Drawing on Art Degree, Young Alum Makes Mark in Animation Industry

03/17/2025
By Ed Brennen

Along with such names as John Cena, Post Malone and Ayo Edebiri, you will find art and design alumna Katie Lucas ’20 in the credits for the 2023 animated movie “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.”

Lucas, who earned a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) degree with an animation and interactive media concentration from UMass Lowell (UML), worked as a 2D visual effects (FX) animator on the film, which earned rave reviews for its unique visual style.

“Everything in the film is very jagged, like it’s scribbled in with crayons or pencil. It looks gorgeous,” says Lucas, who was hired to work on the movie as the first 2D FX animator at Cinesite, an animation studio in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Lucas considers 2D FX animation, her specialty, the “last bastion of traditional animation.” Drawing by hand on art tablets connected to computers, 2D FX animators add elements like fire, water and electricity to scenes frame by frame, bringing movement and life to the animation.

Lucas recently returned to campus to talk with students in Associate Professor Yuko Oda’s senior studio class about her fledgling animation career, which has included work on Cartoon Network's “Rick and Morty” and Netflix’s “Carol & the End of the World.”

“It’s nice to be able to come back and share my experiences. I’m glad I can give back to the school that gave me so much,” she says.

Lucas was among the first graduates of UML’s animation program, which launched in 2017. She credits the mentorship of Associate Professor Pouya Afshar, in particular, for helping her flourish.

“He took me under his wing from the moment I stepped on campus and let me work on my art,” she says. 

Lucas traces her passion for animation back to the Disney storybooks she read as a child. As a pre-teen, she enjoyed watching “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” on TV, and then going online to find behind-the-scenes content shared by the show’s production staff.

“That’s when I realized, ‘Whoa, this is a real job. This is something people do,’” she says.

Homeschooled through high school, Lucas began taking classes at Middlesex Community College at age 13. When she transferred to UML at age 17, she initially pursued a double major in computer science and art before narrowing her focus to a BFA in animation, with minors in computer science and German studies.

“An important thing that UML gives you that an art school can’t is that breadth of education. You can pursue other interests and other thoughts, and that develops a well-rounded artist,” says Lucas, who was deeply involved as an Honors College student, organizing screening events for animated films at O’Leary Library.

Among the internships that Lucas took on as a student was working with former UML faculty member Javier Barbosa on the feature film “Lyd in Exile.” But graduating from the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, made breaking into the industry a challenge. To stay active, Lucas started a motion graphics company with fellow animation alumna Madison Hines ’20, creating book trailers and short films while continuing to build her portfolio. 

Lucas’ perseverance paid off when Bardel Entertainment, a studio in Vancouver, offered her a spot in its 2D FX boot camp. That led to her first major job, working on “Rick and Morty” for Bardel.

Relocating to Vancouver, which is often called “Hollywood North” because of its thriving film and TV industry, was easy for Lucas, as that’s where her family is originally from. But when projects dried up last year because of the writer’s strike, she returned to the Lowell area. She is now teaching art at St. Patrick’s School.

“I really enjoy it,” says Lucas, whose long-term goal is to teach animation in college, preferably at UMass Lowell. “I loved being here — it was very inspiring to me — and I want to give back.”

In the near term, though, Lucas hopes to return to Vancouver’s vibrant animation scene for more industry experience.

“It’s wild to be able to say that, yeah, I accomplished exactly what I set out to do,” Lucas says. “But I worked very, very hard to get here, and I hope to keep working hard in the future.”

Hard work is something that Lucas emphasizes when speaking to current art and design students.

“There's a term in animation called ‘plussing up,’ which is the idea that whatever you’ve been given by the previous team in the pipeline, you want to make it better in some way,” she says. “That’s what students have to do with their assignments in school. How can you make it even better and learn more from the project?  Because once you're in the industry, you need to stay up to date with not just the technologies, but also with your skills. You need to be continually improving and learning.”