What does an art director of shaders do?
I get to pick the colors and textures of every object in the film. If I’m doing my job well, I’m being true to the wishes of the director and production designers. They set the foundation and I make sure the details are fleshed out. It’s a lot of fun.

Where do you find the materials?
Sometimes I’ll go to Home Depot and find metals. Sometimes I’ll go to great fabric stores and find metallic fabrics or iridescent this or that. Sometimes it means finding beautiful bugs or fish or something for inspiration. There’s this neat store in Berkeley called The Bone Room. They offer collections of animal furs, bones and carcasses. While this isn't very appealing to some, it's perfect for someone with my offbeat job description. The materials could come from anywhere. It can be a real living reference or it can be a photo reference.

Why do you have fur in your office?
I have the real and fake furs in my office because we had to do a lot of research on fur for Sullivan [of Monsters, Inc.] and other furry monsters. The big breakthrough surface for this film is hair, and I got to help figure out what it looks like. It’s just gorgeous in the film. I still see shots of Sullivan every day and I say, “God, the fur team did a great job.”

So you find a surface that works and then what?
I try to offer up a small "palette" of choices for the director to choose from. When I say palette, I really mean an array of colors and surfaces that they might want to see on the particular object or character. Hopefully, it gets the director one step closer to seeing the finished object with a little more clarity. If I'm really lucky, I'm adding a bit of icing to the cake—giving the object or character even more, visually, than what the production designer or director initially had in mind.

How did you get into the animated film trade?
My mom is an artist. As kids, she kept giving the three of us all kinds of artist's tools to play with. While I didn't have any real formal training from her, she gave us the opportunity to love it, and she was never critical. That was key. And so I knew way, way back in second grade that I wanted to be an artist. I thought I’d like to work for Disney when I rode on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland. When I saw the hippo in the rainforest I thought, “I want to make hippos for the rest of my life!”

And later on you…
I went to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. And before I moved up here, I worked at Disney as a background painter. John Lasseter and Joe Ranft were there too. It was in the early 1980s and we were all in our early 20s. [Later on] John called me up and said, “I’m going to make the first computer-generated animated film. Do you want to work on it?” I said, “Well, I don’t know anything about computers.” And he said, “That’s okay!” So when I first started here, I painted on the computer for three months without getting paid, because I had never used a computer before. I’m so glad I did that, because I think they must have thought, “Oh, well I guess she can paint on the computer.” It was a great learning experience for me, and eventually I got a job working on Toy Story. I was lucky—now it’s so hard to get a job here.

What’s it like working at Pixar?
It’s fun. I’ve been here eight years now and I’m still having a great time. The reason why it’s so great working here is because the people are just fabulous. Working here is livin’. You have a combination of amazing facilities with amazing people. You rarely come across cranky people here. I am just endlessly grateful for that. I go home and think, “Wow, I’m so spoiled!”

But there must be some things that are challenging…
Patience. Honestly, I think it’s probably the most challenging thing. Making a [computer-animated film] is a long, slow process, so you have to be patient and positive.

Anything else?
Painting on computers can be challenging too. In a way, it’s just another tool. My artist’s toolbox has oils and acrylics—and a computer. But the computer’s not tactile, and I miss that. You can’t push junk around. Also, when my paintbrush gets bad when I’m painting in oil or acrylic, I just throw it in the garbage, grab another brush and keep painting. But when my computer goes down, I have no clue what to do. That’s frustrating. But I really don’t want to understand it. I like the fact that there are these big brain people who will [solve the problems].

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