Nate Wragg Interview: Rats!

Nate Wragg, an artist at Pixar responsible for the memorable rats in the Ratatouille end credits, kindly took the time to fill out this interview for us, enjoy:

Upcoming Pixar: How long have you been in the business; how has your career evolved?
Nate Wragg: I’ve been in the business now for 3 years.  I started as an intern, and now work as a character designer / sketch artist.  I have also worked as an art director / production designer on a few projects.  I was an intern at James Baxter Animation Studios before I became and intern here at Pixar.  As for feature films, Ratatouille was the first film I worked on. 

UP: What exactly were you working on for Ratatouille?
NW: I worked on some background prop/set design, but mostly I was creating artwork for the 2-D Animated End Credits, the DVD short, the children’s book, and the marketing team. 

UP: How far along was Ratatouille when you came on? 
NW: I came on right after Brad Bird came on to the film.  It was about two years before the movie would be released, and that was the summer of 2005, so I would say the movie was pretty far along when I came on to the project.

UP: Tell me about the designs you did for the 2D rats.
NW: Those designs actually came from work I was doing for Ratatouille marketing. I came up with a style that was supposed to be cute and feel a little dirty at the same time.
As it was it turned into a style that people thought was a whole lotta fun, and it sort of took off into this whole animated credits thing that now lives at the end of the movie.

UP: What was production like on YFTR?
NW: Production was fast and fun.  We had such a short amount of time to get things done, that Jim and I would brainstorm the initial concepts for the animation and design of each shot, and then we really put a whole lot of trust in the artists to come through and really show how talented they are.  It’s easy though when you ask for character designs from Teddy Newton, art from Scott Morse, and animation from Bob Scott and Doug Frenkle, you know those guys will always hit it out of the park.  Mostly it felt like making a small independent film at a big animation studio, most people didn’t know what it was they just knew it was happening, and the end result was received really well.  It’s a great little short.

UP: What was your favorite segment on Ratatouille; Your Friend the Rat?
NW: My favorite part of Ratatouille would have to be when Linguini put’s Remy in his shirt for the first time and tries to cook with him in the kitchen.  Lou [Romano] did such a great job with the voice acting, and the animators here at the studio just blew me away, it’s too good and too funny.
As for YFTR I really like the stupid little B&W silent film we did, it came out great and to me was just so silly, it was perfect.

UP: What department do you currently work at?
NW: Right now I currently work in the Toy Story 3 art department as a character designer.

UP: Do you plan to stay in the art dept.?
NW: I’m a designer at heart, so I don’t see my self leaving the art department for say story or animation.  Designing is what I love best.

UP: Can you give our readers any advice for working at Pixar; where did you study?
NW: Well, I studied at CalArts in LA, but pretty much any school that has a strong animation/illustration department is a good start. 
The biggest thing is you really have to have a passion for animation, and if that shows through in your work, then that’s the right path to be on.

UP: Random Question Dept.: What was your favorite segment in WALL•E?
NW: I love the whole first part of WALL•E.  I can’t put my finger on anything particular, just the emotion he had was really inspiring.

For more on Nate Wragg, check out his blog where he exhibits his amazing artwork. Thanks a whole bunch for the interview Nate, and congratulations on the wedding!