When it comes to computer animation, there are few names that hold as much weight as Pixar Animation Studios. The force behind classic, jaw-dropping animated features such as Toy Story and Ratatouille, Pixar has been bringing their groundbreaking brand of animated magic to audiences of all ages for the past 15 years.

Kristifir Klein has had a hand in crafting that Pixar magic since 2000, when he hopped on board as Lighting Technical Director for Monsters, Inc.. Since then, the Full Sail graduate has worked on many Pixar classics, including a prominent credit as Set Modeling Lead on the studio’s most recent feature, WALL•E.

“I was brought into the film quite early, just before production began, and stayed on the film for just over three years,” says Kristifir. “My job was to help figure out how to build the complex worlds that WALL•E and the rest of the characters live in.”

Capturing the film’s vision of a desolate planet Earth covered in trash would prove to be quite a challenging task. “The first act of WALL•E has some of the most visually complex sets we’ve ever done at Pixar. I was constantly motivated by and loved [director] Andrew Stanton’s idea of a world full of trash left behind by the human race and a single, still-working, lonely robot left to clean it all up for hundreds of years,” Kristifir explains.

“Andrew Stanton wanted to portray a real feeling of loneliness and desolation. He wanted the audience to feel empathy for WALL•E and to get a sense of what it was like for this little robot to be the last working robot on Earth. He was very particular in that he wanted to see a sense of history in the world WALL•E lived in. He wanted to show that WALL•E has been going over the same tracks he’d made for hundreds of years doing the job he was programmed to do.

“Much of the exposition of the film is revealed by the environments with minimal dialogue,” Kristifir continues. “The iconic imagery of giant skyscraper sized towers of trash, made up of 14-inch cubes, created by the Wall•e robots was not something we could easily reference in real life adding to the challenge. Pixar TD's [technical directors] really sink their their teeth into challenges like these, and I think the team absolutely rose to the challenge and found the visual impact and language of the film that Andrew was after.”

Kristifir first caught the Pixar bug when he saw Toy Story in theaters, shortly before he graduated from Full Sail. After eventually landing a job with the company, his talent and hard work allowed him to move up the ranks within the studio. “I was initially hired as a Character Technical Director and worked on Finding Nemo and The Incredibles in characters. After wrapping up Frozone modeling and articulation, I was asked to take on a position of greater responsibility as a Sequence Modeling Lead on The Incredibles and have been in sets land ever since.”

It was from that position that he was able to land his credit for WALL•E.

“I'm quite happy in sets, and it's been a great opportunity and challenge to step into a leadership role here at Pixar.” Kristifir adds. “I have to admit, as a lead, I do, at times, miss getting to do more hands-on creation of assets for a film, and yeah, I do miss working in characters a bit too, but leadership has provided me with other challenges and goals. 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!"

With Pixar’s production schedule mapped out all the way to 2012 (their next film, the comedic adventure Up, will hit theaters in the summer of 2009), it doesn’t look like things will slow down for Kristifir any time soon. And even after having worked on so many productions, he’s still getting wowed by the Pixar magic.

“I’ve been here now for eight years, and I definitely think I’m going to be here for a while,” Kristifir says. “It’s incredible to be surrounded by so many diverse, talented, and motivated people. I try to be a sponge and absorb all I can from everyone in this building. Working with Pixar's great directors, and my personal idols like Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) is something I'll never take for granted. 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.

“It took me just about six years, and three tries to get my foot in the door at Pixar. I never hesitated to believe that I was going to work here. Perseverance is key: Stay positive, believe in yourself, don't let anyone tell you that you can't, and never give up on a dream. If you want to achieve something, then achieve it! If it's hard, all the better, you'll appreciate it more. Life is pretty darn short. Dreams can change, and it's important to recognize that, but do what you love, do what you would do even if you weren't getting paid for it. I bet in the end you'll be happier for it.”