It's a passion job. And it's true that, against all odds and for many in this situation, it's not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to make our job our passion.

In my case, I've always lived in the countryside, surrounded by animals and forests. In between feeding the chickens and taking the horses out, I drew.
I drew dragons and lots of horses.
At school, I wasn't very good at conventional subjects, but I was very good at art! I always tried to be creative and give my best to bring my vision of the project to life.
Honestly, when it came to thinking about what to do in life and choosing a direction, I was lost. And in my eleventh year, Avatar came out. And I remember thinking, when I saw the Ikrans and Thanators, "That's what I want to do".
It's true, it's all very cute when you say it like that, but thanks to this film, I learned a lot about the film industry and its professions. 
During high school, I took options in Visual Art and Audiovisual Cinema, and then switched to Applied Arts for my baccalaureate.

The wheels were in motion, but there was still a long way to go.
After my baccalaureate, I did a year of preparatory classes at the Beaux Arts, which led to another preparatory class in 2D animation in Paris. With my student loan, my luggage and me, we left the south of France to go up to the capital for the first time.
And this beautiful year passes in its turn where I would learn more about human anatomy, color, rhythm, light and character creation.
I was then super motivated and moved because I had been accepted at Artfx Montpellier, a school I had been dreaming of attending.
And so, once again, my loans, my luggage and I returned to the south of France.
Entering 2018, I spent my fourth year confined because of the Covid. It wasn't easy, but by then we were starting to create our graduation films. It was intense and friends counted for a lot.
The fifth year was the best. I learned a lot about myself and teamwork.
For my short film, Quit Smoking, we were six. We all had several roles. Mine were Art Director, Sound Designer, Marketing and above all Character Modeler.
I learned about stress management; for all of us, it was the first time we'd done anything, and despite the help we'd received, we were lost, it has to be said. I learned about communication; we're all different when faced with the same situation, so sometimes when some of us lost our footing we made sure to support them and pull them up. I also learned a lot about the important balance between personal and professional life; I've never done as much sport as I did this past year. I didn't waste any time on my work, on the contrary. There were three of us in the team who went together and I think that helped us a lot. I still have plenty of anecdotes that helped me grow like that during the year. Above all, it was a human adventure that got me ready for professional life.

And so, three months after graduating, I was on a plane for a 24-hour flight to Melbourne, Australia. I had just been hired as an Asset Artist at Luma Pictures.

This position enabled me to work on major productions such as Equalizer 3, Spy Kids: Armageddon, Citadel, Ghosted, Rebelmoon and a few others yet to be announced.
I learned a lot of things, such as a USD pipeline, the tools of the trade, and got lots of tips from my colleagues on how to work faster. 
At first, I was only doing hard surface assets, but after a while, my perseverance paid off and I was able to do my first organic modeling tasks.
That's my story, and I'm very proud of it in retrospect. It hasn't always been easy, but I've given and received so much to get to this point.
My life in this industry is finally beginning...

But like many others, I was affected by the writers' and actors' strike. In October of this year, Luma did not extend my contract due to lack of work.
So I'm back in France and writing these words.

So now I'm looking for the next chapter in my story.
Maybe you, who are reading these words, can help me.

Thank you for reading.

Manon