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EXCLUSIVE: Meet Paul Abadilla, the Pinoy behind the world of 'Soul'

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MJ Felipe, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/04/30/paul-abadilla.jpg"/><figcaption>Paul Abadilla</figcaption></figure></div>When H.E.R. won the Best Original Song category for her song &quot;Fight for you&quot; in the Oscars, Filipinos were beaming with pride -- another Filipino showcasing world-class talent. But there&#x27;s another reason to celebrate. Meet Paul Abadilla, the set art director of the Oscar-winning animated movie &quot;Soul.&quot;This California-based artist migrated to the United States when he was seven years old. But in his childhood years in the Philippines, he was engrossed with cartoons and animation. &quot;It was drawing and all these cartoons that I&#x27;ve been watching, [it] is a way for me to escape and just really enjoy myself. And I&#x27;m just in the zone when I&#x27;m drawing,&quot; he told ABS-CBN News. Abadilla pursued his passion and when the doors of the animated film studio Pixar opened, he grabbed the opportunity to get his dream job. &quot;When I first started on the project, I started as a set designer. That&#x27;s what I&#x27;ve been doing most of my time in Pixar, I design the backgrounds, the world on our films. And few months in, I was promoted to set art director and that was a game changer, because now I have this larger responsibility of really setting the tone, the visual language of the film, helping our set designers flesh it out. The designs, the drawing, so we can work with our technical team, so they can build this environment,&quot; he said. And build they did. The project was a tall order for Abadilla, but he accepted the challenge. If you&#x27;ve seen the film, there were two worlds created -- the real world and the pre-&quot;Soul&quot; one.&quot;I look at every frame, every shot, throughout the film to make sure that our sets are looking really good without distracting from the main characters,&quot; Abadilla shared.<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xOsLIiBStEs?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>But all the hard work paid off as throughout the awards season in Hollywood, the animated movie raked in recognitions left and right. &quot;Immediately I thought that this would be a dream project. I knew I wanted to be a part of it, at any capacity. I was working on a lot of smaller projects at that time, but it&#x27;s time for me to hop on, on this project,&quot; Abadilla said. Abadilla agreed that there is a huge market for Filipino artists, animators, and designers in the animated film industry, and Pixar is aware of this. &quot;We get to work with different types of people and yes, there are a lot of Filipinos here, especially here in California, in the Bay Area. And also at Pixar, we have a group called Pixnoys and I&#x27;m a part of that. We&#x27;re not just artists; there are folks in the technical department, animators, chefs, and we have our computer system support group. There’s a whole diverse group of Filipino talents here at Pixar,&quot; he said.&quot;Soul&quot; is available via Disney+ and was shown in selected cinemas in MGCQ areas in the Philippines.

This California-based artist migrated to the United States when he was seven years old. But in his childhood years in the Philippines, he was engrossed with cartoons and animation.

This California-based artist migrated to the United States when he was seven years old. But in his childhood years in the Philippines, he was engrossed with cartoons and animation.

EXCLUSIVE: Meet Paul Abadilla, the Pinoy behind the world of 'Soul'

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EXCLUSIVE: Meet Paul Abadilla, the Pinoy behind the world of 'Soul'

MJ Felipe,

ABS-CBN News

Published April 30, 2021 03:31 PM PHT

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Pixar

set design

Paul Abadilla

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