Up, Happy Feet, Toy Story 3, Brave. Vancouver-raised digital lighting director Farhez Rayani’s resume reads like a list of some of the most successful animated films in recent years. Films that have also pushed the technical boundaries of the genre. The 38-year-old joined Pixar’s San Francisco studio in 2008 after studying in Vancouver and travelling the world to work on different films. As his latest project Monsters University premiered Friday, Rayani spoke to The Sun about how he started his career and why he loves his industry.
Q What do you do at Pixar?
A I’m the lighting technical director. You could liken it to cinematography, kind of like how on a film set people will set up lights – to light the scene, to make it look beautiful, or to give it a certain mood or emotion, help a story point along or maybe set a time of day. It’s completely computer-generated and we use our own software to do that. On Monsters University we developed a new lighting technique. A lot of people think we shot this live action. You’d be surprised how many people have actually said in the media that Pixar did live action and then animated on top of it, but it’s fully virtual.
Q How did you get involved in this industry?
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