Interview
We speak with 2D animator Luis Gadea about what it takes to design characters ready to be brought to life with movement
Designing a static character is an art in itself, but what about those that need to come to life via animation? This is the speciality of Luis Gadea, and his career has seen him design characters for the likes of DreamWorks TV, Warner Bros. Animation and Netflix. We caught up with him to learn more about his work, and what artists need to keep in mind when making animated character designs.
Can you tell us a little about your background as an artist?
I’d draw from time to time, but it wasn’t until I was 13 years old that I became more curious about it, and I expressed my desire to learn how to draw to my parents. This led to my mum finding some manga classes for me on Saturday mornings, and I then took a second one on caricature.
After this I started drawing properly every single day. I was now in high school and quickly became ‘the guy who drew’. During high school I never thought of pursuing art as a living, I just enjoyed it and had a lot of fun drawing silly ideas around characters.
Later on I joined Costa Rica’s only university that had an animation programme, and became interested in 3D pre-production. During my first year of university, one of my professors hired me to work in his studio as a 2D animator and I fell in love with the medium. I immediately knew that I wanted to do this, so I left university and moved to Vancouver to study classical animation at Vancouver Film School. This was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my entire life. I felt I belonged there.
After graduating I started working as a 2D animator for a TV show. There I learned how a real production works, all the ups and downs of the entire process. In my spare time I’d keep drawing characters in my sketchbook; it was all I did every single day.
After a couple of years doing 2D animation I got a call from LA for a job as a character designer on The Angry Birds Movie. It was a surprise because I wasn’t looking for it, and while it was something I loved, I never thought it’d happen. That movie opened doors for me in the character design world.
The characters that I made in the first couple of weeks were terrible, I
