Today we’d like to introduce you to Pinghsin “Sydney” Chen.
Hi Pinghsin “Sydney”, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a Visual Development Artist in animation and an Illustrator. I graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in Animation and Digital Arts, and I am now working as a Visdev Artist and Freelance Illustrator. My 2D animation films “Drunkland” and “Boba Girls” have more than ten festival selections and are still counting. I have been drawing my whole life. I was born in Taipei and attended art school for professional training at a very young age. But later on, when I grew up, I started to realize that fine art wasn’t my thing – I was more into pop culture, fun, and fast-paced stuff – comic books, movies, TV series, and of course animation. I love doodling and creating small characters with my storylines a lot more than drawing still-life. During college, I was already a freelance illustrator/designer who worked on several cases with clients like million-subscripted YouTubers and local brands. My collaboration with YouTuber Amanda Lo was very successful and made more people on the internet know me as an Illustrator. We launched several YouTube intro projects and produced sold-out merchandise from her personal brand. However I was eager to learn more about animation since there are not many resources back home, so I eventually made up my mind to study animation abroad and got accepted into USC.
At USC, I discovered my love for Visual Development in animation. I learned from industry professionals about directing my own films, which is a big part of our program. During the process of making films, I found myself falling in love with designing the environments and world-building for the story I created and the characters to live in. I love drawing interior designs for houses and experimenting with different drawing styles for different worlds. I had a lot of fun discovering the visual direction of the film. How to make this shot more visually pleasing? What does color harmony look like? What kind of feeling am I conveying? Questions like that would make me want to find answers and keep drawing.
My two films, “”Drunkland” (2022) and “Boba Girls”(2023), performed well in festivals and won prizes such as 3rd Place at Los Angeles Animation Film Festivals. These amazing prices and selections really encouraged me as a Director and Visdev Artist and made me more confident in the work I create and in expressing the messages I want to say.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
During making my second film, “Boba Girls”, I had a group of 5-10 people working on my crew. I was new to leading this many people, having everything organized, and producing everything on a strict schedule so it was a bit of a challenge. For example, I decided to make an original theme song for the film in the very beginning. Luckily, my Music Producer Jason found a Korean rapper Kimmiso who can rap and sing for us, but she lives in Korea and doesn’t speak English. So we managed to give her instructions via a translator friend, and Kimmiso would send recordings of her singing demos from Korea. We were constantly communicating back and forth, changing small parts and details, all happening online, until we got that feeling and vibe we wanted. The process was more complicated than I expected, but the collaboration worked out really well. Even though the communication was a bit difficult, we successfully produced the song and received very positive feedback.
Other than the difficulties in producing music, I learned a lot as a leader of a crew. Since the crew members were all working for me and my film, I felt the pressure to lead this team with confidence, ambition, and direction. But there are still many unexpected twists like when deadlines have passed and we are behind, or the files went missing, or something on the screen just went off… I really had to put myself together in these situations without any panic since I was the Director, and that was the time period that I grew the most. I understood the responsibilities a Director holds and the importance of time management. It can’t be a flawless, perfect film at the end of the day, but everyone on the crew felt good about what they did and was happy to see what was presented on screen is important to me. I am glad they liked it, and so were the audience!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Due to my fine art background, I love drawing things realistically and in a very detailed way. My work focuses on environment/layout design. I enjoy it the most when I get to design a world from scratch; I can turn references and ideas into something unique and magical that is different from reality. I could build houses and make props that don’t even exist in reality but they are still my creations. I find myself imagining what the characters and the world looked like when reading fiction books as a kid, so I knew where that came from. In my films, I experimented with different drawing styles too. “Boba Girls” was in a Y2K-inspired, vintage Cartoon Network style with lineless backgrounds while “Drunkland” was more in a contemporary TV style with Asian characters. I don’t limit myself when it comes to drawing styles, there are days I like to draw cute and flat illustrations, and days I want to draw a full layout with buildings. Adapting to as many styles as I can but not losing the fun of what I enjoy doing is the point!
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Growing up in Taiwan, I was heavily influenced by Asian culture and art such as anime, manga, and K-pop, which reflected a lot in my earlier drawings. When I studied abroad in the U.S., I discovered a wide range of art styles and artists coming from diverse backgrounds, which was really eye-opening. I found myself gradually combining the two worlds in my artwork, looking at what excites and inspires me from both Eastern and Western Artists, learning from them, and making it my own style. This is an interesting thing that I found myself doing and I do think that my mind has broadened and I am not only showing my background as an Asian Artist but also having more depth and range to it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sydneychenart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/koalarts_/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneychenart/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/837746094?share=copy
Image Credits
Copyrights by Pinghsin Chen
