How I became a ... Pixar animator
Kureha Yokoo talks life, creativity.
Our series “How I became a …” digs into the stories of accomplished and influential people, finding out how they got to where they are in their careers. (This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
We’ve all been lost in the world of animated pictures for years, from Monsters Inc. to A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo to Toy Story. Whether it be the flip of Marlin’s fin or the sway of Sully’s fur, the work done on the back end of our favorite movies comes from people behind computers, people such as animator Kureha Yokoo.
USA TODAY caught up with Yokoo, whose latest animation work can be seen in Pixar’s The Incredibles 2, out Friday, to talk about everything from safaris and dailies to the frustration of the creative process and computer screens.
Question: What does a typical day look like for you?
Kureha Yokoo: When we’re in production, we usually have dailies in the morning. That’s where people show their work to the director and the leads and fellow animators. Anybody can make comments, you get notes on your work, then you go back to your desk and stare at your computer for a long time, interspersed with some hilarious conversations with people. Sometimes we’ll have a walk-through when the director will come through the department.
Q: What does that process look like?
Yokoo: Typically when you get some shots in a sequence, the director will kick it off and he’ll tell you, “Here’s what’s happening in the sequence, here’s what may have happened before and after, that sequence.” He might talk about the mindset of those characters. Oftentimes a director won’t, and they’ll say, “Come up with something!”
All of the dialogue is prerecorded, so when we first get the shots there’s some camera setup, there’s characters in the shots and there’s dialogue, but that’s about it. You’re sort of the actor, and you can come up with acting that goes with the dialogue. You could nail it in one shot or you could take many passes at it, which is the wonderful and the frustrating thing about it. That’s the real joy about any creative process.
Q: What’s your favorite project that you’ve worked on?
Yokoo: Brad (Bird) is one of my favorite directors. I’ve worked on the first Incredibles and I worked on Ratatouille, and he’s a joy to work for. After all these years I still get incredibly nervous showing him my work, because I want to please him and give him what he’s looking for. He’s an extremely collaborative director, and he wants to know your opinion.
Working on Up was wonderful because I have a special penchant for animals and for dogs. On this past Incredibles (2) movie, there’s a whole motorcycle sequence with Helen riding motorcycles, so my supervisor, Alan Barillaro, pulled me into some of those sequences early and had me be involved in some of the design and the preproduction process.
Q: What does your career path look like, from college to now?
Yokoo: I went to Brown University, and I think my entire life has been about me not being able to make a decision and have some twist of fate make that decision for me. I took whatever classes interested me. I was not disciplined enough to say I wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, so I counted up what I had as far as credits, and it turned out the thing I had enough credits for was some unusual interdisciplinary major called urban studies. I also ended up double-majoring in fine art because I’d had some drawing classes that I had taken.
At the end of school, it just happened that Toy Story came out in Christmas of 1995 and someone told me that we should go see it, but I said, “It’s just a cartoon!” My friend said that it was supposed to be really good. We went to go see it, and I was just blown away.
I thought, “I’ve got to find a way to get there.” And whether I’m just cleaning toilets or something, I wanted to be at Pixar. In the summer of 1996, I started taking classes at the Academy of Art because I had heard some of the Pixar animators were taking classes there. I managed to get into the first class and then was hired out of that class to do background bugs in A Bug’s Life.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned throughout your career? Yokoo: I would say there’s no real clear path. And when I talk to people who work here, everyone came a slightly different way. There’s some element of obsession. There’s obviously the energy you bring to it, but also there’s a little bit of serendipity in there, too. I would say that if you can, stay curious about everything.
Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps as an animator?
Yokoo: It’s OK not to know how to get there. It’s OK to try things and then realize, “This isn’t the direction I wanted to go.” I also feel like these days everyone wants to feel like they’re doing what they’re passionate about, but I want to remind people that you don’t have to love it all the time.