This Indonesian animator helped bring She-Hulk, Hawkeye and a kingdom of 'Apes' to life

Planning to catch Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes in cinemas this weekend? Don't forget to pay close attention to how realistic the ape characters are. 

Indonesian animator Sashya Subono Halse literally had a hand in that – as well as plenty of other movies and TV shows you're probably very familiar with.

The 36-year-old Subono is an animator at Weta FX, a digital visual effects and animation company based in Wellington, New Zealand. 

In her four years with Weta FX, she has worked her animation magic on the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Hawkeye and She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, and Disney movies Avatar: The Way Of Water and Kingdom of the Planet Of The Apes. 

Her expertise includes matchmoving, which involves making computer-generated elements appear as if they were recorded in the real world, and facial motion animation, which brings a character’s face to life by recording the movements and expressions of a human face and transferring them to a digital character.

Subono told CNA Women that for as long as she can remember, she has been passionate about film and animation. She shares an affinity for entertainment with her relatives: Her uncle Adrie Subono is a well-known concert promoter in Indonesia and her cousins Melanie Subono and Adrian Subono are both musicians and actors in the country.

“I’m an Indonesian who grew up in Wellington, and when I was young, I was exposed to lots of movies like The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Pixar’s Toy Story – I was obsessed with Buzz Lightyear and his design,” she said.

“When I saw these movies, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, that looks amazing – I want to be a part of that.’”

That interest led her and her New Zealander husband to move to Indonesia in 2010 after their wedding, where Subono had enrolled in a diploma in film.

She quickly learnt that film production and working on set wasn’t her thing. 

“I realised that I loved to be behind the scenes and in front of a screen,” Subono said. “I started getting into the rabbit hole of animation where there are just so many awesome skills to learn and I never looked back.

“I was so into animation that even while studying for my diploma, I learned a bunch of things online and started my own animation projects.”

She completed her diploma in 2012 and that same year, gave birth to her first child, a girl. 

By then, she had truly fallen down the rabbit hole of animation and decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in interactive animation at SAE Indonesia, a creative media university. There, she juggled new parenthood with learning video graphics and special effects skills. 

After completing her degree, Subono took up freelance animation projects, lectured part-time at SAE Indonesia, and eventually became the head of its animation department. She also had her second child.

“Teaching at SAE was amazing,” Subono said. “I could improve my skills and share my knowledge with other Indonesians passionate about animation.”

WORKING IN WETA: ‘A DREAM COME TRUE’

After living in Indonesia for eight years, Subono and her husband began to miss Wellington. They decided to move back to New Zealand, where Subono could take her animation career to the next level. 

While freelancing as an animator, she enrolled in a one-year master’s programme in character animation at the Victoria University of Wellington.  

The Weta FX job came calling shortly after, in 2020, as did the birth of the couple’s third child, a son. 

“Weta was a dream come true,” Subono said. “Everyone’s a master of their craft and there’s a great culture where we’re always open to learning from each other.”

Working on major projects like the MCU television series and Avatar: The Way Of Water, Subono said she feels immense joy knowing that she’s contributing to the same sense of wonder children feel watching them. 

It reminds her of the awe she felt when she first watched The Lord Of The Rings and other Pixar movies in the early 2000s.

“It’s always such a proud and exciting moment to see my name in the credits,” she said. Subono has captured all these moments and compiled them into Instagram stories on her page.

“It’s surreal to be able to bring your name, and represent your country and culture on the big screen,” she added. “It’s also amazing to know that your children are just as excited and happy for you when they see you in the credits, too.”

Her favourite part about working at Weta FX is the diversity, she said. 

“As a hijabi in Weta, I feel very accepted and I’ve never felt discriminated against for my nationality or religion,” she said. “There’s a prayer room for me to comfortably pray three of my five daily prayers there, and it’s easy to find halal food.”

HONING HER ANIMATION SKILLS 

“In my job, we translate human emotion to the faces of the characters, whether they’re humans, animals, aliens or any other form,” Subono said. 

To her, being a facial animator is not just about applying the “fancy effects” of animation and computer graphics, but about conveying experiences that all humans can understand, even if it’s an ape doing the feeling.

“There’s always something new,” she said. “When I worked on Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, I had to study the way apes and monkeys express themselves and make human emotions look as natural as possible on them.”

When working on Avatar, Subono focused on infusing human emotions into the Na'vi, the blue-skinned, sapient humanoids who live in harmony with nature.

“When it comes to the universe of animation, there’s always something new to learn and figure out,” Subono said. “Technology is always changing and I want to keep going as a facial animator, so being able to learn and equip myself with the latest skills is an absolute joy.”

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is out in cinemas now.