Today we’d like to introduce you to Ze Sean Teo.
Hi Ze Sean, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Like every kid who was eagerly looking forward to watching weekend cartoons and playing video games with friends and family, that part of my childhood heavily influenced my passion in art and animation. Not only was I drawn to the visual appeal and storytelling of the medium, but I’ve always found the power of breathing life to these iconic and relatable characters, the most magical part of films and video games.
Growing up in Malaysia, I was an extremely shy and antisocial kid. The fact that I also grew up mainly speaking English when most of my family and friends spoke Mandarin made it quite difficult to bond at times. But despite our differences, whether it was age, gender or language, we were always able to communicate and spend time together through this passion for video games and animation. I am always grateful for how these forms of entertainment were able to connect people and gave me the courage to overcome my fear of socializing. That was the moment when I decided that I wanted to pursue a career that could bring that level of joy and entertainment to people.
After years of attending animation school and working on multiple 3D jobs for video game cinematics and TV commercials, I currently live in Los Angeles and work at PlayStation as a Character Technical Director. I’m very grateful to have worked on projects for titles that I myself enjoy playing.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The first and most difficult decision I had to make was whether to pursue an education in 3D animation. Despite having a great interest in animation and video games, I was honestly not good at drawing and was close to failing my art classes in high school. My grades for Math and Science subjects were looking much more promising to my parents, which led me to consider a career in engineering instead. But after discussing with my parents, we decided to take a leap of faith and they encouraged me to enroll for a semester at a local art institution and see if animation was still something I wanted to take seriously.
It was a really tough journey because I always felt overwhelmed when I saw how talented and skillful my other classmates were compared to me. But instead of feeling demoralized, I was really fortunate to make great friends in school who further motivated me to improve and understand my personal strengths in art. After trying out dozens of specializations in art school, like graphic design, fine art, photography and animation, I eventually realized that my personal strengths leaned towards the more technical aspects of the 3D workflow. It proved to me that I could still have a career in the art industry even if I wasn’t amazing at drawing or painting.
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?
For past projects, I have been credited as a general 3D artist, rigger, technical artist, and even stop-motion animator. Today, I am a character technical director at PlayStation. My daily tasks revolve around character rigging, which is a key part of the 3D character creation process. Rigging is the process of placing virtual bones that define how a character, creature or machine will move and function. We study and mimic the movement of joints and muscles in order to create realistic and believable deformation for the characters you see on screen.
During my time at animation school, I had the opportunity to work on a few collaborative projects and short films that went on to not only win a few awards at school but they received a few local and international awards as well. I’ve had experience with producing live-action and animated films during this time, and it definitely prepared me for the fast-paced industry.
Later on in my career, I was professionally working on TV commercials and video game cinematics for titles such as Apex Legends, Clash of Clans, and Cricket Wireless. The latest project that I contributed to was the video game “The Last of Us Part 1”, which was the very first AAA video game that I worked on. These projects exposed me to a multitude of skill sets that contributed to my growth as an artist. My diverse experience in stop-motion animation, live-action and animated film making and video game production have introduced me to so many talented and inspiring people who proved to me that it was always possible to push the boundaries of the industry. It will continuously remind me that there is always so much we, as an industry, can learn and grow together.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The video game industry is definitely on a fast-paced growth. Looking back five years ago, the quality of video games was still drastically inferior compared to what we consider high-budget movie visual effects looked like. But as of today, you’ll be able to see incredibly high-quality characters and effects that were rendered from a real-time game engine. Even live-action movie sets incorporate game engines, capable of manipulating lights and environment designs in a matter of seconds with a few clicks on their mouse and keyboard.
I wouldn’t have believed this if someone told me this would happen five years ago, but witnessing this sort of development happen as we speak is unbelievably amazing. I can only imagine what the industry will be like over the next 5 to 10 years, but it’s definitely something I’m looking forward to.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://seant3o.artstation.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sean.Teo.Art
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seant3o/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeannyTweets
- Other: https://vimeo.com/seanteo
Image Credits
For the image of the fighting game passion project, the one with the health bars at the top, I would like it to be credited as “Fighting game ‘Project: Metal Fist’ owned by Dayniel Deguzman.”
