Badass of the Month: Rachel Doda
“I’ve done a lot of stuff,” said Rachel Doda, Lions’ Badass of the Month. She’s traveled the world, gone skydiving (it was a whim, which her mom said was “nucking futs”), got her BFA in computer animation, and landed a dream job in Austin as layout and storyboard artist for Rooster Teeth Productions. Some of her “Projects I can talk about” – RWBY, Red vs. Blue, gen:LOCK are fan favorites, and anime conventions routinely ask her to talk about them on panels.
Oh, and she’s only 25.
“I just like doing things,” she said.
Although Krav Maga isn’t Rachel’s first combat practice – she fenced sabre back in Kentucky, because she’s a badass like that – the timing was impeccable.
“When I was starting Krav, I was getting into action storyboards and choreography for action sequences. Now, when I get an assignment that requires action or choreography, I can clearly explain to the director why you’d use an elbow or a hammer fist here or roundhouse.”
(The teachers at Lions are beaming with pride as you read this.)
“[The directors] delight in knowing their characters are coming to life with that knowledge base. It’s rare to have someone who can do the same actions as their characters. I can put myself in the characters’ shoes and realize ‘oh, they’re dizzy now. They couldn’t take another hit at the moment.’ And that reality helps ground anyone down the line in the creative process. They don’t expect someone my size to know all that.”
Yeah, the ones you don’t expect are always the ones you gotta watch out for. 😉
Be sure you say hi to Rachel next time you see her in class, and congratulate her on being this month’s Badass of the Month!
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