Last month, I had the opportunity to interview one of the brightest stars in the world of animation, Pilar Newton-Katz, who has earned credits working on the television shows that I couldn’t get enough of growing up.
When you’re watching the anxiety-inducing Courage the Cowardly Dog, vibing with the Rocket Power crew, or learning life hacks from Daria, you’re escaping into worlds that Pilar helped build. And that’s why I was so excited to talk with her! I wanted to know more about the Rhode Island School of Design graduate who contributed to all these animated gems from my formative years.
We got candid, y’all! And during the interview, Pilar, who just animated a Super Bowl spot, let me in on a little secret: drawing vehicles is her achilles heel. I know what you’re wondering… How could someone who animated on Rocket Power—a show that constantly saw kids on bikes, skateboards, and scooters—have a hard time drawing vehicles?
“Bicycles are really hard [to draw] because you have to draw the character, you have to judge how long their arms are to reach the handlebars,” she told me. Now think about drawing legs to scale to meet the bike pedals and coordinating all that movement. No easy feat. To overcome this challenge, she drew inspiration from the visual references available to her, as she had in college, combing through catalogs of images. Only now, she was miles away from her undergrad’s library. “I was running to Barnes and Nobles, and I bought a couple mountain bike magazines,” she admitted. In her own words, this was her master class.
As a teacher, Pilar encourages her students to beware the beaten path. As she puts it, many of her students are hungry for work in animation studios, which have traditionally had high barriers to entry. But our 2D animator heroine sees the value in tools and platforms, like YouTube, Instagram, and Tongal, where visibility or access to opportunity are democratized.
As an artist who came up at a time at which animation was done using film, Pilar is impressed by the gains that younger animators stand to benefit from. “I have students who can do entire films on their iPads because they have programs like Procreate and Clip Studio,” she says. Because of the resources available, Pilar urges young animators to work on their own stuff, develop an audience that is interested in their creativity, and pitch on Tongal ?.
If you have not already watched the full interview yet, check it out now! Pilar’s wit, talent, and charm are not to be missed, and you’ll want to take a deep dive into the nuggets of advice she lovingly doles out.
Need more Pilar in your life? Well, the illustrator-turned-animator is currently working on a comic called Uncomfortable Truths, which will chronicle some of her experiences as an animator coming up in the industry. You can learn more about what’s next for Pilar by visiting her Instagram, linked here.
