Ralph Breaks The Internet Disney Character Animator Jorge Ernesto Ruiz-Cano Interview

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

hi i'm allison with FlickDirect and I'm here with Jorge her nesto Ruez cow no that's a mouthful there you go that's it and he is a character animator at Walt Disney Animation and we're talking about Ralph break the internet so tell me what does it mean to be a character animator do you work on one particular character first of all thank you so much I know for the interest guys and the movie comes out in a couple weeks and it's it just means that we first of all we're part of very big tribe a very big team okay it's a collaboration with the name of the game okay respect for the people and the legation it comes easy when everyone's smarter than you around in the studio okay everyone's super-talented but the role in the animation is us giving the illusion of life it's the performances is that it's how they move you know the mechanics to make it we don't make real stuff we make believable things we stylize reality that's what we make right and it used to be back in the day in the studio's to be kind of used to be character specific and things like that but nowadays it's kind of based on production you know based on production slash what's your affinity with what character why because if you gotta have an affinity or something with a certain character you obviously going to do a better job and if you do a better job they probably will keep giving you that character it makes any sense it definitely makes sense you said earlier that you can tell a character by how they stand what does that mean exactly well character and characterization are two things right characterization is what what we do every day to present herself in characters is is their real thing right the character is that it's what we see when people or characters are in tight circumstances a situation they show a real character so a lone answer to your short question is that yes a specification it's how you make character so no one will stand the same way as the other you know what I'm saying the way they work will tell you what kind of person yes you know even what the art in the craft that we make is that you should be able to know what the characters kind of feeling what kind of character it is just by one frame you know what I'm saying so you don't you can't waste any time on the on the audience you got to be clear okay so yes characterization you need to be a specific okay no one walks the same no one stands the same I get that I understand that so what means you decide to become an animator where was your passion that brought you to and I want to talk about the the talent development and the summer programs but what specifically was your passion for animation mmm the things that for me I grew up loving cinematography look I love moviemaking I love telling stories I love that it was my things it's always a kid I had my own movie projection in are in my head making and cutting my scenes as a weirdo no nerd takes over the world that's the fact yes so I remember that I even as a kid I always tell the story because it's really cool sorry is that you know when you were in school and you're like I want to be a firefighter or whatever I want to be an astronaut I would say I wanted to be a Disney animator no no like an animator I wanted to be at least Pacific fourth grade and there's friends that call me or you know ride mean they're like brawler do you remember that you said that man and to me I think that's why it's worth mentioning you know in saying because circumstances discipling a lot of mentors family and friends you know because family is not necessarily blood right so it was a lot of people supporting me your your the average of the five people you hang out with and I was really fortunate and coming from you know in Venezuela with the opportunity I value it and I you know every bite like I could even if I was barely chewing I did it you know so inspiration I always wanted to be an animator long answer for you all right now quickly tell me about the summer program and your specifically you went through the team talent development program because it sounds fantastic so what was that like it's great because the time development program in this the first of all we have different programs you know just to kind of outreach and to and to just we need that new freshness we need people to be come and help us the new you know we always want to be super inclusive of the originality in how you find a new you know so and also to give back the outreach you know so for example the talent the talent development program especially especially you know I'm beginning for a while and I still don't know how to speak English if the the talent very special is a program that I'm quickly Al Gore because it's really interesting is it's a problem that Walt himself created back in the day back in the day on the Golden Age of animation in the his artists then I know men and all those magicians you know they used to create what we know today as an animation they were getting older so they realized that you need to pass the torch and that's why they created the talent development program they grab a couple people and they put them under their wing they grab their hand you know you crash and burn many times but that's you stand up yes and they that you see something and they bring you in to kind of pass the knowledge and I was very very fortunate enough that I was I was one of those guys like wow yeah yeah and now here you are today so let's go up to talk a little bit about Roth bricks the internet every Disney movie has some kind of message it wants to send what is the message of Ralph breaks together well I don't believe that I mean the message is what you make out of it I mean because I don't we we don't we don't we say that there's there's a if you think about there's a world there's a characters there's circumstances that when you come out of it you you have a conversation and that that is what's going on right and I think the conversation here is about friendship right because friendship changes okay everyone changes you know and real frenchs will change right and this is really cool to see these two guys ralph vanellope going through like a big seeding today or the internet you know we all been there and you know of course we have we see them through their eyes and it's very different like ralph it's like unknown it's bad like i don't i want i want this a lot of people are fear i have fear for them absalom in and vanilla piece the opposite side i embrace and super intuitive and and in possibilities and she's really excited about it so you can see both of them diverging and growing and in in how real friendships evolve you know so is that making sense what is that it absolutely makes sense can we talk about the scene with the princesses because I thought it was brilliant tell me about working on that scene did you work on that scene and what was the development process like how did that start right sorry yeah well it was it was really cool to see how it came about because we never forced any character we never go like we have to have this we have to have that it's more like we write the characters we ride the world this story comes you know and everything talks to each other story the world characters and based on that it would it's natural and organically comes out and when we visited all my Disney obviously the princes are there in the in the thing is that we you know it came out really organic we wrote it and all that stuff and once we put it on the screen it just worked it just worked and really in the fact that we are jump into CG with a lot of these characters that we know them in a traditional hand-drawn way it was a challenge and an amazing to see them in in rough world you know so anyways I think I don't wanna say more of the scene I think a lot of people haven't seen it but I think it's really cool but it's awesome you definitely you're gonna love it alright we cannot wait for this absolutely November 21st thank you so much for speaking with me today [Music] absolutely [Music]