Keri Behles – Animation

Spring 2020 – Expected Graduation: Spring 2020

My name is Keri Behles and I am a storyteller. I’ve always told stories to myself with images in my head and thus developed an interest in drawing that then expanded into animating.

My main interest is in the 2D space. Illustrating is my first love and I would love to create a webtoon someday. I especially enjoy developing original characters and creating worlds with them. With animation I am most interested in creating infinite loop animations, either with traditional animation or with motion design.

Most of my inspirations and motivation comes from my peers, specifically other artists that primarily post on instagram and are around my age. Some of the most notable artists that have influenced the development of my style and growth as an artist are sesamefruit, makabrotka, and etcetera.art. I find that seeing the art from people of similar ages as me motivates me to work harder to improve and inspires me everyday.

To achieve my goal of telling interesting stories to the world I am using my skills in character design and animation to allow everyone to peek into my head and see the characters and worlds that exist there.

Spring 2019 – Expected Graduation: Spring 2020

Being a digital artist, there are different directions I can focus on but I find that my best works are in illustration and 3D animation. I have always enjoyed illustrating because I can see my improvement in every piece I do. 3D Animating is newer to me but, I enjoy the process of modeling, rigging and then finally being able to animate my character.

Although I enjoy 2D animation, I have found that I struggle with consistency in between frames when working in animate and harmony, so I prefer AfterEffects for my 2D animations now that I am more comfortable in it thanks to FMX 343. I wish in my 2D animation classes we had a project focused around puppeting as I think that is another weak spot I have in 2D animation. 3D modeling I find I am weaker at, but I really enjoy it, I think my main set back with 3D modeling is workflow related, as I struggle with planning out my models beforehand and thinking about the topography of the models.

Every professor I have had in FMX has taught me something new but 2 professors have challenged me to go far above my expectations for myself. Although I’ve only had Allen Hampton for one class (FMX 207) and I feel like I have improved in my knowledge and skill in Adobe Photoshop and illustrating in general thanks to his advice. His projects inspire me to create different compositions and to experiment with my art style to further develop it. The next professor to really challenge me has been Santiago Echeverry in Creative Coding (FMX 310). Santiago has challenged me with every project in his class with extremely helpful critiques that has helped me to see how to always find a way to improve a project and get it as close to perfection as possible. I have really enjoyed learning html5 coding and am excited to continue improving in it.

After I graduate I hope to find a job with a small animation studio working on projects involved with advertising. I also want to continue illustrating on my own time possibly doing commission work and I would like to explore website design. I know I want to leave Florida and head back to the midwest to Chicago or another city that has more opportunity for animation. I am excited to further challenge myself this coming year and to continue using and improving on the skills taught to me at UT after graduation.