tough but enjoyable at the same time. Learning all the programs and fundamentals felt like an eternity going through it, but I prevailed. During that time in school I married and had a daughter. Having a family has also been a dream of mine. They have been my rock during my education and after graduation. They have supported me in achieving my goals. I believe in setting goals and not just having dreams. Dreams seem so far away always just out of reach, but a goal is something I can set for myself and obtain. Then I can set another. I have done this and reached every goal I have set for my family and myself. I have worked for several companies working with artists and animators. I have taught animation and digital art as well. During my time I have gained over eight years of experience working with such talented people from former Disney animators to Marvel artists. Every artist I have worked with I have learned so much from. I think I finally know what my dream job is. It has evolved from when I graduated. At that point in my life all I wanted to do was work for Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks etc. These were just names of places I knew made awesome stories. I knew I had to move to LA to be a part of the industry. I learned so much in school that they made it hard for me to decide which path to take as far as my focus. I know 2d, 3d, stop motion, video effects, etc. I love animating and I love illustrating. I love it all and it is very hard for me to decide which path to take. After contemplating this for a really long time. I kept thinking where do I fall? I know I love production and working with artists and guiding them to their true potential and rocking out some pretty great stuff. I have realized this is my calling. I love being creative and working with great talent. I get so super giddy when I see a project I was a part of come to life. So now that I have finally made it to LA, my goal is to find the right place for me with a team of great people and artists that are just as passionate about creating amazing stories as I am. I am looking forward to CTNX 2017 and all it has to offer. So feel free to message me on the CTNX app! I want to connect with as many talented people as I can. We are all in this together, our passions truly define us and it shows in all of our work. I can’t wait to meet everyone and stay connected. Big thanks to Tina Price for putting this event on every year! Check back, I will be adding to this each day of CTNX! Jess Paz |
AuthorJessica Paz, Jessie, or just Jess is fine. Archives
November 2018
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