Today we’d like to introduce you to Xi Wang.
Hi Xi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am a 3D artist and filmmaker. I’m always trying to do something new and different with visual art. I come from a contemporary art background before making the transition to digital art and film. Growing up in China, in an industrial city with a population of over three million people, I was crazy about painting, watching movies, and animation.
I loved immersing myself in imaginary worlds where I had full freedom to create characters and stories. Fortunately, my family supported my passion and I was able to attend Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, where I studied painting and contemporary arts. After graduating in 2007, I worked as an independent artist for eight years, doing exhibitions, selling paintings to galleries and museums and even making toys. For me designing toys was a chance to make some of my imagination tangible and interactive; it also connected me to a sense of POP art which has always inspired me. Over the years, I found myself drawn to technology and computer animation because it seemed like the new art tool to express myself and make sense of our rapidly changing world. I made my third animated short film-Untitled World. Around the same time, I also fell in love and got married. My daughter was born in 2018, before her born I received an offer from USC to study animation. This presented me with a very tough decision — whether or not to leave my young family to pursue my passion for 3D animation in the US. I knew that the US was on the cutting edge of new animation techniques and storytelling. China is getting very interested in this, but it doesn’t have a complete industrial system and platform yet.
As a visual artist, I knew that I needed to put myself where the innovation in visual technology was happening, where the festivals and exhibitions and opportunities would be. So I made the toughest decision of my life to go abroad to study in the John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. The time since has been among the busiest and most exciting periods in my life, from learning 2D and 3D Animation to Motion Graphics, VFX, Motion Capture, and screenwriting. I have always loved learning. And I have learned so much from being challenged by so many experienced and talented students and faculty.
And still one of the biggest difficulties and regrets is my family, that I cannot accompany the growth of my daughter. But my wife has always supported my decision, and knowing she is with our child makes this time bearable. After I received my MFA degree, my animated film, Metamorphosis was accepted to many film festivals and received several awards. Slowly my dream is coming true. I am working for Digital Domain as a Previz Artist in Los Angeles. And one day soon, I hope to bring my wife and child over to live with me here.
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?
My decision to temporarily leave my wife and child to pursue my passion for animation was very challenging. I had many friends who thought it too risky and too idealistic to leave a comfortable life and face the many challenges of a new culture, a new language, and a new industry. But my passion for art has always revolved around challenge and change. For me, this is what sparks creativity, this is where I find something new. The cultural collisions, the new friends, the new research fields and projects have all fired up my imagination and led to new work and new ideas. I love the process and feel inspired about where it will lead.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have found fulfillment and success in visual art since childhood. I went to art high school and studied painting and sculpture. In the year of my graduation, I completed my first animated short film, The Mysterious Planet, an astronaut experienced an inner journey in a strange planet. During my undergraduate study, I majored in oil painting and contemporary arts in Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. While there, I explored various methods of artistic expression, I laid a solid foundation for plastic arts, and I developed a global horizon of art aesthetics. I did some installation, painting, video art and explored new media arts. At the same time, I completed my second animated short film, Mouse, a mouse and a cat adventured in future’s unknown world filled with machines and technologies, etc. After college, I worked as an independent artist for eight years, doing exhibitions, selling paintings to galleries and museums, making toys, and eventually creating my third animated short film – Untitled World. Untitled World was about a monkey sought its destiny in a mad world. But more importantly Untitled World confirmed for me my love of animation and filmmaking.
So I decided to go to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts to study animation. I have found that cutting-edge VFX technology and cinematic language have given me powerful new tools to express my imagination. Since I started doing animation, I’ve been involved in many different projects, including VFX film, commercials, documentaries, projection mapping shows, installations, promotional events for film, and independent CG animations. For instance, J. Paul Getty Museum’s award-winning events-Getty Unshuttered 1 & 2.0.(THE 3RD ANNUAL SHORTY SOCIAL GOOD AWARDS, 2019 WORLD CHANGING IDEAS). In addition, several of my own CG short films have also been selected and received awards, most notably Butterfly, which won the student motion graphic award at the Los Angeles Animation Festival of 2019, and Metamorphosis, which received the Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film Festival, and was an official selection at the Telluride Film Festival Student Prints in 2020. Currently, I am working on a Hollywood movie at Digital Domain as a Previz Artist.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I think the most important quality to have as an artist is curiosity. It helps me identify myself in a changing environment. Our generation is growing up in mixed cultures, with a larger view of the world and an exponential growth of opportunities. I find curiosity to be my anchor, where I find stability, but also my propeller, where I find energy and direction to move. It has helped me form my interest in learning and in exploring new things. When I visited Siggraph in the summer of 2019, I saw that massive Real-Time Animations were occupying everyone’s attention. I was stunned, thinking about all new opportunity for visual artists. I became interested in this new animation workflow. And with the encouragement of my VFX teacher and intern Supervisor, I decided to use Unreal Engine for my thesis. At the beginning, I was both nervous and excited, working from zero experience on my most important project to date. But a year later after countless hours of work and learning my thesis is complete and I feel I have expanded not only my career opportunities but my freedom of creation at the same time.
Contact Info:
- Email: wangxi833@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.jakexwang.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wang_xi_83/
Image Credits
Xi Wang
