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The Korea Times

By Lee Gyu-lee
Kim Hye-sook, who grew up in the small town of Hongseong – about 150 kilometres (93 miles) southeast of the South Korean capital, Seoul – once saw herself as just an ordinary girl who loved to draw.
But when her middle-school teacher, after seeing her drawings, told her about the animation industry, she began to dream of making a career out of her drawings.
Twenty-five years on, Kim has realised this dream. In 2021, she came to work for Pixar Animation Studios as a senior animator on the 2022 film Lightyear. The film follows Toy Story space ranger Buzz Lightyear and his new, rag-tag crew, who find themselves stranded on a strange planet.

“When I moved [from Korea], I started to have more thoughts about empathy and understanding,” Kim says. “The language and culture, the confusion and struggles that come from a new environment can lead people to empathise with each other, and to comfort one another.
“People might feel different [from others], but the moment individuals realise that [other people] are just like them resonates with me. I believe that a warm hug and strong support can create a healthy society, and I hope to continue to create animations that deliver these messages to children.”
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Kim, who studied at the Kaywon School of Art and Design in the South Korean city of Uiwang, found her passion as an animator while working on short films in school and took her first job at Korean production studio Toiion Animation Studios.
At Toiion, she worked on several television animation projects, including Pororo the Little Penguin, and led two short films – Mung (2003) and Herstory (2004) – both of which were invited for screening at international festivals including the Interfilm Berlin International Short Film Festival.
“I met these awesome artists from abroad at the international film festivals [and] I was inspired to excel at my job like them,” she says.

When Kim worked on Disney animation series Sofia the First, which was given to the studio, she saw a vision of herself being in the global industry.
“When we asked the director from Disney why he chose to work with us, he said they liked our work the best. And that was when I gained confidence as one of the animators who took part in the test project,” she says.
Before working for Pixar, Kim worked for another animation powerhouse, Sony Pictures Imageworks in Canada, for about six years. She worked on a total of 10 films, including the Academy Award-winning feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and director Glen Keane’s Over the Moon (2020).

“I learned a lot, working with Keane for over a year,” she says. “In the same year, our team had the honour to be nominated for the Visual Effects Society award for outstanding animated character in an animated feature.”
Kim is currently working on Pixar’s highly anticipated animated feature Elemental, which is expected to debut this year.
Kim notes that a skilled animator can make a character seem real. “Animators are people who breathe life into characters like Pinocchio’s father Geppetto,” she says, adding that she will get together with the director of the film she is working on to discuss how a character acts, reacts or feels in particular scenes.


In that way, she can “grasp the director’s intention and the flow of the film to come up with ideas”. She then creates 2D and 3D drawings or films herself acting in character.
“When my ideas are confirmed, we create shots by arranging characters through a 3D program. At Pixar, all the animators, whether junior or senior, are involved in various stages of the work we do.”
Kim is living her dream and pursuing a passion that she has had since she was a young girl. She says she hopes to continue to find the joy in her work.


“I hope I can continue to do what I can in this career with the same mind I had as a middle-school girl, thinking ‘this is fun, I want to do better’,” Kim says.
“Between those who have never done what they wanted to do and those who did, I think there’s a difference in the happiness they feel. I’ve had my doubts and questions and still make mistakes – but in that sense, I think I can already call myself a happy person.”
Read the original story at the Korea Times


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A still from Disney and Pixar’s Lightyear. Photo: Pixar

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Kim at the Pixar Animation Studios in California, in the US. Photo: courtesy of Kim Hye-sook

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Milla Jovovich (left) and Cameron Bright in a still from Ultraviolet.

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Lifestyle

Entertainment

Arts & Culture

Animator Kim Hye-sook has worked on films like Pixar’s Lightyear, Pororo the Little Penguin, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Disney’s Sofia the First
She reveals where her passion for animation comes from, where she gets her inspiration, how she brings her characters to life and why she wants to ‘do better’


Pixar animator Kim Hye-sook reveals how she achieved her childhood dream of making a career out of drawing, and why she can call herself ‘a happy person’.


Disney

Korea Times

Wes Anderson