Pixar's latest digitally animated film, "The Incredibles," is a colorful and multi-layered action-adventure romp about superheroes, and part of the team that brought it to kinetic life is a Pinay animator whose enthusiasm for the art form keeps growing.
Virginia "Gini" Cruz Santos has had an important hand in bringing characters from "Toy Story 2," "A Bug's Life," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" to life. The San Francisco-based artist recently granted an interview while in town for a two-week vacation.
The thirtysomething never expected to land such a dream job. She reveals that she just "stumbled into it."
Santos and her family migrated to Guam when she was 3, but she was later sent back to the Philippines by her father to study. She was initially opposed to the idea, but the Philippines grew on her, and later she formed important friendships in Saint Scholastica, as well as in the University of Santo Tomas, where she took up Fine Arts major in Advertising.
Ironically, she found a lab subject, Animation, very tedious because of its repetitive illustrating process.