Rui Huang is an animation director and digital designer based in Los Angeles. A graduate of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and the University of Southern California, she is experienced in 2D and 3D design with expertise in a wide array of techniques including concept design, motion graphics, modeling, lighting, texturing, compositing. We caught up with her to discuss her career and her short film ‘There You Are’, which screened at the FirstGlance Film Festival.
How did you get into animation?
I got into animation when I was very young and obsessed with cartoons and manga. I learned animation when I was in a local fine art school. After I came to the University of Southern California, I dug deeper into different animation and digital art. I experimented with traditional 2d animation, stop motion, motion graphics, and CG animation. During the process of learning, I showed my vast passion, particularly for storytelling and visual design.
Looking back from now, I would say animation brings life and vigor to my life. I love designing interesting characters and creatures that popped out in my mind. And it is rewarding when I bring my imagination into the animation world. I enjoy building a world as I want using different animation techniques. That is the most important reason why I chose animation. Another reason is that it helped me to achieve my filmmaking dream more easily. It is manageable and calculable compared with the live-action filmmaking process.
We’re here to talk about your short ‘There You Are’. For our readers, please describe your chosen type of animation and the methodology used to produce the film?
‘There you are’ is a CG animation. I chose this type of animation because I have never done a 3D animation film before. I want to learn more new techniques that I haven’t touched before and challenge myself. Before I completed it, I had no idea what it would look like at all. So before I started, I collected different types of animation references. I was struggling with style at the beginning. But the more materials I gathered, the clearer I realized that I like colorful, vintage, and children’s illustrations. So when the three elements come together, it forms my type of animation eventually. And speaking of the methodology, the production consists of a pretty simple pipeline from preparation to production and post-production. I made a clear and detailed schedule early, including gathering inspiration materials, producing animation, recording voice, finishing comping, making music and sound. And each stage overlaps with the other and moves forward together. I prefer to complete everything in advance just in case an emergency happens. And I like to stick to the schedule strictly. Every day I will check the work goal and make changes according to the progress. I found out that was super helpful, especially during the strange time last year.
Which animated productions have inspired or influenced your work the most, and why?
I got inspiration from more than one work. It varies from stop motion animation, shadow puppet design, commercial projects to even live-action films. I like to absorb good ideas from everywhere. For example, I mimicked the fabric textures from the stop motion movie Caroline. In order to create a tactile sense, I took references from the actual fabric. The stop motion films influenced how I created the shading in CG. And when I did the digital lighting, I collected a lot of cinematography work from films like Amelie. I love the warm nostalgia tune and vivid color combination. It inspired me to shape the look of my film. Also, Jamie Caliri’s commercial work impacted me from the motion perspective. I decided to have a paper-cut style as a part of the film after watching his commercial ‘Dragon’. The motion design is very intriguing. I love how he dealt with the shot transitions. The pattern and shape designs are so beautiful and delicate. After watching it many times, I was thinking of making a CG paper-cut scene. So a different animation type will bring visual differences to the film and highlight the climax moment. Apart from the work I mentioned above, many other productions inspired me from different aspects as well.
The film focuses on a young girl coming to terms with the passing of her mother, and the strained relationship with her father. Please share with us how you came to write the film?
I came up with the idea of creating a short film about unresolved grief in spring 2020. My writer and I experienced family members passing away in the past five years. Our family dealt with the grieving by avoiding talking about it. We barely have a chance to face it properly in our life. Adults chose to protect young people by skipping the bittering process. But I felt like I missed something in my life. At the same time, I witnessed a friend of mine suffering from unresolved grief. Her bereavement influenced her mentally and behaviorally in the past 20 years. From her experiences, I decided to write a story about grief. Grief is inevitable in our life circle. Adults have a responsibility to teach young people to face it properly. Having a rough idea, I started to write the scripts. The film is about a teenager, Su, who is forced to deal with her unresolved grief after her mother dies. And she feels estranged from her father, who seems to have already moved on. In the beginning, my teammate and I did all kinds of research about the topic. Three key questions guided us: What is unresolved grief? What helps people move from the grieving process? And how does childhood bereavement change the child mentally and behaviorally? With those questions, we started to make the film.
Please tell us more about the production of the film
The whole process took about a year. My writer Rong and I came up with a rough idea in spring 2020 but then we revised the scripts many times. Considering I have a limited budget and time, I narrowed down the work scope and made the story within 6 minutes. In the beginning, I did concept designs and style frames. My writer Rong and I worked on the story beat and dialogue for a couple of weeks. With all these preparations ready, I pitched my project in our film production department. Some actors and composers reached out to me. After several auditions, I finally got two amazing voice actors, Nia Baker and Joshua Glassburn, to join the team. They are very professional with good attitudes. They often offer good ideas for the character performances. I really enjoyed working with them.
The recording was done in summer 2020 and my animator and I started to work on the animation part. At the same time, I was responsible for modeling, shading, lighting, and rendering. This animation production took a long time to achieve the ideal look. After the picture was locked, we were almost approaching the deadline. My composer Min He and sound designer Jiaqing Gu worked on the music and sound for a month. The final result was good. And I want to thank all my teammates for being very efficient and patient. Even though we have had many changes back and forth in the past eight months. Without them, I could not complete the film on time. The final thing is the credits and poster design. I decided to make the credits and title design on my own. To match the style of the film, I came up with an idea reusing the paper cut. It took about a week to finish it. Overall the whole process was in a rush, but everyone put all their efforts into it. And I’m fortunate to have those amazing people work on my film.
The COVID-19 lockdown has had a major impact on the arts and entertainment industry. How has it impacted you?
The covid had a minor impact on me. In the last year, I mainly stayed at home working on the film. It didn’t bother me a lot because I can use the computer to complete major work. And all my other crews were able to work at home with their facilities. I communicated with other team members online, and it seemed even more efficient. The COVID-19 lockdown did impact some entertainment industries, especially live-action film shooting but other opportunities are showing up at the same time. I got some job opportunities to do some design and animation work. So I worked as a freelancer when I worked on the film. I felt like It was very flexible to manage time and work at home. Because I can work on multiple projects at the same time. I believe things will get better this year, and more opportunities are opening soon.
Are you currently working on any other projects?
Yes, I am working on some personal projects now. One is the ‘There you are’ game. My teammate Rong and I made a video game based on the same story from the film. It is an exploratory narrative game. In the game experience, the player will role-play the girl, Su, to deal with her father’s relationship to move away from the past and accept the loss of her mom. The game was released on itch.io. We are continuing to polish the quality now. We have another VR project coming soon called ARIA. It is a story-based emotional VR sitting experience. We are aiming to release it online by the end of this year.
Where can people find out more about you?
Please feel free to reach out to me on my social platforms. Thank you!
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rui-huang-81a41315a/
Instagram: ruihuang1126, thereyouareanimation
Twitter: ruihuangdesign
Website:https://www.ruihuangart.com/
Studio:https://www.funkydango.com/
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