Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Le.
Hi Tiffany, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My passion for art started with a simple coloring book and a pack of cheap crayons my dad bought me one day when I was a kid. I remember looking at the drawings in that coloring book and thinking “Wow, this is in a style I’ve never seen before”. It was a girl with giant eyes, a dot for a nose, and no mouth; she almost looked like Dawn from Pokémon. The art style was my first introduction to anime. I remember wanting to draw like that, so I started tracing, copying, and coloring from those pages. With how terribly each drawing was coming out, I started to do the same to any other art styles that interested me, to see what I could learn from them. The shows I watched as a kid and drew from were expansive — ranging from Avatar the Last Airbender to Digimon to Scooby Doo.
Although early on, I felt an affinity to art more than anything else I took part in, from elementary school to most of high school, I was aiming for an occupation in STEM. That was until junior year at La Quinta High School, I stumbled upon Michelle Lam’s YouTube channel, MewTripled, when she was still attending CalArts. The way she simplified shapes, exaggerated characters, and her strong understanding of the fundamentals was unlike anything I’ve seen before. I’d watch her videos almost religiously, and her skills reignited my love for art and opened my world to pursuing a job within animation. Studying hard, senior year past, and I decided on attending Cal State Fullerton for college and since this was during the COVID pandemic, I was desperately looking for a club I could make friends in. That was when I stumbled upon Women in Animation at CSUF or WIAatCSUF, a newly established art collective part of a larger organization of the same name committed to empowering women and non-binary folks alike within the animation field. This was a club that taught me about many creative roles that are in the industry, 2 of which caught my eye: color designer and character designer. Up until then, I only knew I wanted to work in animation, but wasn’t sure what jobs were available for something as complex as an animated production.
I am currently a fourth year at Cal State Fullerton, majoring in Entertainment Art and Animation, and planning to graduate next year in the spring. I’ve met many wonderful like-minded and fun-loving people along the way, many of which I can call my friends.
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?
In no way was it smooth. As a kid, my parents thought it was cute that I liked art so much, but when they realized how dedicated I was to it compared to other subjects, they showed a lot of resistance, especially since a creative job is a foreign thing for them. They found it risky, unstable, and didn’t want me to fall into a hole that would end moneyless, and I get why they’d be concerned. Who wouldn’t worry for their child’s financial and career goals if not for them to live a comfortable life? For so long in my life, I’ve felt like I was drifting through the education system, showing no strong attachment to many of the things I was being taught, aside from maybe psychology. Being the stubborn person I am, I wanted to show them that they can trust me with this one skill I’m good at and have immense drive for. Each resistance was met with more drawing, more studying, more experimenting, to improve and convince them that I can evolve my interest to a profession. When money started trickling in from taking commissions every now and then, they stopped worrying… or, at the very least, put a little faith in me. They ask me about it every now and then, so that makes me happy that they’re taking more interest.
In the technical aspect, my art journey is not the smoothest either. Freshman year of high school, I tried to put myself out into the world by posting on Instagram with my old art account. This, however, was my first exposure to social media outside Facebook. With each post, I started worrying about numbers. I was getting 1-15 likes per post, and at the time, I thought numbers held meaning to just how good you were as an artist. This mindset demotivated me from making and sharing my art, as much as I’d say “numbers don’t matter” to my friends who were going through the same toxic mindset like I was. I posted daily, expecting a change in numbers, expecting to become popular. Needless to say, I stopped posting and drawing for a whole year, feeling burnt out and wondering what I was doing wrong. During those months of not drawing, it allowed me to clear my head and evaluate how social media was affecting me and made me think about how I want to be known. What type of respect do I want from people who see my art? Nowadays, numbers hold little value to me. They are fun to look at, and they help in some ways, but the respect I want in the long run are my peers, the people within the industry I admire, and the people outside of it who want to support me.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a color designer and character designer through and through! I enjoy the process of creating special lighting conditions for assets in each scene of animation in ways that can adhere to or subvert expectations whenever necessary. With character design, I adore researching for inspiration, analyzing what possibilities work for a character, and taking all of what I’ve done to create an appealing character for the screen. The process of trial and error is so fulfilling. In fact, if you see any of my work, I don’t have a single style I strictly adhere to. I like trying new things every time since it really frees me to make mistakes and use what I’ve learned to perfect my abilities. Plus, it keeps drawing fresh and interesting.
Often participating in group film projects, I take great joy in learning more about the animation pipeline, collaborating with peers, and finding ways to further hone my skills as an artist. On multiple occasions, I’ve taken part in these groups as a production coordinator or a production assistant. As such, I have become better at organizing my files and managing time. Otherwise, I can adapt to other creative roles when needed.
In my free time, aside from enjoying tactical games like Fire Emblem and analyzing cartoons and anime, I love modding retro game consoles like the Gameboy Advance, customizing and learning about keyboards, and studying languages whenever I can. Having hobbies outside of art enriches my creativity and strengthens my work in ways unique to me.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
As of right now, there have been huge layoffs occurring through the animation industry and the rise and discussion of AI art. It’s scary to see how others devalue artists the way they do, even though we put so much time, energy, and consideration into all of our work. We make the packaging on the shelves, the merch sold at venues, album covers and the animated shows everyone watches. Without it, we don’t form strong attachments to what’s in front of us. For example, people love superheroes like Spiderman and the Disney princesses the way they do because of their compelling stories as well as their iconic designs.
Personally, I want to stay optimistic and say animation done by passionate artists, 3d, 2d, and everything in between, is here to stay. There’s been this recent shift where series would start from indie studios and gather funding through places like Kickstarter, such as Studio Heartbreak’s “THE LOVERS.” Some even get picked up by production companies later on like the most recent “Hazbin Hotel”, a pilot on YouTube turned into an animated series by A24.
No artist sees the world the same, and our creativity stems from many facets of our lives, which makes it so invaluable in capturing that heart-wrenching moment or that moment that makes us laugh so hard, we can hardly breathe. As long as there are people who want to form connections with beloved characters, then that is why I think animation by artists is here to stay.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://carmennisse.weebly.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carmennisse?igsh=YzVkODRmOTdmMw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-le-8994b31b7/
