When Joe Moshier was a student at Bell Middle School in San Diego, he once opened his yearbook to see two pages of original drawings by a classmate.
Moshier was floored. There was so much detail. So many ideas.
The level of talent scared him so much he thought about quitting art.
The story has a happy ending: Moshier and the other student, Bobby Rubio, both went on to become Hollywood animators.
On Thursday, they joined two other friends who also made the jump from America’s Finest City to the world’s biggest studios to speak at Comic-Con International.
The four were met by a raucous crowd of locals. There were cheers for the animators. Cheers for the Padres. Not so many cheers for the Chargers.
The panel briefly derailed when a Point Loma High School graduate argued with a Morse alumni over which school won a regional championship … in the 1980s.
Together the panelists have worked on seemingly every animated feature from the past several decades.
Jeff Ranjo grew up in South Bay and attended Montgomery High.
A friend invited him to his first Comic-Con. He liked it but never thought he’d be a part of it.
He’s now a story head at Netflix Animation after layovers at a range of places, including Disney, where he helped create Olaf in “Frozen.” Ranjo said he even did an initial voice track for the character before an actor took over. (He declined demands from the room to demonstrate.)
Julius Aguimatang on the panel “From San Diego Kids to Hollywood Animators” in the San Diego Convention Center at Comic-Con International on July 20, 2023.
(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Julius Aguimatang, who directs the Disney Junior series “Firebuds,” hails from Spring Valley and went to Mount Miguel High.
After being rocked by “The Little Mermaid,” he ended up as an artist on “Mulan.”
At the time, Aguimatang just wanted to make an entertaining story. He said he’s continually moved when people tell him how much that movie shaped them.
Joe Moshier on the panel “From San Diego Kids to Hollywood Animators” in the San Diego Convention Center at Comic-Con International on July 20, 2023.
(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Moshier (Point Loma High) thought he wanted to play baseball.
A family move that put him closer to his grandmother, a painter, led to a change of course. Now, he’s a character designer at Sony Animation. He has worked on multiple projects, including “Boss Baby” and “The Emperor’s New Groove.”
From left to right, Jeff Ranjo, Julius Aguimatang, Bobby Rubio and Joe Moshier on the panel “From San Diego Kids to Hollywood Animators” in the San Diego Convention Center at Comic-Con International on July 20, 2023.
(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Rubio, a Morse High School graduate, thought he wanted to be an editorial cartoonist. He entered a contest in the San Diego Union, and won.
He ended up becoming a story head at Paramount.
It turns out he sneaks the names of his wife and kids into his drawings for Marvel, and his Pixar short “Float” includes a hidden Padres ballcap and the numbers “619” on the side of a house.
All four attended the California Institute of the Arts, but they were hesitant to say a school like that was the only way to go.
College can connect you to great people, they said. But it’s expensive, and there’s a lot of training available for free online.
“It’s gonna be a lonely road,” Rubio said. “We’ve all got rejected.”
They advised keeping a sketchpad, inhaling as many stories as possible and practicing by drawing caricatures of friends.
“Don’t stop,” Ranjo said.