Transcript 

 
Introduction:
Hi, my name is Abdullah Moatasem. I am 22 years old, and I study applied arts at the
German University in Cairo, and I work as a character designer for animation.
 

Aliaa:  Hi Abdullah. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. So
first of all, can you define what is character design?
Abdullah: OK so basically, a character designer does is create the look and feel in the
artwork of how every character in the story of animation or game or commercial is going to
look like in the end. Like How it's going to appear on the screen.
Aliaa: OK so can you tell me when did you start this field and how did you develop your
talent? like did you take any courses or what did you do?
Abdullah:   I think.. I believe I started it about seven years ago. I was doing it before as a kid
like any other kid does but I started taking it seriously and developing it like every day
practicing every day and working out in about seven years ago. the way I developed the
talent itself or the skill itself is by building the habit of working every day like spending a lot of
hours studying and copying and like learning from other people's work looking at videos of
people like instructing and giving tips and giving advice and you know teaching art itself and
of course all geared towards the field I’m in because every other field is different, but it’s all
encompassed under the term of art and art industry. so around like five years ago or
something I got my first job and it all basically went uphill from There.
Aliaa:  OK so you were self-taught. You didn’t go take courses or classes or stuff like that.
Abdullah:   I did take courses, but they weren’t specifically towards like an institution. like it
wasn’t related to a university or something like that it was like separate it’s still cold self-
taught but it’s like paying for the courses online going to workshops that are held in separate
events done by individuals or whatever and yeah.
Aliaa: Ok So you said that you started taking it professionally seven years ago and he
started monetizing from and how did it start?
Abdullah:  the way  I got there is by exposing myself a lot on social media like putting work
out there joining groups joining communities and going to events and socializing and
networking with people and like by time I got connected with a lot of other artists who saw
potential in my work and had other connections in the industry already and started hitting me
up and calling me and asking me for work and it started going from the rest of the building
connections with other people in this industry and I started getting a lot of jobs since then
that was around 5 to 6 years ago.
Aliaa:  Ok can you tell me what is your proudest gig so far? 
Abdullah:  The proudest gig I had was working at Netflix. I got called up or messaged
through Instagram by one of the show creators on Netflix and I had the opportunity to join
them for like five months which was great. I learned a lot.
Aliaa:  And what was the show what was the name of the show 
Abdullah:  it’s called StoryBots it’s a kids show, a kids animated show. They were
developing a new series for it and they wanted a character designer, so I joined. 
Aliaa:  Ok that's great. So, what's your ultimate goal in this career like when will when will it
be the moment that you say that you say “yes I did it” 
Abdullah:  I think it would be having my name in the credits of a feature Disney or Pixar film
like I think I think I’m on the road of having my credits on TV shows like animated tv shows,
but the main dream for me and what started my whole passion for this field already is having
to work on like one of the big feature blockbuster animation movies that’s my ultimate goal, I
would say. 
Aliaa:  OK thank you so much and good luck with everything. This interview has been very
inspiring thank you so much 
Abdullah:  thank you
 

Aliaa Abou Ahmed, A-U-C News