Ana Ramirez, a native of Mexico is a Visual Development Artist over at Pixar and besides having worked on Toy Story 4 to help develop some of its characters, she was also a part of the beautiful Coco movie. We wanted to know more about this artist so on our visit to a media day at Mattel for Toy Story, we sat down with her to learn a little more about her and her work at Pixar. Check out our interview with her below:

Entertainment Affair: Tell me about your participation on this film. What is your role in the making of this film?

Ana Ramirez: I do visual development, which is basically like concept art for the movie. So we come in very early on and help develop the characters, set design, costumes, color, all that stuff. For Toy Story it was a little bit different because it’s a pre-existing world so we had a lot to work with already so there’s not as much thinking when it comes to a new world for designers per se but there’s a lot of thinking when it comes to reimagining characters. Like on Toy Story 4, Bo is kind of like a very empowered character, she’s been out in the wild for a while on her own and there’s some old characters that join, but time has passed so it’s always important to think about those things and try to reimagine them without changing their personalities so that’s a challenge on its own as well. I did some design on Bo Peep early on. I worked on some set design for the movie, I worked on the Harmony area, Gabby Gabby, Bonnie’s backpack, Bonnie’s outfits, I worked on Bonnie’s parents as well, so a little bit of everything. We also got to retouch some of the older characters and rethink them.

EA: How did you get to work on this film? How long have you been at Pixar?

AR: I’ve been at Pixar for about 4 ½ years and I only worked on Toy Story 4 for about a year cause I was working on Coco for a really long time. I stayed on for press after the movie came out and had to do other stuff for the film after, so I didn’t join Toy Story 4 until a little later on and was in it for about a year and then I wrapped and went on to another film.

EA: What is your favorite part or your best takeaway of working on these Pixar films?

AR: My favorite part of working on these films are the relationships I make while working on them; I work with very different people so being able to forge relationships with them is the best part of working on films. This of course, besides the techniques I learn while working on them.

EA: How does it feel being a Latina that works on a production of this caliber?

AR: It’s very exciting but it’s also a big responsibility because this movie is a big franchise, a lot of people grew up with them, and with a film like this that has 3, now 4, under its name, people can identify with it as part of their life. For all of us in general, it was a lot of pressure to take what we had with these films which was already good and make another movie, but make it even better. It was a little stressful because a lot of people didn’t know if we would be doing a 4th installment or what it was going to be about since the 3rd had in a way sort of ended it all. It’s also very exciting. Growing up in Mexico, I would've never imagined when I watched these films at the movie theatre, that I would one day be a part of it by working on one of its installments.

EA: You came from Mexico and started an amazing new career at Pixar, how was that transition from Mexico and how did you land a job at Pixar?

AR: It actually wasn’t very linear as most people’s careers are. After Mexico I actually moved to France for two years and while there, I kept applying to CalArts University here in Los Angeles, but I didn’t get in. That’s actually the reason why I moved to France. But while in France, I still had the desire to attend that university so I kept applying. Even though I didn’t know what I wanted to do with animation, I knew something about it interested me so much that I knew in it I would eventually find my career, which is why I was so focused on entering CalArts. I ended up getting in the second time I applied, which is why I moved to Los Angeles at the age of 21.

EA: Congrats! You’re an inspiration to many Latinas out there. What’s next for Ana after Toy Story 4?

AR: Thanks! Thank you very much. For now, I continue to work with Pixar and I’m currently working on some new films that haven’t been announced so I can’t talk about it, but it’s gonna be a few years before they all come out. I’m helping out doing some visual development and hopefully I can pitch my own short as well in the next couple of years.

Toy Story 4 will be available digitally on October 1^st and on Blu-ray and 4K UHD October 8^th.