In our season three finale episode, we are joined by Sahar Kausar, a technical director at Disney Television Animation. Sahar attended the University of Florida and received a dual Bachelor of Science in computer science engineering and digital arts, as well as two art minors in studio arts and fine arts. She then completed a master’s in entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating, Sahar worked at Walt Disney Imagineering as a technical animator and animatronics programmer, then at Walt Disney Animation Studios as a character technical director. Some of her notable projects include Encanto, WISH, Baymax!, and Tokyo Disneyland: Enchanted Tale of Beauty & the Beast. Now, Sahar is a technical director at Disney Television Animation and is currently part of the team for Monsters at Work on Disney+. In this conversation, Sahar tells us how she merges her passion for art and engineering through her career. She also tells us about the different roles she has worked in at Disney and the steps that she took to achieve these positions. Connect with Sahar: @saharkausar on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn Produced by Ment Projects. Follow @mentprojects on all social media platforms for updates and more mentorship resources. Visit our website to learn more about the mission and services of Ment: www.ment-projects.com/ Episode transcript: https://the-mentorship-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/s3e06-sahar-kausar-disney-technical-director-merging-art-engineering-through-animation/transcript
In our season three finale episode, we are joined by Sahar Kausar, a technical director at Disney Television Animation. Sahar attended the University of Florida and received a dual Bachelor of Science in computer science engineering and digital arts, as well as two art minors in studio arts and fine arts. She then completed a master’s in entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating, Sahar worked at Walt Disney Imagineering as a technical animator and animatronics programmer, then at Walt Disney Animation Studios as a character technical director. Some of her notable projects include Encanto, WISH, Baymax!, and Tokyo Disneyland: Enchanted Tale of Beauty & the Beast. Now, Sahar is a technical director at Disney Television Animation and is currently part of the team for Monsters at Work on Disney+.
In this conversation, Sahar tells us how she merges her passion for art and engineering through her career. She also tells us about the different roles she has worked in at Disney and the steps that she took to achieve these positions.
Connect with Sahar: Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
Produced by Ment Projects. Follow @mentprojects on all social media platforms for updates and more mentorship resources. Visit our website to learn more about the mission and services of Ment.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to The Mentorship Podcast. I'm your host, Julia Pia. Every week, we feature a different professional who discusses their career path and industry. We mentor you by breaking down each step of our guests academic journey and career. We talk about what they did in high school to get to university, what they did in university to get to their following jobs, and the career opportunities that their field has to offer.
Today's episode is our season three finale and we are joined by Sahar Kausar, a technical director at Disney Television Animation. Sahar attended the University of Florida and received a dual Bachelor of Science in computer science engineering and digital arts, as well as two art minors in studio arts and fine arts.
She then completed a master's in entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University. During her grad school, Sahar participated in several internships, including Walt Disney Imagineering, which led to her first industry job as an Imagineer after her graduation. There, she worked as a technical animator and animatronics programmer, where her most notable projects include Tokyo Disneyland's Beauty and the Beast and Star Wars Galaxy Edge.
Following this role, Sahar worked as a character technical director at Walt Disney Animation Studios, involved in many well known projects like Encanto, Baymax, Zootopia Plus, and more. Now, Sahar is a technical director at Disney Television Animation and is currently part of the team for Monsters at Work on Disney Plus.
In this conversation, Sahar tells us how she merges her passion for art and engineering through her career. She tells us all about the different types of roles she has worked in at the Disney franchise and the steps that she took to achieve these roles and evolve as both an artist and an engineer. It is such an insightful conversation. So now here to mentor us, it is Sahar Khosar.
Welcome Sahar to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
I'm, really happy to have you because you have such a unique and interesting career. I know that a lot of people are going to learn so much from this conversation. And in order to do that, I want to start right from the beginning. So my first question for you is, what did you want to be when you grew up, and what kind of things interested you when you were younger?
Well, I grew up in Southern Florida, and I was always surrounded by nature over there, and I was always really interested in building things and making things obviously got introduced into, like, puzzles and, like, robotics at a young age, so I was really interested about that world.
On the other hand, my mother also did a lot of, like, hobbies and, like, craft making with me, so I ended up doing a lot of drawing and painting and I was liked creating things. I knew I always wanted to make things like even at a young age. So I had aspirations for like so many different things. And eventually I, I was kind of always torn between like the art side or the engineering side.
So kind of, you know, building upon that, I, I knew I wanted to be a creator and an artist and a writer and I played with tech a lot. So I know that's like three different layers of three different things, but ultimately kind of fused them. And I was always passionate about like characters and storytelling, which obviously kind of led me to look toward where I am today, like, at Disney as an animator and kind of direction.
Were you already kind of thinking about Disney as a young person? Because I think that something like Disney is usually exposed to young people just because there's a lot of children's films and shows and stuff. Did you ever look at that and think that's what I want to do because you knew that you had this passion for creating and did you know that you could somehow bring engineering into that as well at a young age?
That is an incredibly good question because I feel like I was always you know in school, and I was always hoping like okay I had aspirations for like so many different career paths and different things and but whenever I would come home I would you know be immersed into that art world and writing or I'd always be there was always a Disney movie playing on the screen.
So like I absolutely like was a huge fan and I loved the storytelling aspect and the characters and everything. I knew like this was a world that I would like to be in, but it's kind of like one of those dreams, if you will, that you kind of think like, this could be cool, but how do I actualize it?
And then when I was in school and then I started looking at technology, there was always a lot of like tech around my house. So as I was, like, exposed to that, I never really thought at first, like, okay, how could I, like, combine the two? But as we were, like, you know, getting, we're in the digital age, getting in the digital age, it was so cool to see, like, how I could, kind of use engineering as, like, my tool set and then, like, art as my medium to expand into this, this industry.
So it, it happened to, like, come together nicely, I would say. So but I definitely had a passion and interest, and I was always trying figure, you know, figure out how I can mesh the two.
Yeah. And so when you were in high school, were you taking certain courses to help prepare you towards that direction into university? Were you taking art courses in high school or even starting to dabble in computer science because sometimes that is offered in high school? Was that kind of your first formal exposure to comp sci, possibly?
Oh, yeah. That's a great point because when I was in high school, they you know, like there's different kinds of programs. At my school, they had like AP course programs. And at first they actually didn't offer computer science until like the year after I graduated. So it was something that was like still in development. But I first started off like kind of taking like journalism electives when I was in high school.
I was really interested in like writing and photography and typography. And I think that did give me like kind of a good foundation into like design. But, but then I started taking a web design courses and yeah, I, I learned like coding and such. So it wasn't to the level of like computer science just yet, but it was, it was fun to like, kind of do that.
And yeah, I was like on the comp, like computer, I remember like, even like coding up like my own pages, like on my personal projects. Like I remember playing Neopets back in the day was a lot of fun and like coding and stuff. So I had an interest there. But yeah, unfortunately, like some things weren't offered at that time. But once I did get into college, then I started getting knee deep into like the computer science engineering world, which is really cool. So yeah.
It's interesting because I think that art is a lot easier to be exposed to at a young age, at least for us and during our time, and computer science would have been exposed a little bit later, possibly in high school, if the schools even offered it. So even for me, I found that I didn't really even have the chance to, to see if I could possibly like that subject because it wasn't really at the forefront, it wasn't as accessible. But now things are changing, like now it's, it's offered in elementary schools, they're starting to introduce it, and it's also just easier to get on a computer now and play around with making a website, like, that just seems like such a foreign concept before.
Oh yeah, absolutely, I, I feel like even volunteering, like, in college for, like, Girls Who Code and exposing people even in preschool, like elementary school, like to like scratch and like open programming sources. I'm like, gosh, they're coding it, you know? Yeah. Like, so it's really cool. But yeah, I totally hear you. It, it's interesting now, like there were barriers that, like at first, but now like there's more of a, a push in STEM, which, which is great, which is awesome. But yeah, sometimes you find that along the way.
That's awesome though, that you were exploring it as much as you could when you were in high school. So I'm wondering now, as you were starting to go through high school and you were starting to make decisions for afterwards, what options were you looking into for university and for university programs as well?
Yeah. So. When I was in my senior year and looking at schools, I was kind of making that choice. Like, okay, do I go out of state or stay in state? And kind of due to kind of find financial need and reasons. I ended up going in state for my undergraduate, but then later I went to out of state for my graduate program, which was really nice. For my undergraduate degree, I did go to a different city, Gainesville, Florida for my undergraduate.
So yeah, like we're like the Gator nation where they made Gatorade and everything's kind of how I describe it and a big like football people, but they have a great engineering and computer science program. And they had a new program, relatively new I would say, where you could kind of take some art courses within there.
So I took that dual, like, computer science, engineering, and digital arts and science program. And then I took, like, minored in a lot of art courses. So it was primarily engineering based, I would say, but I would kind of add in those, like art courses in there. So I ended up getting, I think, a good engineering foundation.
And then additional supplementary things that I was adding was really good foundational things like painting and woodworking, drawing, and life drawing. Like, really good sense of, like, anatomical, like, skill sets to kind of, like, see the world around you. So that's, like, kind of why I also wanted to pursue graduate school because I had, like, the engineering and then the art, but I wanted to fuse them together. And that's why I did that in my graduate program.
I see what you mean, though, where even though you were doing both engineering courses and art courses, they were kind of separate in a way where you weren't bringing them together yet. Do you mind first shedding light a little bit on the engineering courses that you were taking just to give an understanding of the type of things that you were learning in your undergrad at this time?
Oh, sure. Happy to. Yeah, I, we go through a set in my undergraduate of like core engineering classes. And I think everyone across like any engineering major takes these courses. So those kind of generic ones are like calculus 1,2 and 3, and you take differential equations and you can go up even higher, I believe, and then, and then on the computer science side, I was doing, oh gosh, I know, like, fundamentals of computer science, so you're kind of taking, like, Java and C and those kinds of courses, and theory and all of those like object oriented programming.
There's also kind of back to the generic curriculum where you take like physics and such, so you take all the core engineering classes that are kind of shared across the college and I think that is facilitated there in case because sometimes people are changing their majors and move around the engineering college. So those are very transferable.
And then, but beyond that, by like, that's kind of 2nd ish 3rd year, you're kind of knee deep into your major and then. From there, I was taking all of those like computer science engineering courses I mentioned, but I did mention that it was a dual program as a digital arts and science engineering.
So there I got to take like introduction to 3d modeling. And that is actually where I really sparked my passion. Cause I was like, Oh, this is, I love this. I love making art on the computer. And, and then that kind of exposed me to wanting to get, like, learn about, like, what Disney is doing, what DreamWorks is doing, like, all these, like, entertainment companies out here, so Yeah, it's such a vast, like, field and it's really great to, like, learn about it.
Yeah, so then as you were going through your undergrad and you were starting to realize more so that you wanted to be able to merge the creative side and the engineering side You mentioned how that's when you started looking into grad schools that would allow you to do that. So then what options did you have for yourself for grad school and then what program?
There were a couple of programs in state that I got into, which are wonderful programs same as my alma mater at the University of Florida, and then one in Orlando, Florida, at the University of Central Florida. And then out of state, I was trying to apply to various programs the main ones that come to mind were Georgia Tech program that I got into, so, and then also Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
So I ended up choosing Carnegie Mellon University. Even though all of those were incredible, I remember having, like, a spreadsheet of pros and cons, like going through each and it was a hard decision, but in the end, like, Carnegie Mellon went out with the most pros for me. So, I ended up choosing that university.
And what was the program there that you went with and what was it that was drawing you towards it? And felt like you could really merge the arts and the sciences through that program?
Oh yeah. I did my Master's at Carnegie Mellon University at their Entertainment Technology Center program because I did mention before that like, all of the programs that I did get into for my master's. Yeah, I, three or four are coming to mind right now. They're wonderful, but sometimes I felt that, I, I, I remember reaching out to students in that program as well to kind of interview them because it was a it's an important life decision, so, and visiting as many campuses as I could, so beautiful, but I knew that kind of because I wanted to work specifically as a technical artist or director of some kind.
Now, I... You know, my bread and butter is like in animation, but at that time I was like, okay, I do want to be in this field though, where like, cause I always had Disney in the back of my mind and like Pixar or Disney animation and what have you in the back of my mind.
So I was kind of thinking, okay, which one? And I felt again, kind of, okay, one is a little skewed more toward engineering with a little bit art dibbled in. And then the other one is art with a little engineering double in. And so they're so multidisciplinary and I think you can't go wrong, but ended up going to Carnegie Mellon university because they have such an incredible like both are in engineering program.
It it just seemed like in their computer science and art programs, there's actually a, a bridge that connects the two colleges together on that graduate university. And I remember reading the last lecture by Randy Pausch, who it was a Carnegie Mellon professor there that gave a famous last lecture and he passed away that, you know, that from cancer.
And that was his last lecture, very inspiring talk as well and that bridge actually is a Randy Pausch bridge and he was an Imagineer and, you know Carnegie Mellon has the they had the Disney research program on lab on campus. There's a lot of companies there that are around that area like Facebook, Meta now, like Uber Duolingo so many opportunities for students and even like the drama, like even not just like the computer science being one of the top programs in the world, there's like majority of the cast of Hamilton has like gone there, like their drama program is really great.
A lot of famous people have gone through that program. So I was like, wow, this is a perfect, like, not just STEM, but STEAM. Like, so I was like, this is it. I really want to go here and Randy Pausch actually founded the Entertainment Technology center program. And from there I finally saw like, wow, there's students here working at exactly at the companies that I want to be.
They're Imagineers. They're because I was like, okay, I, I really like art and film and animation that I'm speaking about, but I also like the Disney parks and like theme parks and, you know, building immersive experiences. There's gaming, there's VR and AR, and then there's tech. So I wanted to kind of dip my feet in all these worlds.
And this program allowed you to do that. And I was like, wow, I never seen that before after interviewing multitude of programs and they, the students would go to conferences like Grace Hopper and SIGGRAPH and the games developer conference and all of that. And I was really excited. It's so nice to be able to have kind of a cohort that you can kind of, be with kind of that camaraderie to go to conferences with so yeah, that just sealed the deal.
That gives such a good perspective on what this university has to offer and how connected they are to and then the opportunities you can have from that.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, so could you kind of paint a picture on how the landscape of your master's program was in terms of If you had to take courses or complete certain projects. What was the requirements there and what did you end up learning once you were in the program?
It's a two year program. So the first semester I would take, let's see, like kind of visual storytelling and filmmaking. So you learn about like kind of the filmmaking pipeline. There's a fundamentals course, which is fun. So you kind of, you know, learn about the graduate program, how to be successful there. They have guest speakers come in for that class, like alumni and there were a lot of trips that we took around through that program. And then as you move on, you each semester is different. So the first semester is like you're, you're taking like fundamental courses.
And it was fun because I, then I got introduced to improv and getting out of my shell through drama courses, which is really helpful when you're working in animation as well to bring that storytelling perspective. They actually call that the entertainment technology center secret sauce. So it was like fun to do that.
But then after that my second semester. Well, a really fun thing is they also send you on a West Coast trip, which is like a, like a fun tradition, and that's where I came out to the West Coast and got to, you know, tour Disney and Pixar and Nickelodeon and DreamWorks and, and I was like, oh, you know, this is amazing.
You know, you get really inspired by all of that and you kind of meet alumni who work at these companies, too. Yeah, my second semester It's fun because that's where you get to start taking electives as well as a core project. So by that, I mean the core project. I know I mentioned that in the Pittsburgh area, there's kind of companies and they, they pair up and do projects with the entertainment technology center.
So it, it's kind of fun because those companies get to outsource some work to graduate students, but then the graduate students get to work hands on. And then like, immediately on a project. So I ended up first doing the animation project, which I, you know, really wanted to apply to being interested in animation.
And that's where I got to work with faculty and campus to make AR and VR experiences. And then, and then you move on to, like your third or fourth semester, so you can start doing a co op which you can take the semester to work if you can get an intern or co op at a company, and they'll count that toward your semester, which is fun, or you can continue to take classes.
For me I ended up I mentioned the company course. So we worked with electronic arts and we kind of learned from the Maxis studios team who, you know, they work on different stuff like the Sims. And I was like, Oh, I love the Sims. So yeah, I remember applying to that. But we were working on VR, air exploratory project for them.
And then I took, I actually reached out, I know I mentioned Carnegie Mellon is such like a rich different programs, but the ETC, even though it blends so much on its own, it's its own kind of facility. So I wanted to get more knee deep and connected with the main program on campuses. So I ended up taking a couple of robotics courses and then I started...
I did research with a professor on kind of the, kind of the animation side and rigging a character and all that, so that's where it kind of all came together because I was able to do a summer internship my first year with Walt Disney Imagineering and I worked on the Play Disney Parks app, which was so much fun because it launched.
And then my last semester I chose to do the co op because I felt it would be a good opportunity to do a co op and then kind of extend that hopefully into a full time role, which it ended up fortunate to do. So yeah, the, the program really helps like once you have your background and what you want to do, but being able to fuse it together, which I, you know, wanted to build upon and they help set you up for success for entering the industry. So it's more of a career oriented, so they're very supportive of internships and co ops. So, yeah, it sounds like it, the connections and just the immersive experiences just.
I wanted to go into that internship that you mentioned a little bit at Walt Disney Imagineering. How did you end up getting that internship? Was that an application process? Did you find that it was competitive because it is, it's Disney as well, especially for interning positions. I can imagine there's many people wanting to apply and work at Disney as an intern. So what was that process like?
Yeah, I would definitely say it was a competitive time to get internships and especially so, but I remember I had a fun experience applying for that internship because at that time they had disney design competition for Walt Disney imagination. So I entered with the team and we, I came up with an idea and they were like, Hey, let's do this.
You know, we all came up with a really fun project to submit. So you kind of want to come up with a re imagining an immersive experience. So submitted that we ended up being semi finalists and from there. People who are semi finalists or finalists can have an opportunity to apply for their internships.
And I, this is open to everyone, but if you are a semi finalist or finalist, you kind of have that, that lead into that. And then a team actually reached out to me for the Play Disney Parks app, which is very exciting because hearing from them is very exciting or being found in that way. So I was very thankful for that because they definitely fit what I wanted to do.
It was an introduction to kind of game design and storytelling and building interactive installations for the parks. So I started my first internship with Walt Disney Imagineering out in Glendale, California. So I flew out there and worked on it and it was fun because I was able to do my, my first installations.
I would work on the designs for making the the waiting in line and the queues at the parks more fun and interactive. So you can download that app even now today to kind of play with your friends and interact with things around you. So, that was so much fun and that's when the... app launched and I had the opportunity also to fly to Florida with them as an intern, which was exciting.
And being from Florida, I was like, Oh, hey family. But, but yeah from there and then I wanted, I had such a great blast. So I ended up doing my co op at Imagineering again, but I know I mentioned the kind of the robotics and all of that animation side. So I ended up doing my second co op. Our internship with them as a audio animatronics engineer.
So I was working on the show programming and animatronics and kind of building, helping build a robotics, build them to life and rig and animate them. So it was definitely a very hybrid art and engineering role and kind of where you know, I, I lived a different life with the steel toed boots and the hard hat and all of that, and got to work overnight in the parks and whatnot.
So that was so much fun, like, being able to, you know, not just work digitally, but see, like, your digital work animate on a robotics and you get to expose yourself to immersive guest experience and what have you. So that was my second program co op. And I, I mentioned that I did that my last semester and I flew back for graduation and came back again. And then I ended up converting into a full time role, which is exciting.
Oh, amazing. Okay. That's amazing then that even just having the the option to do a co op versus how you said you could continue to take classes, but then getting your foot in the door with Walt Disney on the animatronic side during that time while you're still a student is amazing. I am wondering where you found that passion for robotics. What sparked your interest when you were in your masters? Where did you kind of get exposed to robotics and how did you think, oh, I want to pursue this more? This is interesting to especially because sometimes robotics can sound very daunting and intimidating and it's not talked about that often. But I imagine you were maybe exposed to certain professors like you said and then got your foot in so how did that process go?
I know I kind of mentioned like what had a young age like I had some like robotic sets and microcontrollers that you kind of play with which was fun to expose to and then I remember when I would go to The Disney parks in Florida growing up, like you, you saw, you saw some animatronics there. So it was always a fun, fascinating world to me, but I never when I got to like graduate program I know I mentioned like Imagineering and the Disney research labs.
I was looking into that. And it was fun because I was reading about Baymax, like beloved Baymax, who actually that character was. That robot was built at Carnegie Mellon, which inspired the character. So I was like, Oh, I have to learn about this. And a lot of like the animation and research has been done at that university.
So that's when I wanted to kind of take my extracurriculars and do undergraduate research with, within the art college and to get exposed to robotics classes there. And that kind of led me to getting into it. And I was so passionate about it and I still love. Like those things, because I feel like it's such a great intersection of art and engineering.
When you put it in that perspective, like making it so relatable, because I think that makes it so much easier to want to explore, because I would think of robotics, I wouldn't have thought of, you know, Disney characters and animated characters in the theme parks, but now that I have that perspective, it seems more exciting and also for someone who might be younger and they're still trying to figure out their passions.
I feel like it could then be. more interesting to them and more relatable, especially for young girls too, right? It wouldn't seem so foreign when it's something as close to home as, you know, a Disney character, a beloved Disney character that you want to see in real life.
Oh, absolutely. And I hear you actually, cause you see like all sorts of robotics and like, you know, the robotics can serve different purposes and, you know, there's robotics that help people, which is amazing. And then that also, like, help us in construction and work and different things in medicine. So kind of seeing, like, these characters, like, being interactive and kind of... Involving that storytelling element made it very inviting, I would say.
Yeah, for sure. Exactly. That's exactly what I mean. Okay, so as you graduated from your Master's, you had this co op position with Walt Disney Imagineering. You mentioned how it then turned into a full time position for you to work as a professional afterwards. I would love to hear a little bit about the projects that you were working on specifically during this time once you were now fully in the industry.
Yeah. So when I was at Walt Disney Imagineering Yeah, I converted from an intern to full fledged there, and I was working on Star Wars Galaxy's Edge that came out in Anaheim, California, and in Orlando, Florida, which was so fun. There was also a push for these animatronics to look more lifelike and have more complex interaction and motion.
So my first project there was Tokyo Disneyland Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast. And that is such a beautiful land and attraction with very lifelike looking animatronics and then there was also Marvel, a campus of the Suntronic that I had an opportunity to shadow on, and there were other projects too with Hong Kong, Land of Aerodale, like Frozen and then for Zootopia, and so there was like, Also like bits and pieces of like various parks, but I feel like I got to, fortunate enough to have the opportunity to, because the dynamic of my team was to facilitate all of the robotics across all the parks, so I was able to get knee deep into like At least one robotic within each attraction, which is so much fun, but the main projects were the Tokyo Disneyland Beating the Beast and then Star Wars Galaxy's Edge and other ones too.
So, so fun. And those ones are the very lifelike animatronics in motion. So I was in that role for about Two years and then after that I ended up transitioning into more of an artist. So Even though it was a very strong engineering and art role I would say it was leaning more on engineering with the art dabbled in again.
So I remember like I ended up doing an apprenticeship at Walt Disney Animation Studios after those two years. So as a character technical director apprentice. So this is where I got to work on the cloth and hair of the characters and making them and coding pipeline tools. So, and that ended up turning into full fledged, fortunately, and their apprentice program works differently than internships, so I was able to kind of get a mentor and shadow on the projects and work on Encanto, which was my first film. It was always a very loving moment in my heart to work on that film.
Could you explain a little bit about how the apprenticeship works? Is that something that's offered to employees where they can then go and explore a certain field?
Oh, yeah. I would say that the apprentice program is open to recent graduates, which I was still within that range, and also those looking for an apprenticeship, career transition, but at the same time being able to be successful within it. So still having your foundations built in within that field, but so you can build success toward the film of that year and to grow there, but you will get mentorship and training, which is really great as an apprentice, but being able to have that foundational skill set.
So when I was at walt Disney Imagineering, it definitely wasn't like a one to one transition for me. That was when the pandemic unfortunately hit and theme parks were closed, so I was looking for my next opportunity and then I remember being exposed to the world of animation because I remember when I was at Imagineering, I, I know I mentioned I was kind of programming and working on the robotics and bringing them to life, but I was also like rigging and animating them.
And as I was doing that, I collaborated a lot with the studios around me. I remember there was an animator that was like, Oh my gosh, you would be a really good fit for the apprentice program there. Cause you have a, you know, very artistically inclined too. So I was like, Oh, that's what I really, you know, want to do, love to do.
So they're, they're very like supportive of retaining talent, of course. But I think with like the world changing, I, I knew, you know, to kind of sustain myself, I wanted to Branch out and kind of I so I would say it was in a one to one transition. So I needed to I put a lot of work into self teaching myself because I know I mentioned all of my background and I was exposed to all these things but Not so much in the way that one would work for industry level work for because That's very niche based, so that's when I was like, okay, I'm I self taught myself those things and then applied to the apprenticeship and it was a good fit and I ended up going through that apprenticeship and working on Encanto and then From there went on to there were, there's like short circuit project where you work with other fellow artists to make a short that go on Disney plus.
And Zootopia plus and Baymax came out on Disney plus, which is exciting again with the pandemic making opportunities where more people are watching streaming. So there was all of that. And Yeah, then I went on to Strange World and worked on Wish as well. So it was a super, super fun time.
Yeah, and even just hearing about the transition is so nice too. The fact that they had these programs where you were able to transition from the animatronics to the animation side of it, have that apprenticeship in between so you're able to still learn. I would love to hear how you went about self teaching yourself on the animation side. From what I'm hearing, I'm assuming you weren't doing a lot of animation in your schooling. It was more the engineering programming side of it and then some visual arts it sounds like. So what was it about animation that you felt like you were lacking and how did you go about teaching yourself?
I knew that I wanted to enter film and animation at some point. So it was a matter of, while, you know, I'm exposed to these things, a matter of getting knee deep and building my niche. And the Apprentice Program actually crossed the film pipeline. But specifically at Walt Disney Animation Studios, we have, there's like effects technical directors and lighting technical directors. kind of technical directors for each part. There's also animators and I was very specifically interested in character technical direction.
I always had a love and passion for characters. I always felt like, Oh wow, they're the main character of a film or a story and to nurture and bring that to life. So I wanted to work on that and rigging is kind of like adding the puppetry to add kind of the armature of something to allow an animator to move those bones and to make it come to life.
So I was doing a lot of rigging for the robotics, but then I was started self teaching myself to do rigging for film. So watching like a lot of tutorials and learning from other projects. And I would also ask feedback from those in the industry on my projects. And I would also kind of give, I kind of gave myself an internship at that time, so with those opportunities.
So I was learning a lot and I was exposed as an engineer from working in C plus plus and Java and those classes. But, kind of the industry does use those programs for sure, depending on it, but at the studio, specifically in the role I was looking at, utilize a lot of Python. So, which is very, can be very artistic too for these softwares.
So ended up going back to my roots in Maya, getting deeper into that, exposing myself to new things and became a Python certified and all of that. And. I kind of put together projects and what we have in the industry as a demo reel of sorts to show off your work. And when I applied to the apprenticeship yeah, they felt like, okay, she's exposed to, like, the art and engineering, and she...
Kind of has, has that exposure to drawing as well with the animatonical look. So I was fortunate enough to be accepted there. Then I worked hard within there. And then there, there's different stages that you go through as a trainee where you're kind of taught. So there was some rigging, so then once I got into the apprenticeship, then I worked in rigging, and then I was exposed to new areas of the pipeline that I hadn't done before, such as character simulation, where you create the clothing and the hair And that ended up being my super passionate about when I was at Walt Disney Animation Studios, so.
And then I would work on technical animation where, like the rigging, cloth, and hair, kind of the production asset part of it. But then, as a technical animator, which is also part of the Character technical team, which is fun. It's such a vast team that touches a lot of things, but there I got to work in shots, so I would animate the clothing and the hair for characters, creatures, props, and shots, and you get feedback from directors trying to make their vision then come to life or the film that your project that you're on.
So I would definitely say like there, there were stepping stones that I had was exposed to, and then just took the initiative during, I'm sure a hard time for all of us. So I had to kind of go through that too. So kind of worked on building those skill sets and whether it was taking courses or electing to give myself my own internship or study if you will and then from there it turned into another opportunity.
That's amazing because I was wondering if it's common for people to kind of jump from one hub to another, meaning like from the animatronics to the animation side, and it sounds like it's It's not necessarily common, but it can be if you put in the work and you make sure that you bring in the skills and the assets that you might be lacking. If you're able to pick it up and add it to your portfolio, you're able to pivot in that way.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I would say that if you have kind of Because I, I, it was definitely an area of interest that I always actually had. So I, so one thing I love to do is if there's like a job or a role that interests me looking at that job description of what they're looking for.
And I know we can't always hit a hundred percent of that list, but at least 80 percent or trying to look at what softwares they're vying for, what, what, what they're trying to accomplish within that team. So I remember just. Being able to be like, okay, these skills are transferable and these things are learnable. So being able to expose myself in that way.
I would love to talk about where you're working now. So you've transitioned now to a technical director at Disney Television Animation Studios, and I would love to hear about that transition and what your role is now. Oh, sure. So I finished off on the 100 year movie for Walt Disney Animation Studios Wish that's coming out in November very soon.
And then from there I transitioned to Disney television animation. So I'm working on the Monsters at Work production so it's About what kind of Mike and Sully do when they take over the company after Monsters, Inc. So, a fun spin off sequel on Disney. So as a technical director there I know I mentioned I was a character technical director before, so now being a technical director here, it's a little different, especially, once again, another transition from going from kind of film to TV, but I would still say within the same kind of umbrella of the animation pipe, but now not just working just on characters, but I'm facilitating the entire pipeline now, and so.
With a smaller team, one wears a lot more hats and different responsibilities. So now I'm facilitating that pipeline and I kind of code and script tools for my team as well as a technical director. But what's fun is a technical director can do, especially one that may not have an associated, what I mentioned, like character lighting effects, maybe like a more generalist as I am now, like work in my current role some studios, they may just need them to just code or do art.
But it's exciting that in my current need the projects I'm able to work as an artist and shots as well. So I'm doing a new area of the pipeline of lighting and compositing primarily. And then, but, but facilitating that vast pipeline. And then I'm also on the technical side writing tools. So it's a fun marry of art and tech and what I'm doing now and working on TV series.
Yeah. And is that kind of your goal is to be able to be in a role where you can balance art and tech or art and engineering kind of more in an equal way or do you feel like you lean more on one side of it in terms of your interest?
Oh yeah that's a great question because I feel like It really depends on the studio that I'm at or like the project that I'm working on because I have such a like love for both. I know I definitely want to marry the two in whatever role I'm in to some degree or level. I find that sometimes it could always lean more toward the art side or can lean more toward the engineering side, depending on the project team or role that I'm in. So, but ideally I, yeah, I always love blending the both together to whatever degree that I can.
And I think as long as that if I am working on some engineering that I always want to sprinkle art in, or if I'm working on art, then I want to sprinkle some engineering in to kind of balance the both. And I think that makes it fun for me because you, you're able to kind of collaborate on like such a dynamic skill set and interdisciplinary teams.
I was actually going to ask about the team in terms of the kind of people that you interact with and how that kind of works as a team. Do you also interact with people like the directors, the producers, the sound people? I can't list all of them because I don't know all that goes into it, but which part of the team are you interacting with?
That is an excellent question, Julia, because like, as an artist, I am working on the shot aspect and then I am presenting that to directors and art directors getting their creative buy off on it which goes into the final episodes and then I'm also interacting with my CG supervisor, my fellow technical director.
There's also other folks as well, like animators, background painters, and I'm on a, a very CG project production at the moment, but Disney television animation also has like the 2D aspect inside of it, so you are also interacting with those folks too, and their pipelines and workflows, and it, it's so much fun to see, like, all the beloved shows I had growing up there too, like Kim possible and Proud Family and all that. So I'm like, oh wow, they're like, all of it's like all coming together and interacting together for sure.
So, so you've worked in a lot of different areas where you're able to merge your passions. We've talked about animatronics, we've talked about animations, even gameplay programming during your during your master's as well, and I wonder if there's any fields that you feel like you are still interested in exploring. Or if you have one that is like closest to your heart like maybe animation for example.
Oh my gosh, Julia. I have to say your questions are really wonderful. That's really awesome. I Yeah, I worked I would say I've I I absolutely love all the projects I've worked on and I feel like there's so much in store for developing upon where I've been and where I am for example, I still love film and animation and TV and the theme parks for sure.
And the theme parks were fun too, because when I was at Walt Disney Animation Studios, I had the opportunity to work on Tiana by you that adventure that actually is just coming out and doing the animations for the projections in them So we collaborate with the parks as well. So just being able to work in these areas I love it.
And I think there's more to do but I do see that There's areas of gaming that at least working even though I had exposure Through internships and like through previous kind of organizations to being able to work on a triple A game would be a different experience for sure. And then there's also film and for VR and AR technologies and mixed reality tech that there's so many things that are coming out now with like AR and VR.
So I think those areas definitely interest me too. So. I guess it's fun to say all of that because it kind of takes me back to when I mentioned my graduate program wanting to be able to kind of touch film, gaming, VR, AR, you know, all those theme entertainment, each area. So I think I've got, I've, I've, I've been, I've been fortunate enough to be able to like get through maybe three quarters of them, but there's still areas that I want to explore, so.
But it's so cool to hear how many career opportunities and how many possibilities there are, because, you know, sometimes people go into, into their education system thinking, I'm just going to be this one thing, or there's only this one thing at the end of it, but you just show how, you know, the possibilities just seem endless.
Yeah, I'm really glad to hear that because, yeah, sometimes you make the best out of the situation that you can or, you know, what leads you to one thing can expose you to another opportunity for sure along the way. So, yeah, I'm really happy to hear that. Yeah.
Well, I feel like this is a perfect place to ask my last question, which is, what are your hopes for the future? for your future career development, and what do you hope to achieve? Yeah I would say that continuing to get exposure to those areas that we talked about in the entertainment industry.
And there's a lot of cross collaboration, I, I know I hinted at it with kind of I worked at Imagineering on the animatronics, but then when I was at Disney Animation Studios working on film and some TV shows, there was also an opportunity where I worked on the animations and that went into the ride.
So that's the cross collaboration. So there's a lot of intersection there too. But I think growing in my skill set as a now as a technical director, supporting the pipeline, continuing to explore the pipeline and as a woman in tech, kind of see the push for steam and for you know, other minorities and underrepresented people to have access to these things and I ultimately want to work on products that help people that inspire joy and improve the lives of others, which is why I got into this in the first place, because I remember You know dark times watching all these really nice stories that growing up that just bring so much joy to our lives.
So I, I believe that when you're watching a film, you can tell either reaching a new culture or kind of you're shepherding in sometimes a new perspective of life. One that may differ from another audience in the world, so that can usher in empathy and understanding. So, I think animation can be a powerful tool in that way, and so we try to use our, you know, our, what we've gone through as our superpower, and you can apply that, and yeah, that's what I hope to do, to be able to help others and build that, and Maybe eventually grow up to be a director one day and that type of skill set or have my own team that I work with, so.
And that brings it so much, such down to earth too, to really hear about your passions and what's driving you as well. So I think that's such a great place to end off. Thank you so much.
Oh, thank you. I really appreciate it.
Thank you again for coming on. This has been such a great conversation. Your career is just so intricate and unique and I think that this conversation is going to be very valuable for those listening. So thank you so much for your time and coming on.
Oh, thank you so much for having me on. It's been a pleasure and I Really appreciate, you know, having the opportunity to share my story and all of the engaging questions and conversations. So thank you for that.
Thank you so much to Sahar for coming on the podcast. It was so awesome to be joined by someone who works for Disney because it is such a popular and massive franchise that is such a big part of so many people's lives. So it was really so interesting to learn all about the different opportunities at disney And what goes into all the behind the scenes of their projects.
But specifically it was so great having sahar on because she has had such a diverse career and is She's such an amazing STEAM representative in the way that she merges art and engineering through her career. I also loved learning about her time at Carnegie Mellon University and all their resources and how they help students prepare for these types of careers. It was such a great conversation and I hope you found it both inspiring and informative.
This episode wraps up season three. It has been another amazing season with such diverse guests from pharmacy to law to data science and more. We were really able to receive mentorship from guests all across the board and I really hope that you enjoyed this season.
We will be back in the new year with new guests and new conversations to help mentor you through your academic journey and career. Until then, follow us on @mentprojects on all social media platforms for updates and more mentorship resources. Thank you so much for listening. We cannot wait to be back!