The Maverick at Disney's Pixar Animation Studios
If you look closely at one of the easels in the art room of long-time teacher and artist Sharon Barrett, you will see a hand-written statement, “We Were Born to Shine.” This inspirational message has been quietly motivating students for over half a decade. Few are aware that the student who wrote it several years ago is now shining brightly in the art world.
Nira Liu (class of 2013) seems to have been born to shine. Voted “most artistic” his senior year at MSA, he has taken his talents to one of the biggest stages in the art world. He works as a storyboard artist for Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios. His most recent project is the feature film, Onward, which will be released globally in March (see trailer below).
As a student at MSA, Nira studied with Ms. Barrett. She recalls the first time she met Nira in class: “He stuck his hand out, introduced himself, and said he wanted to work for Blizzard Entertainment (game design, I guess). From day one, he was motivated, focused, and goal-oriented.” While he ended up working for Pixar and not Blizzard Entertainment, he accomplished his goal of creating characters for animated fantasy worlds.
Nira has always been drawn to creating characters in his art--much like the ones he helped create for PIxar’s Onward. However, his skills as an artist extend beyond characters. Ms. Barrett remarked: “Nira understood that it was beneficial to be diverse with art skills. He was excellent at realistic portraits, even though he preferred to draw or paint fantasy characters.”
Nira’s artwork has always shined brightly on the Hill, and it will soon be shared with the world on the big screen. Still, Nira has always remained modest about his accomplishments. Ms. Barrett noted: “Nira is proud of his accomplishments and hard work, but he is always humble.”
We had a chance to sit down with Nira to discuss his work at Pixar Animation Studios and to learn how Ms. Barrett’s instruction opened doors for him in the art world.
Tell us about what you are doing right now.
I am currently a storyboard artist at Pixar Animation Studios. My latest film credit is Onward, a story about two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, who go on a journey to discover if there is still a little magic left out there in order to spend one last day with their father, who died when they were too young to remember him. Right now, I am currently working on an unannounced project at Pixar.
What does a storyboard artist do?
The job as a story artist is essentially a blueprint maker for the filmmaking process. In our job, we are given a written movie script that's been created by the writers/directors. It is our job to draw the script out as mini comic book strip images. We also add sound and dialogue on top of it, so the director can watch the movie in a rougher form to see if the story works or not without having to animate completely on the computer.
That’s amazing! What do you enjoy most about the work?
What I really love about my job is that when I draw out the movie, I get to play the role of writer, actor, cinematographer, editor, and character designer. And on top of it, I get the opportunity to input a lot of my personal experience and jokes into the movie I work on, which is always very rewarding--to see your personal ideas end up on the big screen.
You are a bit of a legend at MSA. How did Ms. Barrett’s art class help you in your progress?
I am personally very thankful toward the MSA art program because Ms. Barrett gave me a lot of freedom and encouragement to help me explore my artistic career. When I was a student, I knew I loved drawing and art, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at the time. Ms. Barrett always encouraged me to explore the projects I liked to work on instead of giving me a strict curriculum. This helped me profoundly in finding the artistic career path I wanted to take.
Did you use MSA’s network of artistic alumni to help you on your journey?
Yes, Ms. Barrett and Dr. Meagher connected me with alumni who were going to art colleges. This allowed me to learn more about what the art college environment is like and the variety of art careers there are out in the world. After I learned the various careers that are out there, I really had to dig deep and ask myself what I would be happy doing for the rest of my life. It turned out to be animation because I’ve always had great passion for drawing and creating stories.
Closing thoughts?
I still feel very thankful toward the MSA art program, especially Ms. Barrett’s patience and openness toward me and how she chooses to run the MSA art program with the idea of helping students find the path they want to take.
