We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Donghoe Kim a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Donghoe, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

My only hope for my career in animation is for people to think of me as a great animator, storyteller, filmmaker, and artist who was able to positively influence the lives of people who needed it the most.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Donghoe Kim, and I’m currently working as an animator at Pixar Animation Studios.

I was first introduced to animation through films like Inside Out and Wall-E. These films brought me so much joy and helped me through a fairly dark time. The way that these films connected with me and lifted me up during those times inspired me to pursue a career in animation with the hopes that I would one day be able to create something that has the same effect on others.

I moved to the states from South Korea to study animation at Ringling College of Art & Design.
During my time at Ringling I was able to intern at Lucasfilm Ltd. I did fix and crowds animation on Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi tv series.
Later I interned at Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver, Canada where I was able to work as an animator on the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania film.
Before graduating from Ringling, I wrote and directed a short film called Octopus Ninja. It was a year and a half long process of writing out the story, designing, rigging, and animating all the characters, modeling and lighting the set, creating special effects, and working with a team of artists including a voice actor, a sound designer, and a music composer. For this film, I was lucky enough to receive the Best Animation awards from both the New York International Film Awards and the Oniros Film Awards, along with other nominations and selections. I was incredibly thankful to experience such success and to work alongside so many talented people at such an early stage in my career.
After graduation I started as an intern at Pixar and have since worked my way up to a 2nd unit animator position.
I think the thing that I’m the most proud of so far is the fact that I’ve not only made it into Pixar, the company whose films had such an impact on me and inspired me to pursue animation in the first place, but that, during my time with Pixar, I was actually able to work as a fix animator on Inside Out 2. Watching the original Inside Out film was such an amazing experience for me and I hold that film so near to my heart. Being able to contribute to the sequel in any way was an absolute dream come true and definitely the most amazing part of my career so far. Not to mention the immense impact on the industry and success that Inside Out 2 has had since it’s release; it currently holds the record for the highest grossing animated film of all time!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is to be able to uplift and inspire other people with my work in the same way that films like Inside Out did to me. I want to be able to create characters that people can see themselves in and stories that can help pull them out of whatever hardships they may be facing.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

By far the most rewarding part about being an artist and working in animation specifically is hearing good feedback from projects I’ve worked on. For example, seeing people from all over the world react in similar ways to Inside Out 2 as I did to the first Inside Out film made all the hard work I did up until that point feel beyond worth it. I hope that, in the future, I get to work on more projects that are able to affect people in that same way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dkim381.wixsite.com/donghoekim
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donghoe__kim/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donghoe-kim-379265174/
• Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm14836702/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_donghoe%2520kim

Image Credits

Inside Out 2 movie poster – Pixar Animation Studios