With a little commitment and some courage, goals and dreams are one step closer. To those growing up and even to the not-so-young, there's a reminder to believe in yourself a little more. In The Peanuts Movie, Charlie Brown goes on a path of trial and error. After attempts of perhaps being someone he is not, he discovers the one goal he had set for himself was reached. Not because of what he did, but because of who he was. The Peanuts Movie is humorous, amusing, and delightful. Plus, the message it promotes is of high value.

This animated film is an event for the entire family. With snoopy adding his ever so smart and ahead of everyone humor, we find a little bit of ourselves in the characters of the Peanuts gang.

But when it comes to developing such beloved characters and maintaining their image and what they stand for, it takes a team of animators who are not only great at their job, but dedicated to the quality. Entertainment Affair got to talk to two of The Peanuts Movie animators. They shared insight on the creative process of these characters, generating a 3D Peanuts gang, and their world of animation.

Beginning our conversation with the love for the arts, animator Elena Ortega says she initially began her education in hopes of becoming a TV camera operator, but when she found out a career in animation was a possibility, she thought "Wow, I have to work there" and she jumped at the opportunity. Starting her animation career with a big budget film like Planet 51, she admits it was challenging but never dull.

Entertainment Affair: Working with an already established franchise, did you have to approach the animation differently?
Elena Ortega: The process for this movie has been one of the most different I've done in my entire life. Because the animation for Charlie Brown is very different... We had to re learn a lot of the process.

EA: What is the best part of the animation process? 
EO: The best part, you go to the movie and you see what you've worked for two years. We are very happy with it.

EA: Does an animator work with the cast? 
EO: No, we get the recorded voices to import with our animation. But we don't coincide with one another.

EA: Are there a lot of women who work in animation? 
EO: There are more women than there were before. When I first started I was the only one. In the animation department, now we are about ten females. Little by little.

EA: Do you believe there is a specific or necessary characteristic to be a successful woman in the world of animation? 
EO: There's not much of a difference between a woman and man. Because in the end animation is to work with a character and move him around and the same a guy can do it and woman can do it. What you do need to have is a low level of embarrassment because you have to record references and show the directors. Sometimes you make a complete fool out of yourself.

Ortega shared that while at times the process of animation does become challenging, there are always moments which reaffirm her choice of making a career out of animation.

Lead Animator, Lluis Llobera shared similar enthusiasm about his work with the film. In fact, he was the expert on Lucy, (Otherwise known as "the crab" of the Peanuts Gang. She constantly targets Charlie Brown.). Llobera explains he was the "In house expert of Lucy. So any questions that the animators have... what acting choices to do or anything to do with Lucy, I was the go to person." Lluis agrees It takes a lot of commitment and time into developing these characters, but he is sure to appreciate the process at its entirety.

EA: The visual of The Peanuts Movie is different to most animated films we see today, how did you manage to maintain the already established essence that is Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang while still making it resonate to todays audiences? 
LL: One of the most imposing things that we did. It was very scary for us... Stepping into a franchise. Ultimately we tried to be as truthful as we could.

We did a lot of research. Our readers had to invent a lot of technology that we didn't have yet to get that stuff working. When it comes to animation everyone wants to use the more realistic stuff, but when we jumped on board to the project the animators had to undergo a four week training course where you had to learn almost everything from scratch because the animation is such a different thing to anything we've done before. One of the things we had to do was step away from the computer and actually look at the geometries and learn to draw the characters. It was awesome. It was such an eye opener.

EA: The development process of the characters is different, how did you maintain the look while still going into 3D?
LL: We looked a lot at the old tv special. We definitely took a lot of input from them to make our 3D movie as truthful. We animated on two's as we say, which means that we pull drawing for two frames at a time, which is how the old animators use to do it. They didn't have enough resources and we did our own version of that... There's all these little gimmicks that we took from that special that I think adds to the movie.

EA: Your love for animation is very clear, when did you decide you wanted a career in animation?
LL: For me, it was a combination of two movies. The first Toy Story and Jurassic Park. i remember watching as a kid. I was super young. But I was like, "this is s so cool. I love this movie!" And then at some point, I saw a documentary on how they're made and saw there's people making them and I was like, "What? There's actually people making this? I wanna do that!" So I was in love with that. My next step was get a copy of some 3D software and try to learn on my own. 'Cause I'm from Spain so there was no 3D animation program or universities in Spain back then.

EA: After your work and input, what did you think of the film on the big screen? 
LL: I am so proud of the movie. It looks so great. It looks beautiful. It's so pretty, you know that colors, everything. The animation was fantastic. The people will have a blast.

Just in time for the holidays, The Peanuts Movie is in theaters now.