Sara Chantland
1534 Secor Farms Trail, Traverse City, MI 49685
Email: SChantland@gmail.com
Cell: 1-231-645-6445
EDUCATION____________________________________________________________________
2012 – 2016 Ringling College of Art & Design
Computer Animation
Classes Included: Computer Animation, Animation Preproduction, Drawing For Animators, Figure Drawing, 2D Design, Perspective Drawing, Japanese Art & Culture, Art & Ideas.
2010 – 2012 Northwestern Michigan College
General Arts
SKILLS PROFILE___________________________________
Organization
• Organization was a top priority when interacting with my teammates and completing our animated short. This included reviewing folders and rendered frames to ensure they were in the correct place, as well as ensuring everyone remained on task. It was integral to keep an organized calendar with smaller deadlines in order to finish the film within the stringent deadline.
• With my mailroom work-study job, I assured students’ packages went to the correct shelves and then into the correct hands. If there was downtime between tasks, reviewing packages on the shelves and reorganizing was always important.
• In my previous store jobs, I was responsible for not only keeping store sock extremely well organized, but remember where things are located in order to provide excellent customer service.
Team Work
• My senior thesis was created entirely within a team whether it was between myself and my other two team members, or in class taking advice from faculty and classmates. Without excellent teamwork our final senior thesis short would not have been completed. Each member would constantly communicate with one another and get feedback from each other’s completed tasks to ensure we stayed on schedule and in the same artistic style.
• Teamwork is the priority within any workplace. I am always sure to keep this value at the forefront of my priorities when working among others. When a coworker is not able to solve an issue, I will jump in and assure that it is resolved. This ranges from jumping onto a call when it needs to be handed off to someone to accepting a task another was not able to finish.
• The work place is not where teamwork is limited to in my life. Often, I look at my family as a team, especially when overcoming an issue like my grandmother’s health when she lives 600 miles away and having to visit her and care for her in turns.
Professionalism
• Even while interacting with other classmates and teachers during classes, professionalism was important to not only make it into a habit, but also to make connections with your peers who are entering or have entered a professional studio. This quality is integral in a working environment and I know when it is of precedence.
• Working for an online “adoptables” site draws a relatively young crowd of clients. Despite this, I have always been able to converse professionally and receive the best feedback this way. Professionalism has always been the best form of discourse.
• Extremely often I give help to customers of every age group in my current place of work. Giving them professional attitude and help has owed to all positive interactions I have had. I was often able to recommend brands of fine art supplies to customers looking into leveling up their tools.
Innovation and Problem Solving
• Often my teammates and I were left to our own devices when working on our film at home and the teacher was not able to respond to our emailed questions. When faced with a technological issue I couldn’t seem to solve, I would first ask my classmates and friends from the same field my question. If that did not work I would use any online help and almost always I would solve the problem through these methods.
• I pride myself using innovation in the face of hard to solve issues in my workplace. I do not like to put a problem aside for someone else to solve. When a scene in Autodesk Maya was not rendering a glass texture on a wine bottle, I managed to find a solution by duplicating the same wine bottle and hiding it. Though the fix did not really make sense, it worked and continued to work for other classmates who had the same problem.
• I pride myself in trying to solve whatever problems I am faced with, and I hate leaving them alone, even in smaller situations such as a customer return. A particular return process was halted when the system failed to recall an item either on a receipt or through credit card. When the rewards membership opportunity was new at my most previous place of work, I was able to solve a return by looking up the customer’s file under the rewards program and return their item when co-workers understandably did not remember that the feature existed.
WORK EXPERIENCE_____________________________________________________________
Michaels:
Multi-Positional October 2012 – Present.
I joined this company to gain new experiences and also to become a certified art teacher in Drawing and Acrylic Painting through Grumbacher. I quickly became trusted with more and more positions within the store. These positions required skills with high quality customer experience, organization, and ability to quickly and effectively work through stock and customer needs.
Aywas:
Sketch Artist November 2015 – Present.
Each week I received 5 pairings of site “pets” to create a whole new pet with the traits of the parent animals to complete. These were digital sketches that were to appeal to each separate client whether they offered suggestions to the final outcome or not.
Ringling College Mail Services:
Staff Member October 2012 – May 2016.
In this on campus work-study job I sorted, processed, and delivered loose mail and packages for students and staff. I also aided in the search for lost packages of which I was skilled at. When all of the daily requirements were met and there were no students in need of assistance, I was able to focus a bit on studies. I was also an exception to the no First Year hiring rule and worked at the college’s mailroom all four years of my college studies.
SKILLS__________________________________________________________________
Proficient in Windows and Macintosh platforms and software: Pixar Renderman, Nuke, Adobe Flash, Adobe Illustrator. Advanced Proficiency: Autodesk Maya, Adobe Premiere. Fluent: Adobe Photoshop.
ABOUT__________________________________________________________
Intermediate Spanish, self-teaching Japanese. Hobbies include Competitive Swimming, volleyball playing, exploring, and bicycling. Horror movie buff and avid young adult novel reader.