When Jolena Yao first got to Georgia Tech, she thought her future would be in the technical side of animation. Now, she’s working in the space where art and tech intersect.
Yao, a Milledgeville native, worked as a Look Development Artist on “Moana 2,” the follow up to one of Disney’s most popular animated films of the last decade. For Yao, it was a dream come true – she loved the first film, and getting the opportunity to help bring the second one to life felt incredibly special.
As a Look Development Artist, Yao helped bring the world of “Moana 2” to life, translating 2D art into a three-dimensional, computer graphics world. Rough Draft Atlanta recently spoke with Yao about her journey to animation and her work on the film.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your relationship to animation when you were younger? Did you always know you wanted to work in animation?
Jolena Yao: I know this might sound kind of cliche, but everyone grows up watching Disney movies. You watch VHS tapes on repeat – it’s really just that love for animation from an early age. But I didn’t really think I could go into it until later on in my life. Like, wow – people do that as a career. I thought that was really cool, once I found out. Wow, that’s a job I can do!
I know for me, I always had “Beauty and the Beast” on repeat. Did you have one that you made your parents play over and over again?
Yao: Ironically, it’s also “Beauty and the Beast.”
Really?
Yao: I love that movie so much.
It’s so good. What do you think drew you to that one in particular?
Yao: I think it’s because Belle is so smart, and she just is so true to herself. She loves to read, and I also loved to read as a kid. I see so much of myself in Belle.
Speaking of smart, I feel like your educational trajectory is not the usual one you see in this particular industry. I talk to so many people in animation who went to SCAD, or went a particular way. You went to Georgia Tech and Texas A&M – could you talk a bit about what you studied there and how that has helped you in your career?
Yao: So, as you mentioned, I went to Georgia Tech, and I studied computer science. Originally, I thought I might have been more interested in going into the technical side of animation. Just because growing up, I wasn’t really the kid that was always drawing in a sketchbook. I was like, maybe the artistic side isn’t for me, so maybe I’ll just go into the more technical side. Then upon going through Tech and studying computer science, I was like, maybe this isn’t really what I enjoy doing in the animation world. So after that, I decided to go to grad school to pursue my master’s degree at Texas A&M. They do a mixture of technical and artistic. I could kind of get in with my tech background, but then still also learn the artistic side. That’s where I learned my love of Look Development.
When you say the technical side of animation, what exactly do you mean?
Yao: More like the software engineering side – like making software, fixing things, creating tools for animation to use.
Was there one moment where you knew you should move toward the creative side? What was the wakeup call?
Yao: I was in a computer animation class at Tech. They were like, if you’re here because you love the way animation looks, this isn’t the class for you [laughs]. This is math, and physics and coding. I was like, oh, but I love the way it looks in the movie! Maybe this isn’t for me.
Switching gears to “Moana,” what was your relationship to the first movie?
Yao: Oh my gosh. I loved the first movie so much! It actually came out when I was in college, so I remember going to see it in the theaters, and I cried so much!
Yeah, same.
Yao: It was particularly impactful for me, because I feel like it’s the first time in the modern era that you see a heroine of color in a CG [computer graphics] movie. I was like, wow this is amazing! I would have loved to have something like this as a kid. It made me cry, especially knowing that kids growing up now get to perhaps see themselves represented on the screen, or maybe get to learn a little bit more about a different culture – build a little bit more empathy and connection that way.
How did you come to work on the second movie?
Yao: After I graduated from A&M, I was hired at Disney to come to the Vancouver location. The first project that we were doing was “Moana [2],” so it just happened to line up.
Wow, perfectly.
Yao: It was kind of a dream come true, to be like – wow, I loved the first movie so much, and now I’m working on the second one.
You worked in Look Development on this project. As far as I understand, you help to build out the world and characters by creating the color, the textures, the materials, etc. But I would love it if you could talk about what you did specifically for this film, and talk about what Look Development is in your own words.
Yao: So specifically, I work in environments for Look Development. That means, like you said, I bring the color, the material properties – perhaps like procedural instancing, like grass or plants and stuff – I really just bring it to life. I’m translating the 2D art that we get and bringing it into CG, and realizing it in the computer graphics world.
When you work on a sequel like this, what is the relationship that you have as an artist with the first movie, as far as staying true to the style and visual expectation that movie built, but also bringing a little bit of yourself to it?
Yao: I think we were really lucky, because we had a lot of the creative leadership that was on the first movie. Like our production designer, Ian Gooding – he’s amazing – he was on the first movie. So he really helped us stay true to the stylization and the world of “Moana.”
Without getting into spoiler territory, do you have a favorite aspect of this movie that you helped bring to life?
Yao: It is just really cool to be able to bring something to life, because in Look Development, it’s like you’re adding the history of an environment, or something. Did this person touch this? How is this thing used and how can I portray that in the way it looks? I think that’s really cool to add that element to the look.
