The professions of modeling and computer design may seem like they are worlds apart, but one person that has taken that leap and shifted career is the young and talented Regina Donovan. Having grown up in Japan and attended public school, we asked how these early experiences may have influenced her life, her work and her pursuit of happiness.
You have a long history with Japan, having lived in the country as a child and being enrolled in a Japanese Elementary School; can you still remember your time at school? If so, are they fond memories?
Attending a Japanese Elementary school was a pretty pivotal point in my life; it would be difficult to forget those days if I tried! A lot of my memories from that time are amongst the fondest I have. I was in fourth grade when I transitioned to a Japanese school, and the classes and curriculum were hugely different from what I was used to in the States. For the first year and a half it was pretty overwhelming trying to adapt to so many cultural differences while learning a second language from scratch, but I made some great friends and was helped a lot by my mother, teachers, tutor, and neighbors. There are a lot of differences in conduct and curriculum between Japanese and American schools, and discovering and learning to appreciate them was a journey in itself. Things like class overnight trips, using unicycles during recess, practicing calligraphy and kanji, and even eating lunch in the classroom are experiences I never would have had in the States! I feel very fortunate to have had two very different cultural perspectives growing up. I think as I pursue a career in animation and storytelling, these memories will be an invaluable resource to draw on.
Even today, some expatriates find it difficult to become fully assimilated into Japanese society and can feel a little detached from it. Where you aware of being “different” whilst at school, or were you seen as just another student?
I was aware of it, on some level. Initially I think it had a lot to do with my lacking comprehension of Japanese language and culture- when you are foreign in looks, language, and mannerisms, it’s kind of inevitable (though I won’t go as far as to say acceptable) that other kids who aren’t used to such things are going to treat you differently. By the time I came into sixth grade I didn’t often feel too much separation by most of my classmates, and hardly any at all from my teachers. While I was bullied off and on about being foreign, I was fortunate in that it never got to be an unbearable amount.
Once you grew up, you became involved in modeling and later acting as well. How did you fall into such a celebrity-like lifestyle?
I don’t think I’d call it celebrity-like at all, really! I did get a decent number of jobs during my elementary school years, but mostly it was just attending a lot of auditions and having a very large heaping of good timing and luck. The military base I lived on used to have a day or two where a lot of modeling agencies would show up, providing the opportunity to sign with them if interested. I was young when I first started out, so I don’t remember precisely, but I’m fairly sure that might be how I got involved. At some point I was hired for my first job, then another, and then the gigs would keep coming sporadically through successful auditions or someone deciding they liked my previous work. For every job I did get, there had to have been an equal or greater number of them that I didn’t.
Of all the campaigns you were featured in, which one was the most memorable?
That’s a tough question; there were some really fun ones and some really odd ones. I think the most memorable was a Chupa Chups commercial I got to be the star of- it involved dancing down the street dressed as a schoolgirl and singing into a lollypop as though it were a microphone. Towards the end of the commercial I had to walk on a wall; it involved wearing a harness under my skirt with a bunch of nearly invisible wires attached to it. When it came time for me to ‘effortlessly’ (it was anything but) stepping up and starting to walking parallel to the ground, there was a guy off camera who would pull a rope in tandem with my movements to hoist me into the air. Smiling and dancing with a camera in your face and a man holding a giant apparatus over your head to keep the wires out of sight, and then having to keep balance as you hang sideways on a wall (with a small crowd of curious onlookers watching your every move), isn’t something you really get to do in everyday life, and it was both challenging and fun.
You have shifted gears somewhat and you are now focusing your energy on becoming an animator. What influenced this drastic change?
I never really planned to make modeling/acting my career in life- growing up; I considered it more of a fun way to save money for college. From a young age I was always interested in art and storytelling, and when it came time for me to start thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, I knew it would have to be something I was passionate about. When I first watched DreamWorks’ ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ I was absolutely blown away- not just by the beauty of the film, but also by the amazing animation of the main dragon. That was when I first began to really research making the art of animation my career.
You have said that you want to “breath life” into your work. Do you think that is easier to do now with the advanced graphics and technology of CGI animation, or is it still reliant on a capable artist?
Definitely I think it comes down to being a capable artist. Tools will always be tools – it’s having the skill set to use them that matters. It’s not that hard to make something move in an animation program. Say you have a sphere; you set a key, you move it to point B a bit later down the timeline, set another key, and Voila! The computer does all the work in-between. The result is very basic, bland, and uninteresting, but it is still ‘animation’. Now how do you give this sphere’s movement a specific sense of weight? Give it a thought process, so that within seconds of seeing it on screen a viewer knows that it’s happy, sad, confused? There is animation where you have characters that look floaty, uninteresting, and off, and then there is animation where you see characters full of life, whose thoughts and emotions you can read through expression and silhouette alone, whose movements have weight and appeal, and whose sincerity you never doubt for a second. I’m still at the beginning, a student of animation- I haven’t even touched upon acting and dialogue!- so I can hardly pretend to be knowledgeable when there is so much I am still working to learn and understand myself. I do believe though that knowing how to observe and caricature life and movement is critical for good animation- the basic principles remain the same regardless of the medium or tools of choice.
Computer animation covers a variety of mediums, from computer games but also increasingly to television shows and films. Is there a certain field you wish to work in?
Animated feature films, if I can. I love the idea of being surrounded by talented individuals and collaborating on large scale projects, always pushing my skills and testing my limits. It can be tough to get to work in major studios because their caliber of work is so high, but it is my ultimate goal.
Whose work has been the most inspirational to your own over the years?
More like over the months, haha! I think I’ve been studying animation for almost a year at this point. The nine old men, who animated many of Disney’s earlier films, were masters of their craft, and a lot of their animation I find really inspiring and useful to study. It’s hard to say! I’m really at the point where I can frame through any professional’s work and learn something new that I hadn’t thought of before. I am a huge fan of the work of Pixar and Studio Ghibli in particular- on top of amazing animation, a lot of their films also have great stories as well.
If people wanted to find out more about you and your work, where should they be looking?
I have a blog where I post my animation and periodically include updates on my classes and studies- anyone who wants to contact me or check out some of my work can visit it at http://reginaanimation.blogspot.com/