
Nolan Martin is a freelance animator and a recent graduate of Fanshawe’s Interactive Media Design program. He has recently been recognized because of his work on Cardi B’s latest hit WAP, however; this is certainly not his first time being part of the music scene.
“Before I even graduated, Kevin Longwell, who is the visual director for The Chainsmokers reached out to me,” he said “Since then I have been connected to some big names in LA.”
Martin, 24, has worked with Dubstep artists like SLANDER, Nghtmre, and Ghastly to produce animations for their DJ sets. He even had opportunity to work on animations for EDC Las Vegas and Coachella this past year.
Animations by Nolan Martin done with T2Visuals for Nghtmre’s Portal Tour
Although Martin is a freelance animator, he found himself heavily affected by Covid-19 this summer: “I had so many things lined up that all pretty much got cancelled because of the pandemic. The event industry missed out on a lot of money so we’re hoping next years festival season brings a boom with jobs. There should be a big need for a lot of new content.”
With many of his projects cancelled, Martin had to find new opportunities for work that may have not been part of his original theme but allowed him to take his art in different directions (like the lyrical video for WAP).
“You have to be willing to reach out of your comfort zone and work with anyone in this industry. Networking is huge. I travel a lot for work and I’ve even learned conversational French before just to be able to take a job and communicate with them.”
Alongside networking, Martin says something valuable he learned at Fanshawe was to always build your portfolio. Half way through my program I realized my portfolio needed work, and I haven’t stopped designing animations on my own time since, said Martin.
The successful Fanshawe grad says working hard has allowed him to never have a lack of job offers. He’s happily at the point where he even has the choice of what offer to take.
Now that he’s reached some of his short-term goals, he says one day he’d like to open his own company to give young students big opportunities that he was never able to find in Canada.
When asked what piece of advice he’d give students chasing their dreams, the freelance animator had this to say:
“The best advice is to stay consistent with practice because, I mean really, if you practice just a little bit every day. Then by the end of your program in two years you’ll surprise yourself… I know I did.”
As for his own dreams, “I’d like to work for Wiz Khalifa. I remember sitting around listening to him with my college roommates thinking, ‘If I ever worked for him, then I’ve made it’,” laughed Martin.
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