The office of Jordi Oñate Isal, 41, from Barcelona, looks more like that of a movie buff than that of a Pixar nut. On his walls you can see posters for Finding Dory or Monsters SA, but when you get closer they have a trick: they are all full of signatures from the workers who, like him, have been part of those films. Oñate is one of the four Spanish animators who work at Pixar, the most cutting-edge animation company in the world, with around 1,200 employees. Since he arrived at the company in 2011, he has worked on many of his films and short films, and during the last three years he has faced one of his main professional challenges: putting new emotions on his face, face and gestures. of Inside Out 2the long-awaited sequel to the hit 2015 film that grossed nearly $900 million worldwide.
Oñate arrived at the company in 2011 and, at that time, he was a twenty-something who had just arrived from London and was barely dedicated to making the background landscapes for some of his films. His time and experience have placed him in a privileged position, where he already works with main characters. His task is organized by scenes: they are given small parts of the film that, with the characters already defined, they have to create little by little. The entire process, as the directors and producers have explained, is manual, carried out by people; At Pixar they do not work with artificial intelligence, but with a team of 375 professionals who dedicate at least a couple of years to each of his films.
The Barcelonan, who has been living in the bay area, next to San Francisco, for more than a decade, recognizes that in this new feature film the characters in the mind of the teenager Riley have been quite a challenge, and specifically Anxiety, as it is an emotion that is complicated to understand and transfer to a physical plane, more complex than sadness or envy, for example. But he also explains that, being a challenge, it is also the most fun to do.
After spending more than a decade in the company, Oñate is clear that it is essential, in addition to perfecting the technique to the maximum, to have a great desire to draw. In this video he shares his keys to working at Pixar and his work process at Inside Out 2.
