There’s no getting away from it, a job at Pixar is the holy grail for CG artists everywhere. Afonso Salcedo tells us how he got there.

He started with a computer science degree from Southampton University and followed that up with a masters from Imperial College.

“I always knew I wanted to be involved with visual effects and CG. When I’d made the decision that I wanted to learn more, Escape was easily the best place to do that. I’d never touched Maya before I arrived and it gave me a great foundation to work on my showreel. Working with the tutors was incredibly motivating, simply because it’s so easy to respect their experience. It really kick-started things for me.”

Afonso soon felt drawn back to the US.

“I wanted to do a fine art masters in San Francisco, but I’d previously sent my reel to Pixar and kept in touch with their HR department. So when I arrived in the US and saw a job posting, I jumped on it.”

So, what’s life really like at Pixar then?

“I started working at Pixar Animation Studios on 'Cars' (pictured), now around a year and a half ago. I have been living my dream since I started working here, and it just gets better every day.”

So, any advice for an aspiring artist?

“Be humble, work hard and ask questions. Don’t be worried about starting at the bottom.”

Afonso is currently working at Pixar.