Lori Schkufza
Q What do you do?
“I’m a 2D animator, with a focus on character based work and motion graphics. ”
I create digestible videos to suit various needs within a marketing capacity from product launches, brand awareness, social media campaigns, to how-to videos. I handle the entire animation pipeline of storyboarding, style frames, asset building, animation, editing, and then you get your final video.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
I took a fairly meandering journey from the time I graduated from college with a BFA in Animation & VFX. My first job was in gaming where I animated game play characters. While working there I was moonlighting in long form animation for a research lab, designing and animating a 20 minute video on breast health and the environmental factors that can impact breast cancer. I really preferred working with the lab and so after a year I pivoted away from gaming and into education based animation. Over several years I animated videos for middle school audiences through the college level and again for the same lab I got my start with. The subjects ranged from the importance of healthy waterways to battery recycling and college level calculus. After a few years I pivoted again into advertising, where while consistent the work was less creatively stimulating. By a fluke of luck thanks to the world’s worst LinkedIn profile, I landed in marketing, which was the perfect blend between my background of education and advertising.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
I’m really not interested in following trends, which sounds insane for someone working in marketing. But the thing with trends is that once you’re chasing them, you’re already behind. I’m much more interested in doing something different, in experimenting and going bold. Playing it safe can be consistent, but you’ll plateau. So you need to get a little weird and take chances in order to bring in new eyes and get people talking.
Q What are you working on right now?
I’m kicking around a potential new project on the Luddite movement. Right now it’s a glimmer of an idea inspired by Brian Merchant’s Blood in the Machine. It feels very niche when you consider how animation could intersect with the legend of Ned Ludd, Lord Byron and maybe an illuminated manuscript style? We’re nothing if not ambitious when it comes to our cubbyhole projects.
Q What’s your style?
My style is really inspired by the Cartoon Modern aesthetic. Flat shapes, bold sometimes garish colors, and limited animation. I love heavy stylization but I also love messiness. I’m so over gradients and those videos with sleek surfaces and orbs. I want work that looks like it was created by hand and has flaws instead of perfection. To me that’s where the personality really shines through. I did 2 animations this summer featuring cryptids, a Bigfoot project and a Mothman project. Both were experiments in going loose and messy and stylized in different ways.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
When I was in my 20s, I poured my heart and soul into developing an animated web series and I had a short form trilogy inspired by a Slovenian folktale. It was that classic Ira Glass conflict where my skills weren’t quite where my taste was. Now that those are more in alignment, I wish I could focus more on the development side of these big projects. Crafting pitch bibles has always been a happy place of mine and I’d love to just dive into the deepest weeds with one again. Nothing compares to that world building where you can create a whole universe from scratch.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
I would love to go back in time and not have to engage with this discourse on Generative AI. I’m exhausted by having to explain my worth to people who only see what I bring to the table in terms of dollars and cents on a ledger. I’d also love to exist anywhere on the internet without having to worry about some LLM scraping my lifetime of work for data training. It's really an existential frustration.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Clean up my files! I would love for someone to come in at the end of the day and do a nice, quick tidy. Sometimes I can be the worst animator with endless layers that are unnamed or worse, named so vaguely so that they might as well be unnamed. At the end of the day, my attention just isn’t there to do it properly.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
Don’t try to be the people who look successful, just be yourself. Make what you want to see more of instead of trying to fit the mold of what’s popular that week. You’ll chase trends forever that way instead of breaking through with something different.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
I’d love to know how to consistently wedge myself into the rooms where the strategy is being developed. Even when I’ve worked full-time and in-house, data relating to marketing was such a tightly held secret. It’s beneficial to all of us. I mean, I can’t make better, more informed decisions if I’m not privy to the data and metrics of how the video performed. And doing that as a freelancer? Forget about it. Even if you beg for that data, you almost never get it.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
I’m interested in projects/opportunities where the brand is known, it’s understood and it’s respected. Having limitations and boundaries makes for better creative problem solving and greater strategy. I’d love to work with people who don’t clutch so tightly to what’s safe. Let’s go bold and have fun. If you know who you are, then we can intentionally break some rules.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
An ideal client/job/collaboration is one built on solid communication, meaning we’re in communication during the agreed upon hours through the agreed upon channels. With that, I can be trusted to be left to my own devices to get the work done with my head down. I thrive in situations where I’m not micromanaged, but where I’m trusted with my expertise. There will be a lot of clarifying questions at the beginning and those will lessen as we progress through the pipeline. Most problems get solved early on.
Q: What is your rate?
Animated videos start at $10K for a minute of animation. A minute can feel super short or like an eternity depending on the context. And it’s not like I’m Linda Evangelista and won’t get out of bed for anything less, it’s factoring in all of the stages of an animation pipeline from Brief to Pre-Production with storyboards, style frames, asset building, voice over, to Production with the actual animation, to Post with editing and outputs.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
Email is the best way to reach me, lori@gutterrabbit.com. Please include the budget and the scope. If the scope is huge and the budget is . . . not, then maybe we can find an economical middle ground. The important thing is to be honest about it from the get go.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
Jacob Reed was the brilliant mind behind Our Frasier Remake*, which is how I got to know him. The dedication, time, energy and love that went into getting that project off the ground, completed, splashed all over the press, and then facilitating the online community of all the artists involved is so hard to find these days. You can find his substack here. He’s such a powerhouse of talent: a writer, director, producer, visual artist.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Go out to the woods / Pitch your tent and chill out / Wake up, go again
This member profile was originally published in October 2024.