From Argentina to New Zealand, Digital Character Animation grad Juan Guiraldes has scoured the face of the earth in search of the perfect animation job. He just found it – at the famous Weta Workshop in New Zealand.

From an early age, Juan was fascinated with images. He read comic books, watched cartoons, and was wowed by the special effects in his favourite movies. But, as Juan puts it, “Something was missing. I was on the wrong side of the camera.”

With the aid of his friend and mentor Cristina Cesares, a former VFS student and now head of Laluna Studios, Juan traveled to beautiful British Columbia and enrolled in Classical Animation at VFS. After a successful year of study, Juan was offered a scholarship into the Digital Character Animation program. He accepted.

“Intense,” he says in regards to his time at VFS. “It was intense.” But with the help of his instructors, Juan persevered and, a week after graduation, was working for Bardel Animation in Vancouver. “They liked my stuff and called me in. It was a flash animation project and they asked me if I had any flash animation experience. I told them I was an expert but in reality I had no idea how to use the software [since, at that time, VFS didn’t teach Flash]. I showed up the next day and said I’m ready to go. I think they were impressed. I’ve been in animation ever since.”

Just Another Giant Dragon

On his present exploits, Juan casually reports, “I’m working for Weta in New Zealand.” Weta is the Academy Award-winning special effects house that brought life to The Lord of The Rings’ famous characters Gollum, Shelob, the Orcs, and the up-and-coming King Kong.

Juan is primarily in charge of animating the Dragon on the children’s television show Jane and the Dragon for Weta’s digital division. “I animate the Dragon and his interactions with Jane, the rest of the secondary characters, plus props, and other creatures, [but] Vancouver Film School was my first real glimpse into the animation world. They molded me into the person and professional that I am today.”

Juan has big plans for his future. Not only does he intend to perfect the art of animation, he wants to take the skills, stories, and knowledge he has acquired and share it with his home country of Argentina: “I just want to help the people and the industry.”