Andrew Ford, who grew up in Humboldt and graduated from Humboldt Collegiate Institute has landed his dream job.

Ford works for Walt Disney, where he is an animator and recently worked on the movie Zootopia which is a 3D crime comedy. The movie is currently in theatres, including Reel Attractions in Humboldt and is sitting at just over $500-million in the box office. 

After graduating from HCI, Ford went on to the the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Alberta, and eventually Emily Carr in British Columbia where he received a degree in media arts and animation.

Ford started his career by working for Electronic Arts with the Need For Speed video games but decided he wanted to move away from motion capture and go into key frame animation where he could have more control over what the characters would be doing.

Although production takes place on the screen, Ford says that putting it on paper first provides a better perspective.

"Drawing is definitely a helpful background," he explained. "We're more like sculptors we gotta move these puppets around a three dimensional space so we will move these puppets to match these really appealing drawings"

Working at Disney is not only a dream come true, but Ford says it has great perks like guest speakers, which sometimes includes actors from movies. There is also good food, ping-pong and fuse ball. He describes the environment as "geeky in a great way."

One day Ford said he could see himself writing scripts for movies but right now he is content doing what he is doing and plans to learn as much as he can while he is at Disney.

"There's a lot to learn at Disney and it has been a goal for a long time," Ford noted. "There is so much to learn from the other animators, I would like get to a point where I am more comfortable with it and to become a master of my craft its going to take a while to get there but I can't think of a better place to do it because your just surrounded but the most talented people in the world really."

Ford began working with Disney in 2015.


More with Ford in an interview with Bolt FM's Sarah Miller can be heard below.