Because Shuster grew up in Detroit around the car industry and apprenticed in interior car design, he felt very comfortable working on vehicle designs in both Cars and WALL•E.

Shuster: Not so strange. It was maybe a little bit strange not to be able to pick this thing up and rotate it like I was used to doing in school with a clay model. That was a leap for me.

Strike: When they called you in, were they asking you to explain stuff in more detail?

Shuster: Sure. "This is a concave area," "you need to smooth out the transition between the hood and the fender" and so on -- stuff that was inborn in me growing up in Detroit, kind of knowing what a car looks like and how it was manufactured. That was a very gratifying part of actually working here, first on Cars and then on WALL•E, was finding that knowledge again and being able to use it to make these characters as convincingly real -- and as honest -- as possible.

Strike: What are you working on now?

Shuster: I'm currently working on Toy Story 3, primarily on vehicles and environments.

Strike: What was the best part of working on WALL•E?

Shuster: When the project first started, they asked if I wanted a bigger role in the art direction of the film, an art directing credit. I debated that for a long time, but decided what I want to do is what I do best: sit down and draw and design, and spend all the time I had on inventing these two characters. I turned down that role to have the board time.

Another thing too was that Ralph Eggelston, who's our production designer, gave me that time almost uninterrupted, for months, just to sit and design. He was very hands-off and I really appreciated that. Of course there were check-ins on character and story and making sure I was giving Andrew what he needed. It was a very good, concentrated amount of time I had for these two characters and I think it turned out beautifully.

Shuster turned down the job of art director on WALL•E because it would have taken him away from designing, but now he's thrown his name in the hat as art director for Cars II.

Strike: You said you didn't want to take on an art director role. Would that have put you in the same situation you saw your dad in of having to do more supervising than creating?

Shuster: Exactly. I would've been attending more meetings and not being able to think things through for the designs. I think they would have suffered had I been away from my desk as duty called.

Strike: Would you like to take a shot at art directing down the road?

Shuster: Yeah. I threw my hat in the ring for Cars II, so we'll see what happens.

Strike: You seem to have it pretty good. Do you ever wonder "how am I getting away with this?"

Shuster: [laughs] Yeah, no, it does seem like paradise for someone who just wanted to design the coolest stuff he could. They give you the time and resources to do it. They respect it, they know you've got to use the time and resources on these films to make them great. Hopefully that'll continue.

Strike: Have you pitched them any story ideas?

Shuster: I've got some ideas for shorts, but I'm so busy on the production side, it's almost impossible to get my own thing going at times. I hope maybe in a few years I'll get a respite and type this thing out.

Strike: That's also where they get their directors -- give them a shot at a short. Do you think you might want to go that route?

Shuster: I don't know if I'm director material. Those guys are incredible -- [like] Andrew -- and what they do. They balance the entire film in their head and they can recite forwards and backwards.

I'm good at sitting down and designing WALL•E and EVE and concentrating my efforts and focus there.

Strike: You deserve a huge amount of that credit. You can't have a movie without stars and if anyone's responsible for WALL•E's stars, it's you.

Shuster: And a good amount of other people too, of course.

Joe Strike is a regular contributor to AWN. His animation articles also appear in the NY Daily News and the New York Press.