Life & Work with Kaili Myers of atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaili Myers.

Hi kaili, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a 2d animator and artist. I’ve always had a passion for drawing ever since I was young. Starting out on DeviantArt in 2006, going through different phases in my art from things I like, to learning how to take commissions when I set up my paypal years ago.
I graduated at scad in 2019 with a bachelor in fine arts of animation. I’d worked part-time all through school, I landed a job with bento on wolf boy and the everything factory. I worked with them for about 6 months, did 3 episodes!
From there, I’ve been hopping from various freelance opportunities in the indie animation scene.

While most of those projects haven’t come to fruition for one reason or another, it’s at least helped me in many ways. I’ve been lead animator on projects, I’ve made many lovely connections with folks. It’s helped me fill out my portfolio with work, and I’m very appreciative of that.
I am still looking for that full-time job again, but the animation industry has been hit hard, and I feel I was just one of the ones to be hit early and not able to get my foothold.

When I’m not actively looking for work or working, I am looking into starting up a business of my own. I’ve dabbled a bit in merch sales through Redbubble, but would like the means to branch out from that and expand on what kind of merchandise I could be making. I’ve started up a bigcartel to sell leftover stock from a zine, and I’ll hopefully be working my way up from there.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh of course not. Between juggling school and work. Then the pandemic hit shortly after I graduated.
And while indie animation has many upsides, fewer restrictions. It’s even harder to make any sort of living without backing and support.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I animate cartoons and on my downtime I character design and illustrate my own interests.
I specialize in 2d animation, so that can be hand drawn animation, typically in programs like toon boom harmony. I’m also picking up the animation tools in clip studio paint and want to learn moho as well. Additionally, I learned how to animate with rigs or puppets on my time with wolfboy and the everything factory. So imagine a 3d character, but instead it’s flat/2d, and you can move it around much the same. But also in this case you can do a lot of additional drawing because puppets can’t always cover everything you’d possibly need. You can make some very thorough puppets though!
On my own time, I primarily like to draw and animate mine and my friends characters. I’ve gotten really into dnd and rpgs over the last few years. I’ve always loved creating characters and world building.
I’d say overall I’m most proud of the work I do on others projects. Some of the shots I did on wolfboy are still some of my favorites. Or a few of my most recent shots on the lumi and the great big galaxy.
I’d say what sets me apart is my ability to emulate styles. While I love getting to do my own thing. When given the opportunity, I can mimic another style well. It’s a good skill to have when you hop from project to project, you need to be able to emulate and collaborate.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I think what I like best about it also what I like least about it sometimes. It gets so busy and active, everyone is in a hurry. It offers a lot, has plenty of opportunities, but can also be very overwhelming at times.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kailimyers.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilmisskiwiart/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaili-myers-528a6a160/
• Other: https://lilmisskiwiart.bigcartel.com/