Quick Facts
Biography
Virgilio John Aquino is a Filipino-American animator and visual effects artist working with The Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his animation work in the films The Princess and the Frog (2009,) Wreck-It Ralph (2012,) and Frozen (2013.)
Education
Virgilio John Aquino was born in Manila, Philippines and raised in Southern California.
He studied Graphic Arts at the Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, California, in the years 1987–1991. He initially wanted to be a comic book artist, however, fascinated by the computer graphics and film animation world, he opted to pursue a career in the show business. In a November 2019 interview with Asian Journal, he commented:
I used to be a traditional artist, drawing effects for our 2D films. When the computer age came for the industry and CG was the flavor for the animation industry, I decided to go into environment building because [to me] it felt more artistic and sculptural...Over the years, from 'Chicken Little,' which was my first CG film, to 'Frozen 2,' there have been leaps and bounds regarding technology.
Career
Aquino joined The Walt Disney Company in 1996 as an apprentice and worked as an effects animator on such films as Hercules (1997,) Fantasia 2000 (1999,) The Emperor's New Groove (2000) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) among others. A few years later he took on the role of Modeler/3D artist and was part of the team that worked on successful animation hits including Bolt (2008,) The Princess and the Frog (2009,) Tangled (2010,) Wreck-It Ralph (2012,) Frozen (2013,) and most recently, Frozen II (2019.)
In 2007, he also worked with Los Angeles-based Super 78 Studios as 3D Artist/Modeler on Canadian-American live-action/animated film Ben 10: Race Against Time (aka Ben 10: The Movie.) The film was directed and executive-produced by Alex Winter and had Graham Phillips, Christien Anholt and Haley Ramm in the lead roles.
In 2019, as part of Walt Disney Animation Studios's Short Circuit program, Aquino pitched and directed a short animation film titled Lightning in a Bottle. In the film, during a thunderstorm, a young boy captures lighting inside a glass bottle as part a science fair project. The lightning soon mimics his own actions and the boy has to decide whether to hold on to it or release it back into the sky.