Roshelle Bunuan: Animation

Roshelle Bunan was first introduced to animation while watching movies at home. It was these movies, that first inspired her to pursue animation. “My parents would always have these Disney movies for me to watch when (they) were at work,” she said. “That was my first exposure to (animation). I just saw

Despite loving animation from a young age, Bunan did not consider a career in animation until she met a professional animator at a summer program in middle school. “I met this Pixar animator at this summer camp that I went to, and she talked about the science and technology behind doing 3D animation, and that’s what really got me hooked on it,” she said. “Since then, I’ve been learning how 3D modeling works and how 3D animation works in general.”

Bunan made her first animation project in sophomore year for the Gunn Robotics

Team, where she currently serves as the Animations Lead. “Robotics has these animation competitions for people to compete for, and the theme was quarantine,” she said. “We tried to have fun with it. (Our animation) was a Western showdown where we had a little cowboy fighting against a virus in a western showdown, which was kind of silly.”

Next year, Bunan plans on studying animation at San Jose State University, where she hopes to gain the skills necessary to work in the animation industry. “(San Jose State) has really great connections to studios like Pixar and DreamWorks,” she said.“I hope to get internships over at whatever studio offers one to me, and I hope to one day be a director or an animator at Pixar Studios, because that’s where I met that animator. I want to be able to go there and just say thank you to her for being my biggest inspiration.”

—Written by Arjun Shah