LOS ANGELES, California—Chris Chua, 29-year-old Filipino-American animator at Pixar Animation Studios, makes things look easy.
When we interviewed him at Pixar’s sprawling Emeryville office, Chris casually rattled off things about his career. Unintentionally, he made his rise in the animation world sound simple—which, of course, was not.
“I went to California Institute of the Arts in Valencia for college, joined DreamWorks, transferred to Pixar and then got assigned to do my first Pixar movie, which is ‘Wall-E,’ ” he said.
He added, “I always look forward to coming to work because the people I work with here are just so passionate about everything.” And so is Chris.
“It’s great working here,” he stressed. “Everyday, no matter how tired I am, I always look forward to coming to work.”
Loving it
“Work” for Chris means doing what he loves, donning casual clothes everyday, or riding a bike, scooter or rollerblades around the office. In his “free time,” he may take some “enrichment” courses at Pixar University.
“Wall-E,” the latest film from Academy Award-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”), is about the last robot left on earth to clean up the trash that mankind has left behind. It is a very timely and relevant movie about the environment.
Chris, who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2-D Animation from Cal Arts, explained the look of “Wall-E,” which is unlike other Pixar movies: It is monochromatic at times and has almost no dialogue in some scenes—an animator’s dream, or nightmare.
“Some animations are bleak and have a doomsday feel to them,” Chris said. “For ‘Wall-E,’ I think there are moments when it is very colorful and entertaining. For me, it is totally a dream project because, as an animator, you are taught that pantomime comes first. All the great scenes happen when you turn off the volume and you know exactly what is going on even without sound coming from the characters’ mouths. The visuals take center stage. We do not have to deal with voices. Just the fact that these emotions can come from this little robot with simple eyes is fulfilling—you can do so much with so little.”
Chris, who got married last year, joined the Pixar team last November as a fix animator for “Wall-E.” He takes shots from the films that have already been animated and polishes them up for final use.
He explained his job further: “Mainly, I assist the animator. For example, you have an animator who has Wall-E going left and right on the screen, but he wants him to go a little slower. So he would come to me and ask me to make Wall-E slow down. I already have the main scene going on in front of me. I just need to adjust it. Sometimes it is very easy, like they will say, ‘Okay, add one blink here.’ Other times, it is more involved and they will completely change everything. I will have to do those changes as well. Then I get them approved by my supervisor. If it’s a bigger change, then the director has to see it since it’s his movie.”
The animator, born in Manila to a Chinese father and a half-Filipino mother, moved to the US at age 10. He said he’s the only artist in the family. Dad William is a banker while mom Juliet was a secretary.
It was during high school that Chris discovered his love for drawing. “I loved to draw and enjoyed watching cartoons and movies,” he recalled. “My teacher told me that I could do this for a living. She said that there is a school in Southern California called the California Institute for the Arts. I think it was right before high school ended when I saw ‘Toy Story.’ That changed everything for me. That was when I set my goal of becoming an animator. Once I had seen more Pixar films, I got more convinced.”
Asked if it was hard for him as a Filipino-Chinese to break into Hollywood, Chris replied, “In this profession, especially animation, it’s not so much about race. There is no real race barrier. It is just about how much work you put in.”
Previous work
Prior to joining Pixar, Chris worked as an animator at DreamWorks Animation on various projects, including “Sinbad,” “Shark Tale” and “Flushed Away.” In the Bay Area, he had a short stint at LucasArts working on the video game project, “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.”
“Wall-E” is his first Pixar movie.
He recently got promoted as animator on Pixar’s latest film, “UP” which will be directed by Pete Docter (“Monsters Inc.”) and is due out next May. He and wife Joy recently moved from Emeryville to North Berkeley where they just bought a house.
Asked how it was working with director Andrew Stanton, Chris said, “Andrew knows what he wants. He may feel things out a couple of times as he will see it and say, ‘That’s not what I want, let us do this.’ But a lot of times, he has a good eye for filmmaking and detail. With him, a movie almost feels like a live-action film just with the way the camera moves.”
As for the Pixar culture, Chris exclaims, “It’s great!” He added, “The movies they make here are ‘director-driven’ as opposed to ‘public-driven.’ In the same way that I am more passionate when something comes from the heart. You feel like when it comes from the director’s soul, you feel like it comes across. That, more than anything else, is what makes Pixar great.”
