FX artist Lee Jae-jun makes waves at Pixar

"Characters perform human emotions through acting, but I convey the film's atmosphere and feelings through natural phenomena and landscapes," says Lee Jae-jun, describing his role as a special effects technical director at Pixar.

Speaking via video call from Los Angeles on Tuesday, Lee discussed his contributions to the studio's latest release, “Elio.”

The film follows a quirky 11-year-old who dreams of alien abduction, only to be mistaken for Earth’s ambassador to a cosmic council. While audiences see a psychedelic, sugar-rush space adventure, Lee’s assignment focused on the picture’s oceans and detailed sand simulations — technical work that channels the director’s emotional intent.

“Water is probably the toughest thing we do in effects,” Lee says. “One or two seconds of what audiences see can require thousands of computers working together.” His team crafted turbulent seas to express Elio’s desperation when expelled from the alien community, then shifted to gentler waters in the character’s quieter moments of grief.

The project’s emotional themes struck particularly close to home for Lee, who recently became a father. “During our internal screenings, I kept thinking about my kids and cried every time,” he says. “Watching Elio deal with losing his parents, not expressing his emotions outwardly but keeping everything inside — it made me think about what my children would feel if I weren’t there.”

Those feelings also connected to Lee’s childhood experience of feeling like an outsider at school. “I felt like I was truly alone in the world, unable to tell my parents or close friends. Sometimes I just wanted to give up on everything. But that’s when I found animation, and now, all these years later, I find myself working on this film.”

Lee’s path from a rural town in Gochang, North Jeolla Province, to Pixar began with a childhood viewing of “The Lion King” in a local theater. After studying multimedia at a Korean university and completing graduate work in San Francisco, he spent eight years in Los Angeles before joining Pixar in 2021. He is one of roughly 10 Korean staff members in the studio’s 1,000-person workforce.

The growing global spotlight on Korean creators these days doesn’t surprise Lee. “I shouldn’t generalize, but there are things that stand out — we work really hard, with a particular intensity that comes from Korean society’s competitive nature.”

More importantly, Lee notes how the worldwide appetite for Korean culture has created new opportunities: “Fifteen years ago, when I first came to America versus now, the way people here view Korea is like night and day. As Korean culture gains worldwide attention, previously unknown artists are finally getting the recognition they deserve.”

Lee’s favorite moment in “Elio” reveals his connection to his roots in an unexpected way.

“There’s this scene where Elio is flying around with an alien character, drinking something and then throwing up. When I saw it, I thought it was so Korean somehow,” he says.

“That whole drinking-and-vomiting thing — that’s not really the American vibe, and, oddly enough, it felt like a slice of home.”