Person Being Interviewed
Erika Vega
Position
Digital Compositor on The Simpsons
Place of Work
20th Television Animation
Interviewer: As a kid, what was something that you dreamed of doing or becoming?
Erika Vega: I remember for the longest time I wanted to be an action news reporter like April O'Neil from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I always liked cartoons and I watched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid. I remember that, for a job, I thought an action news reporter would be fun, but I also wanted to work in animation. I don't think I knew necessarily what kind of job in animation I wanted, but I would always love watching when they did do those special features on TV, like the behind-the-scenes making of the next Disney movie. For example, they would show people drawing the Lion King. I remember always being excited about the animation process as I was young.
Interviewer: What was your favorite subject in Elementary School or Middle School?
Erika Vega: I think it's English and Art, but I don't necessarily remember in elementary school. In elementary school, things weren’t so divided like they were in Middle School or High School, where you have the different subjects and the different teachers. I do remember, in English class, we would get to write a story and draw a picture, so I think I associate English and art together because I like when we got to write stories or do book projects. Even in Middle School, when we were doing a book report, I would enjoy drawing the cover and I liked doing reports that I could do both writing and drawing.
Interviewer: Would you say that your love for art is what brought you to what your job is today?
Erika Vega: Yes, because I always enjoyed animation and watching cartoons. I remember my dad would joke and say, "Oh, you don't want to grow up because you want to like cartoons." He thought cartoons were only for kids, like someday I'll grow up and I wouldn't be into cartoons anymore, but, nope, I still like them. I even work in animation, so I think I’ve always liked drawing. I liked it when I could draw in school. I liked it so much that I wanted to keep going in that direction all the way through college and then into actual animation.
Interviewer: How did you start working in the entertainment industry?
Erika Vega: When I was in college, my degree was in animation. I went to Loyola Marymount University, and they have a Film School. Their Film School has an Animation Department. In the Animation Department, we learned all the different ways to animate. We learned traditional methods (e.g. hand drawing and painting). We had to animate the old-fashioned way with a machine camera. Back in the day, they had to paint animation on clear paper. So, they made us do it the same way. Later, we learned the computer method of animating (e.g. 3D models), like the difference between Tangled and the Princess and the Frog. We also learned claymation. We learned experimental. We learned flash. We learned different things. One of our classes required us to have an internship because they wanted us to have real work experience. While I was in college, I had an internship at Warner Bros. Animation. I was on a TV show called Xiaolin Showdown. I was on season three of that show that aired Saturday morning on the Kids’ WB. In that class, we had to make a resume, send it out, and give the teacher an update. I got this job interview because we had to constantly tell our teacher how much we were trying, we eventually found a place that would take us. So, I was really happy with my internship at Warner Bros.
Interviewer: What inspires the work that you do?
Erika Vega: My position in digital compositing scene planning is more camera work. I take all the levels of artwork in the computer, and I create the illusion of depth and space. For example, if we wanted to zoom in or zoom out, it's like scaling the artwork to create the illusion that there's a camera moving in and out. If Homer is driving down the street, someone might draw a long drawing of trees, another drawing of clouds, and Homer will stay still in the middle. Then, I'll slide the trees fast behind it, and I'll slide the clouds slower because the clouds are farther away. We'll have the background separated in different levels and I'll move them at different speeds to give the illusion that one thing is far away and another thing is close. In essence, I do a lot of camera tricks because we don't have a set where we could move a camera around. It's like moving art artwork to create that illusion. It's kind of fun seeing how can I make this shot more dynamic, more interesting.