Meet Shon Xiao

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shon Xiao.

Hi Shon, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I come from San Jose, California and have lived there for most of my life! I started drawing pretty young and I continued it as a hobby throughout pretty much most of my academic life. I was fortunate that my parents encouraged me to improve my skills and even sent me to a few art classes when I was little.

That being said, I was heavily discouraged from art as a career choice so I ended up taking quite the detour. I actually entered college as a neuroscience major! But I took one chemistry class and immediately decided that path was not for me. Since my parents are both computer engineers, they suggested I switch to computer science. I decided to pursue computer science with an emphasis on video game development. This proved to be a cheat for me to basically go back to art while still having a STEM label attached to me. Most of my game development classes involved group projects, and there was a distinct lack of artists in the room. So naturally, I took on the role of artist in most of my classes. I think this experience really highlighted what I truly wanted to do.

Despite this, I graduated from USC with a computer science degree and was about to pursue a career in that field. It was actually my father who talked me out of it. He told me to pursue what I truly wanted to, which led me to a complete career switch to animation. And now, I’m studying animation in USC’s graduate program!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If I’m honest, it’s been quite smooth for the most part once I decided to switch to animation. While I was on the engineering track, I lacked a lot of motivation to apply to internships or jobs and I feel that it definitely showed through to the recruiters. But once I made the switch, I was suddenly motivated to put in extra effort to apply to schools, jobs, and work on my portfolio. Currently, you could say that I struggle with things like imposter syndrome, or finding my niche. I definitely sometimes feel out of place when my peers have much more experience in the field than I do. But I have supportive parents and I attend one of the best animation schools in the US– what more could I ask for?

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a 2D animator and designer with a special interest in music videos and short films. I enjoy exploring a character’s personal traumas through abstracted narratives (I’m a sucker for sad and bittersweet stories), and playing with the relationship between visuals and music to create stronger emotional impacts. I also occasionally illustrate, with an emphasis on depicting a character’s personality through their pose, expression, and the lighting around them.

I’m most proud of my short film “Blue Again,” which explores the relationship between my body dysmorphia and my love for swimming. The film features a feline characterization of myself relearning to love swimming after being torn away from the sport due to body image issues. One of my favorite parts of the film is how, given that the story is told non-chronologically, the color palettes of the shots reflect the character’s point in life. I worked on this 3-minute personal short film over the course of one year, and it’s turned out to be one of my proudest works.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Coming from San Jose, CA which isn’t all too far from LA, moving to LA has been an interesting experience. There’s definitely some similarities that I appreciate, like the beautiful weather and the proximity to the beach. But LA in particular has so much hustle and bustle all the time. While I’m a bit of a homebody, it still is nice knowing there’s always something exciting to do or unique places to visit while in LA. There’s also amazing food you can find in almost any part of LA, with various selections from different cuisines. I’d say the worst part about LA is that to enjoy most of what it has to offer, you really do need a car (or a really good friend who has a car). And the traffic is horrid. But once you have that vehicular freedom, LA is a great place to try new things!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shroonchu/

Image Credits
Isaac Tang