Borregales, a BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects student, wrote about her experience for SVA Features.

I had the incredible honor of assisting the BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects department with hosting Disney’s special presentation of Moana, which featured a talk by Jessica Julius, senior creative executive at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Before the presentation, I got to sit down with Julius to talk about her history at Disney. She has been part of the company for about 12 years now, starting in 2004 in the marketing department before transitioning to development in 2005, where she finally found where she was meant to be. Since then, she has had the opportunity to work on every Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film, starting out with Bolt and now currently promoting the upcoming film Moana. It was incredible to see her enthusiasm and her energy while talking about how honored and lucky she has felt to be part of such amazing films.

Julius’s presentation of Moana was outstanding and truly inspirational. She really went into depth about the incredible amount of research that her and the rest of the team do for a film. For Moana, the directors knew they wanted to make something really special after being inspired by stories of the demi-god Maui. With this in mind, they set out to various Oceania islands for research. These trips would turn out to be life-changing experiences for them. They were taken back by the culture of the people and their stories of their islands and ancestors. Julius showed us some videos of their adventures and it was incredible to see how the filmmakers truly connected with everything and everyone around them. And so, with all this, they went back to the studio to create the most challenging film that Disney has ever made to date.