It’s hard to predict when and where it will happen, but there are certain people you meet who end up making an enormous impact on the direction you take in your personal and professional life. For Kristifir Klein, those names are Sheriff Woody Pride and Buzz Lightyear, the stars of Pixar Animation Studio’s beloved Toy Story series.

“Toy Story basically changed it all for me,” Kris says. “I was like ‘Wow, what is this? I’ve never seen anything like this, how do they even do that?’ Leaving the theater that day, I knew animation was what I wanted to do.”

Kris was still a student in Full Sail’s Digital Media program when his saw the first Toy Story film. In the course of 90 minutes it would inspire a career path that’s taken him from being a wide-eyed fan of their work to actually joining the ranks of Pixar artists. As he likes to remind people, however, it was far from an overnight success. It took years of developing his portfolio before he got his first interview at the studio, but if there’s a lesson to be learned from Kris’s career, it’s about never giving up on a dream.

“It was by no means a short trip to Pixar,” he says. “I initially applied right out of school, got the first rejection letter, then applied two years after that with some experience under my belt, got the second rejection letter. Then I heard that [director] Brad Bird got hired at Pixar, he had done my favorite animated film, The Iron Giant. So I basically locked myself in my apartment for three months and created what I needed to create in order to submit again. Then I got the call for the interview, and that was it.”

Kris joined Pixar in 2000 as a lighting technical director for Monsters Inc., which would become the studio's highest-grossing film to that point. After proving himself on the project, his hard work allowed him to move up the ranks and he was soon promoted to computer graphics artist, where he handled character modeling the their next string of hit features, including Finding Nemo, as well as The Incredibles and Ratatouille, which were directed by Brad Bird.

“I got onto The Incredibles, and that to me was like ‘Wow, this is actually really happening,’” he says. “It was amazing. It kind of fulfilled my fantasy, because I got to work with Brad on a day to day basis.”

With that collection of projects behind him - and what a collection - Kris would assume his current position as modeling set lead. Working in the role has made him more of a leader at the studio, but he assures that he still gets his hands dirty working with the modeling and set assembly teams, making sure the final models meet the script and design requirements on films like WALL•E, Up, and Brave.

“It's been a great opportunity and challenge,” he says. “I immensely enjoy leading up a team of incredibly talented and dedicated people. I also look forward to the larger, bigger-picture challenges of improving the process for how we make films here at Pixar. It's good to love what you do, and I encourage everyone to strive for finding, and then pursuing, what they love."

Animation thrives on fresh ideas and innovation, and with the studio's production schedule mapped out years in advance it doesn’t look like things will slow down for Kris any time soon. You won't hear him complain though. Even after working on so many productions, he admits to still being inspired by that same Pixar magic he felt after the credits rolled on Toy Story.

“A day at Pixar, is a day of awesome,” he says. “Every single day that I drive through that gate and walk towards the door I’m excited about it, and have to pinch myself. Working with great directors - my personal idols - is something I'll never take for granted, and I try to be a sponge and absorb all I can from everyone in this building. A teacher of mine once said ‘learning is the key to staying young.’ It's taken me awhile, but I finally get what she was saying.”