By Leslie Lim
Staff Writer

Hunched over his laptop, junior Adrian Paxson watches his animation over and over again to ensure his drawing looks absolutely perfect. He finishes his animation with a satisfied glint in his eye and begins to play the entire clip, watching his incredibly detailed character move across the screen.

Ever since Paxson was young, he has had a vested interest in art, and, more specifically, animation.
“I started [making] art when I was eight,” recounted Paxson. “When I was twelve or thirteen, I began dabbling in animation which sparked my interest.”
Since then, his love for art, animation, and character design has only bloomed. He enrolled in Introduction to Art his freshman year, Art in Motion his sophomore year, and now is taking both Art in Motion again and Ceramics.
“I enjoy both, but I’m mainly focusing on animation because it is my passion,” Paxson beamed.
Art in Motion has given him the chance to learn different modes of animation such as stop motion, animation, videos, and artistic pieces. But, at the center of these various other works is character design.
“It’s mostly bringing things to life that I enjoy about animation,” Paxson exclaimed. “I’m a character designer. I love writing and creating stories. With animation, you can bring those stories to life”
He finds much of his inspiration from the movies and shows he enjoyed watching in his childhood.
“I grew up on Disney, that’s where a lot of the storytelling came from,” explained Paxson. “There’s also a lot of online creators I look up to, including YouTubers who produce amazing animated content.”
In addition, he finds a lot of inspiration and motivation from his art teacher, Kat Ross.
“I’ve had Mx. Ross all three years I’ve been here,” recounted Paxson. “I take [Ross’] opinion very seriously. I used to not know how to use a lot of the animation principles, but [Ross has] taught me how to animate better.”
In the future, Paxson hopes to continue to find ways to improve his craft and pursue a career in animation.
“I want to go to Gnomon for character animation and I want to create,” Paxon remarked. “I want to work more so 3-D animation. I want to be a professional animator or [an] art teacher.”
For now, he intends to continue to pursue upper level art at Gabrielino and has even taken art classes outside of school at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
“Animation brings things to life,” gushed Paxson. “It’s the closest thing to magic.”