Kevin and Anna Grace Botka are the dynamic duo, husband and wife, and fearless leaders of the Denver-based video and animation studio Botka Collective. After spending a few years in L.A. getting their feet wet in the industry, Kevin and Anna Grace made the move to Colorado and started Botka Collective almost three years ago.
Now, their team works on creative projects of all varieties, specializing in directing, designing, and animating educational or story-driven design projects and commercial work. Their diverse skill sets allow them to serve an international client base from individual filmmakers and small nonprofits to large corporations.
Check out the reels below to see some examples of their animation work.
Inspired by their work, we recently sat down with Kevin and Anna Grace to pick their brains about Botka Collective and living life as a husband and wife creative duo. Here’s what they had to say:
What made you want to be animators, and how old were you both when you got started?
“I’ve been interested in animation since I was a kid. I dreamed of being a hand-drawn 2D animator at Disney and later discovered 3D computer animation. I love the endless possibilities animation affords. Today, we get to blend animation, motion graphics, VFX, and live action in many combinations and techniques.” – Kevin
“I fell into motion design and animation in film school because it can tell stories that are challenging to portray in live action. About halfway through college Kevin and I actually met by working on a motion graphic together and we started our business together as a married couple about two years later.” – Anna Grace
What inspired the move to Colorado?
Colorado offers a slower pace of life than Los Angeles and natural beauty. A lower cost of living, a growing creative community, and an inspiring setting made our decision easy.
How have you seen Virtual Reality become a part of your work in recent years, and how do you think this new trend will affect your business in the future?
We try and offer as many different kinds of creative services as we can. As our clients ask us to create VR/360° video content, we are excited to meet the challenge. At the end of the day, this technology is just a tool. It’s the age-old storytelling principles that can make this new kind of content really shine – otherwise, it can be just a gimmick.
What are your favorite parts of the creative process and why?
Our favorite part of the creative process is the ideation phase. If the client trusts us and is open to ideas, we love diving in and asking hard questions to create videos that actually help the client accomplish their goals.
Where do you find inspiration?
We pull inspiration from past experiences, books, movies, work curated by others in our industry and social media channels.
How is it working with your spouse?
We are thankful to have a lot in common so we are generally on the same page. We have different strengths so we compliment each other well. It is a lot of fun to be able to spend so much time together.
Do you experience artist block, and what do you do to overcome it?
We get artist block somewhat frequently. It helps to leave the office and take a walk or go to the gym to give our minds some time to think away from the computer.
What are your goals for Botka Collective in the future?
We hope for more opportunities for longer projects that allow us to bring in other collaborators to work with us. We want to continue to help clients share their stories both with animation and live action.
What keeps you going as creatives?
We are always pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone in both artistic and technical aspects. We also enjoy being able to tell other people’s stories and make a positive impact.
What is something that most people do not know about the two of you?
We each grew up on opposite sides of the country. Kevin grew up in Seattle and Anna Grace in South Florida. Colorado is a happy medium between the two.