Nancy Cartwright.

Dear Fans,

Over the next few articles, I am branching out and asking my industry friends to give me their insider takes. I am going to focus on subjects that professionals need to have some knowledge of and get opinions from a wide range of specialties and hats in the business.

So far I have interviewed good friends Jack Thomas (The Replacements), Mike Scully (The Simpsons), Carolyn Omine (The Simpsons), Ginnie McSwain (voice-over director) and now AJ Riebli, Pixar Animation Editorial Manager.

Born August 27, 1969 to an egg-farming family, AJ received his B.A. in Communication with a Television Production emphasis from Santa Clara University. He then played three years of semi-professional rugby in Canada. While in Canada, he worked as a grip and gaffer for a TV production company making commercials. Later he received his teaching credential from Dominican College in San Rafael, and taught U.S. and World History to tenth- and eleventh-graders. To pay off his student loans, he worked as a bartender.

Following work as a PA for Lucasfilm Commercial Division, he started working in March 1997 at Pixar Animation Studios. His credits include: PA and Production Office Coordinator on Toy Story 2, Crowds Manager on Finding Nemo (his team was responsible for all of the "non-acting" fish), Editorial Manager on Ratatouille, as well as the voice of Edna Mode's guard in The Incredibles and the big RV ("McQueen's Biggest Fan") in Cars. He is currently working as Animation Manager on the upcoming Pixar movie, UP. AJ resides in Sonoma, California with his wife, Anne, and his four-year-old son, A.J. IV.

Nancy Cartwright: When you studied at Santa Clara University with emphasis on television production, did you have any idea that you would one day be working at arguably the best animation studio in the world? What were your goals?

AJ Riebli: When I was at Santa Clara (1987-91), my focus was to get into sports broadcasting. Fox Sports was just starting up in the Bay Area and I wanted to work camera for Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants games. I was not aware of Pixar at the time, but I was aware that I was going to school in the Silicon Valley.

My first interaction with using animation in production was through the use of a Lumena Graphics System. I believe it was the 16. I actually did some frame-buffer animation for a title sequence for one of my student projects, but at the time I wasn't thinking of animation as a career path.

AJ Riebli, Pixar Animation's editorial manager

I remember making a class trip to SGI (Silicon Graphics) in 1990, and being blown away by their facility and playing "Flight Simulator" and thinking this could be the future, but instead I chose to play the game of rugby abroad, and this is what led me to Pixar.

I was living in Calgary, Alberta with very little means, and would often go to the movies on Tuesday nights for "Cheapskate Tuesdays" (Tuesdays were discount movie night in Calgary). I remember going to see Honeymoon in Las Vegas and at the head of the movie was this great little film called Knick Knack. When the credits rolled for Knick Knack, the final card said "made in Marin County, California." I laughed and told my teammates, "When I go back home to California, I am going to work for Pixar." I still have a hard time today, believing that my statement actually worked out.

NC: Do you think a university degree is important if you know you want to work in animation?

AR: University is not for everyone and a degree does not make the person. There are a lot of artists and industry greats that only did a year or two at school. I think you can draw some parallels between great artists and great athletes. Some people are ready to go pro straight out of high school and others need four or five years to hone their craft. I was one of those people that needed four years. The learning experience, the networking and the lessons of responsibility and self-reliance made the university degree invaluable for me.