www.canstarnews.com
WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 26 | 2020 LOCAL NEWS THE TIMES 3
BY SYDNEY HILDEBRANDT
STAFF REPORTER
SHAUGHNESSY PARK
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Kara Vallega was five or six years old when she first watched Toy Story, a 1995 animated film about toys that come to life. The film, which made Pixar Studios a household name and represented major innovations in computer-generated animation, was unlike any other she had seen.
She remembers how fascinated she was \u2014 and still is \u2014 with the animation; after all, it\u2019s what inspired her to enter the world of visual
effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her aptitude for discerning tiny details in movies when she was young foreshadowed where she would end up today \u2014 working on films such as Pok\u00e9mon Detective Pikachu, Sonic the Hedgehog, Maleficent: Mistress of
Evil, and 1917, which won an Oscar this year for best visual effects.
As a kid, she spent hours researching and watching tutorials on YouTube. Vallega, now 21, then had a chance to embrace her passion at Sisler High School, where she enrolled in animation and film courses and gained experience in Sisler CREATE, an entertainment arts training program.
\u201cShe is the most persistent person I have ever met,\u201d said Jamie Leduc, Vallega\u2019s former teacher. \u201cShe takes advantage of every opportunity.\u201d
Following high school, Vallega attended and graduated with honours from Vancouver Film School in B.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI knew I wanted to do this and I would just do anything to get to it. When I started going to Vancouver Film School I was dead on serious about it,\u201d she said. \u201cI had a schedule by every hour on what to do and make sure I was on track with everything, making sure my reel (project) was perfect before the
end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She scored her first job as a compositor \u2014 someone who combines layers of visual elements to produce single seamless images \u2014 at The Moving Picture Company just one
day after applying. Now, she works at Mr. X
visual effects studio in Montreal.
\u201cBasically what I see is the final image of
what you see in theatres. I think it\u2019s always so
fun to be able to see that and just seeing all
the details that you put in there and making
sure everything blends seamlessly. I enjoy
that. I love the technicalities of it.\u201d
As a fresh face in the industry, Vallega said
she doesn\u2019t let her age bring her down.
\u201cBasically everywhere I went since
Vancouver Film School and work, I was
always the youngest person there\u2026 I don\u2019t
find it intimidating because if I\u2019m there, and
I\u2019m doing the same amount of work as them,
and I sometimes get bigger shots than them,
I think it doesn\u2019t matter. If I can show that my
skills are just as good as theirs then it doesn\u2019t
matter to me what my age is. I think it\u2019s pretty
cool that I\u2019m young and doing this kind of
work already that is being shown to multiple
people watching in the theatre,\u201d she said.
Vallega stays motivated thanks to her
mom, from whom she draws encouragement.
\u201cEvery time I just want to quit and do
something else, she just inspires me to keep
going. I\u2019m always talking with her, every
single day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a professional level, Vallega looks up
to Trent Correy, an animation supervisor at
Walt Disney Animation Studios, whom she
met while at Sisler.
\u201cJust meeting him was amazing. His story
is amazing. I got to draw caricatures with
him; I drew him and he drew me. But he is
really inspiring to me, so getting to work with
him would be pretty awesome.\u201d
\u201cHe applied to Disney 11 times and got
rejected, and so when he finally got in he
really proved himself to be a great asset
to Disney,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know a lot of
people who would keep applying to Disney
after 11 times and not think, \u2018Oh, wow,
maybe they don\u2019t want me.\u2019\u201d
Another one of Vallega\u2019s goals is to work at
Pixar, where she said everything would come
full circle.
\u201cMy dream project would\u2019ve been something
Toy Story-related but they already
came out with Toy Story 4 and I\u2019m pretty sure
that\u2019s going to be the last movie in that franchise,\u201d
she said. \u201cGrowing up on Toy Story
and then going to work at Pixar would be an
absolute dream of mine.\u201d
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www.canstarnews.comWEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 26 | 2020 LOCAL NEWS THE TIMES 3BY SYDNEY HILDEBRANDTSTAFF REPORTERSHAUGHNESSY PARK Kara Vallega was five or six years<\/p>\n