Carlos Baena
Carlos Baena was born on the Canary Islands, but raised in nearby Madrid, Spain. Carlos was passionate about comics and film and was particularly inspired by the works of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Baena came to the United States to attend the University of San Francisco and the Academy of Art University. His goals were to learn English, study art and skateboard. After graduation in June 1998, he was hired at Will Vinton Studios (now Laika) in Portland, Oregon working on commercials and a stop motion short. He returned to San Francisco in early 1999 to work on various commercials and short films at Click 3X, Dimension 7 and WildBrain, Inc. This work helped him land a job at George Lucas’ special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in March, 2001.
Baena worked as an animator on the sequels Jurassic Park III, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Men in Black II. Carlos wanted to focus on acting and story and thought Pixar would be a great way to hone these skills. Carlos joined Pixar in June, 2002 (after applying multiple times with the studio) where he immediately began working Finding Nemo (in the middle of its production) animating many scenes with Marlin, Dory and Nemo. Next up was the short film, Boundin’ followed by Brad Bird’s The Incredibles. Baena’s animation work in Cars earned him a 2007 Annie Award nomination for Best Character Animation.
Carlos has continued to build his reputation as a top animator on Pixar films such as Ratatouille and WALL-E. His work will be featured prominently in Lee Unkrich’s upcoming Toy Story 3. Lee has already gone on record praising Baena’s work, which includes animating scenes for the “Spanish” Buzz Lightyear.
Filmography
- Hubert’s Brain. (2001) (animator)
- Jurassic Park III (2001) (animator)
- Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones (2002) (animator)
- Men in Black II (2002) (animator)
- Finding Nemo (2003) (animator)
- Boundin’ (2003) (animator)
- Exploring the Reef (2003) (animator)
- The Incredibles (2004) (animator)
- Cars (2006) (animator)
- Ratatouille (2007) (animator)
- WALL-E (2008) (animator)
- Toy Story 3 (2010) (animator)
Tidbits
- Carlos co-founded (along with Bobby Beck and Shawn Kelly) Animation Mentor in March, 2005. It was the first post-secondary school that helped students to pursue a career in animation. The online school is designed to pair students with professional animation mentors and help them graduate with a professional demo reel.
- Carlos is an accomplished skateboarder, but had to scale it back due to knee issues.
- Don’t miss Carlos’ personal website. You’ll find great tips and advice for animators, demo reels, artwork and much more.
Interviews
Bak Magazine -- February, 2006
