Pixar Alums Ricky Nierva & Michal Makarewicz Join Spire Animation Studios In Senior Roles

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Spire Animation Studios has hired a pair of Pixar alums for key roles, with Ricky Nierva joining as Production Designer and Michal Makarewicz now serving as Head of Character Animation.In their time at Spire, Nierva and Makarewicz will work closely with Creative Directors, Animation and Story Shawn Krause and Michael Surrey, Creative Directors of Development, Ted Mathot and Karen Disher, story artist Sharon Bridgeman and co-founder and CCO Brad Lewis (Ratatouille, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World), first turning their attention to the studio’s first animated feature Trouble that it’s developing with Danny McBride’s Rough House Pictures, as previously announced.“We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Ricky and Michal,” said Lewis and co-founder P.J.

Gunsagar in a joint statement. “Both bring a wealth of creative experience from working at Pixar on many of the studio’s most beloved movies.

Their addition to our growing team continues us down the path of building a next-generation studio with best-in-class professionals.”Said Nierva: “I’m honored to join Spire Animation Studios and to have the unique opportunity to production design our first animated feature film.

The team is unbelievably talented and we are breaking the way things have been done in the past, blazing new trails. I’ve loved the animation art form since I was a kid – and through my time at Pixar – and want to push this medium forward.