It's a lot easier to teach someone how to use a computer than it is to teach someone how to be an artist, so we figured if they can animate with a pencil, we can teach them how to animate with a computer.
We [film supervisors] always try to encourage discussion in the room because a lot of times newer animators who are just out of school or people come from other studios, they're gonna have different points of view and we want to make sure we're vetting all the ideas to get the best ones. A lot of people are shy about speaking up if this is their first time at Pixar or if they don't have a lot of experience, so we try to encourage that.
The fun of being a supervisor is that you kind of get to shape the film as a whole rather than crafting a complete scene. I can't really think of one in particular that I feel like I own, except for a couple shots that I animated, which is fun. But feeling like you contributed to the whole is the most satisfying thing.
We've got to stay on our [animation] game, make sure we still remember how to animate.
