Going Beyond the "Call of Duty": The Journey and Challenges Behind a Career in Animation

The Vegan Survival Guide is a personal project, kind of like a "baby" to me, lol. As you will see, it was never really part of my plan, but sometimes the best things happen on their own. :)

My passion for animation and video-games started when I was a child. I loved drawing cartoons, caricatures and loved designing my own flip books. I remember in kindergarten always wanting to finish my drawings and the teacher having to drag me out to play outside... I also remember whenever the teacher left the room I would quickly grab some chalk and try to draw caricatures of my friends on the board as quickly as possible before the next teacher would enter the room. lol.

Like many other artists, my family did not believe Animation was a real career and encouraged me to study engineering instead. After graduating from High School I attended engineering classes... ughhh (unless you like that kind of thing of course :). For me it definitely wasn't fulfilling. I cried like a little girl, lol.... begging my parents.... "Please, just let me follow my dreams."

My mom used to say, "Artists sell paintings on the street... they don't make any money. Do you wanna end up selling paintings for pennies?"

Around that time, traditional hand-drawn animation was coming to its end. But after attending a Study in the USA Expo in Brazil I learned about Computer Animation... But,

I didn’t even know how to use computers when I got started, nor English for that matter, lol. But my desire to be an artist was stronger than anything.

As I shared in The VSG's intro, my family wasn't exactly supportive of my career initially. So even though money was short while in school I feared sharing any problems and risking my parents interrupting my studies. To make ends meet, I forced myself to survive in a diet of bananas and ramen noodles or whatever it was most affordable. A true "starving artist diet", lol.

At E3 during release of the original Call of Duty, 2003 Game of the Year. COD won 37 Game of the Year awards, 16 Editor's Choice awards and 9 other awards. Fun facts: During production of COD 2, animators had lessons in acting, military tactics, weapons, and shooting.

After finishing school I was fortunate enough to join the former members of EA’s Medal of Honor who had just started a game company called Infinity Ward. We began working day and night to develop the 1st, of the now multi-billion dollar game franchise called "Call of Duty". I was lucky enough to be the only woman on Call of Duty's original team and wanted to inspire other women to pursue their dreams as well. I was blessed with opportunities to continue working on a variety of awesome video-game titles and had a lot of fun working on these projects. On my free time I also trained in martial arts, which came in handy when animating for games. ;) I learned that in the entertainment industry having an extra edge such as martial arts training, or whatever that may be, will definitely help you stand out from the crowd. You sorta of have to go beyond the Call of Duty, lol.

Call of Duty 2: Level Duhoc Animations of soldiers in Higgins Boat

Fun facts: In COD2 we modelled and named soldiers after ourselves... Private Escher helped the squad capture Bergstein and Hill 400. He is wounded while charging up the hill and was seen in the communications bunker with the wounded. During the attack on Wallender he was killed in Hamburger Alley in a crossfire. He used a BAR (Light Machine Gun). I'm vegan so of course I was killed in Hamburger Alley, lol.

Then at the peak of my career things tragically came to an end... I had to leave my job to help my dad who was battling cancer... a story I tell at BudwigDVDs.com. Losing my dad, putting my career on hold, moving to a different city... it was definitely overwhelming. I'm forever thankful to my dad, who believed in me and supported me in following my dreams. This also made me realize the importance of taking care of your health. I had been a vegan my whole life and realized I had neglected my own health as well. :/ When life gets busy it's easy to live on a sub-optimal diet already, and when you are a vegan you have to pay even closer attention. Writing The VSG just kind of happened.

Life threw me a curve ball and made me realize that I had something to share!

Now I'm also dedicated to spread the word about healthy eating and how to incorporate it into your life.

Personal projects: "The Vegan Survival Guide", "A Day in the Budwig Diet" DVD (Spring 2010) and "A Day in the Budwig Diet: The Book" (Fall 2011).