This week, we have the amazing Christina Mandia, animator at Cinesite London, giving us an insight into how she tackles her maternal role, whilst being a better, more efficient animator. Christina goes on to share some very important information on maternity leave pay for employees and freelancers through the government schemes, as well as employee entitlements. Some really useful info for employees and freelancers in any career. Christina’s journey as a VFX animator, starts with an entry into the VFX industry as a runner, following the completion of an animator degree at Ravensbourne university, leading on to a progression into the matchmove department, and finally into the much anticipated department she’d always been aspiring for - animation. In this two-part episode, Christina shares her journey, her expertise advice as an animator & mother, and gives invaluable advice for aspiring animators and aspiring & existing parents in the working industry, more specifically, the VFX industry. We hope you find this episode useful as we did. Special thanks to Christina for kindly taking time out to share her experiences with us. Subscribe and turn notifications on to be alerted when part 2 comes out! Find Christina on: IMDB LinkedIn As always, if you liked this episode, please like, comment, subscribe and share! Listen to all episodes on our website Chapters: 00:00:00 Intro     00:00:38 How it all started     00:07:04 Becoming pregnant as an artist     00:09:23 Deciding to speak to HR at 26 weeks of pregnancy     00:16:33 Confronting HR and recruiters about pregnancy     00:17:29 Maternity leave and pay laws in the U.K.     00:20:36 iAnimate during maternity leave     00:28:22 WFH - Mother's opinion     00:35:15 School!     00:39:36 Prove yourself and know your worth!     00:43:56 Hesitancy & Pressure on women choosing between work and starting a family     00:56:24 Getting back into work after Maternity leave