Check Out Yang Liu’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yang Liu.

Hi Yang, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m from Beijing, China. I’m currently studying Character Animation at CalArts. I started learning painting when I was four years old. I also studied piano and opera, but I found that painting was my favorite, so I attended an art high school. During that time, I discovered that I really like designing characters and drawing lines. I like to make my paintings move, and then I have a feeling that I have created a life! That’s a great feeling! So I like animation more and more. I like to watch animation all the time, and my favorites are Disney and Pixar. When I discovered that many of the artists I liked came from an art school in California, I was very attracted. But when I applied for college, I was admitted early to one of the best art universities in China. My major in China is traditional Chinese mural painting. Although I like it very much, I still have a dream, which is to go to the California Institute of the Arts and become the animation master I respect as an alumnus. So here I am now.

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?
Coming to Calarts was relatively smooth, but my decision to come to the United States to study was a more difficult decision because I already have a bachelor of fine arts degree from a very good university in China, but Calarts only has a bachelor’s degree in character animation, and many students like me also regard Calarts as their dream school, but they don’t have the courage to go abroad for this purpose. After some struggle, I decided to go abroad to pursue my dream. From traditional fine art to animation, I feel that the difference is very big. In my previous learning process, almost all exercises required me to observe models or objects and faithfully depict them. But animation requires imagination, exaggeration, and refinement. I was very uncomfortable with it at first. Even though I already have very solid basic skills in painting, which makes me very distressed. But this also makes me realize more and more the inclusiveness and charm of animation.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
What I am currently doing is animation. I made a short film Sacrifice at Guangsheng Temple in 2019 because my major at that time was mural painting. Guangsheng Temple is a temple in China famous for its murals. When I saw the murals in this temple, I liked them very much. The characters in the murals hundreds of years ago were so lifelike that it was as if I could hear the characters in the murals talking. I use the form of Chinese opera to show my story and perform it with traditional opera singing. It tells a tragedy that happens when desire is more important than anything else. This work was selected for The 14th Arte Laguna Prize, 2020. Certificate of 2019 Art Nova 100 Artist 2019. 2020 Chanimation Film Festival. Then, I joined the crew of To the Bright Side. It is a low-budget film, and we have a small crew. But it won The Grand Prize for feature film at the New York International Children’s Film Festival (NYICFF). I am responsible for animation and color layout in the crew. I had a great time working with the entire team, and the director and producer also had great trust in me. This part of the film I participated in was hand-painted using acrylic paint and watercolor. We had to use brushes to paint frame by frame. This movie is also the first movie that I have participated in the production of, and it feels very happy to watch this movie with the audience in the cinema.

Later, my personal short film Is It You? Entered the Semi-Finalist of The Student World Impact Film Festival (SWIFF). In this film, I explore the question of whether AI can replace humans. I assume that in the future, robots can completely copy a person’s appearance and store the person’s memory, but can the robot completely replace the person at this time? My conclusion in this film is pessimistic because humans and machines process memory differently. Our memories can be changed as time goes by, but machines simply read memories. I also used different techniques to show it in this film. The part where the machine reads the memories is rendered using 3D software, while the human memories are in the form of sketches. Animation can be said to be my favorite way to express myself. I seem to be creating life, giving different characters different personalities, building a fantasy world, and exploring many issues that I am thinking about. But at the same time, it’s fun, with lots of possibilities.

How do you think about luck?
I have always considered myself a very lucky person, and I have always had great teachers. Without these great teachers, I would not be where I am now. I also met a lot of good friends who trusted me very much, and many of my job opportunities were recommended to me by my friends. This is also the reason why I have always been very smooth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nirvanayang.weebly.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nirvanayang/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yang-liu-639034266/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@yangliu6029

Image Credits
Character design 2023 Yang Liu vis dev 2023 Yang Liu