Teaching Assistant, the school year of 2024 at the Animation Department, Cal State University, Long

In 2024, I had the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant for one year in the newly established independent Animation department at CSULB. These experiences have significantly expanded my understanding of animation and helped fill in some of the gaps in my previous studies during the intense period of my MFA. 

In the Spring semester of 2024, I worked as a TA for the animation department head, Professor Soyeon Kim's Experimental Animation Course, which greatly opened my eyes to see there are more possibilities of approaches for animation filmmaking. I used to firmly believe that the essence of animation and film lay solely in the story content and structure, and while, currently, I still hold this as my personal choice, but my understanding of the "experimental spirit" has made me more open to diverse approaches to filmmaking. I've come to realize that it is the "experimental spirit" that enables us to boldly explore uncharted territory, serving as the driving force for filmmakers to propel the film industry and civilization forward.

Additionally, since the Fall Semester of 2024, I have been assisting in Animation 2 & Story Art in Prof. Walter Santucci's courses. These work experiences are helping me to bridge my learning gap in animatics that was caused by time constraints during my MFA studies. As Pixar's philosophy states, " Art challenges technology. Technology inspires art". Through Prof. Santucci's sharing of a variety of filmmaking techniques and principles plus all the knowledge and experiences that I accumulated previously, I have figured out a foreseeable execution outlet for some works that have been brewing in my mind for a couple of years. 

I deeply appreciate this opportunity, and am so grateful for everything that the professors share in classes!

This SOUND EXPERIMENTS/PRACTICES class contributed the main melody for my ongoing experimental animation, The Falling Fruit.

Soundtrack for The Falling Fruit : A Blend of Live Improvisation and Sound Effects:

The soundtrack for The Falling Fruit originated from an experimental practice class called "Sound Practice." In this class, each participant, including the professor and myself, was asked to read a piece of text—this could be a poem, a diary entry, or a description of a scene or emotion from our own works. Then, the musicians we had invited would improvise a piece of music inspired by each person's reading. Participants would use the improvised music as a foundation, adding various sound effects to create a soundtrack suitable for their projects.

In the class, I read the opening caption of The Falling Fruit and described the story's synopsis. I then used the improvisations of two musicians as the main melody, combining them with sound effects such as church bells and sacred hymns to craft The Falling Fruit's soundtrack.

Illusion is an embodiment of process-driven innovation, a concept that I came to value through my experience as a TA in the Experimental Practice course. In the class, I learned to break away from a strict focus on content and structure, embracing a more experimental approach that prioritizes the creative process itself. This shift in perspective deeply influenced my work on Illusion.

In creating Illusion, I adopted this experimental mindset by focusing on the fluid transformation of animated lines, exploring how they can seamlessly shift from realistic human figures to abstract forms. Rather than being confined to a predefined narrative, the film emphasizes the process of continuous visual transformation, celebrating the elegance and spontaneity of lines in motion. This exploration allowed me to experiment with the pure aesthetics of shape and movement, where the journey of creation became as important—if not more so—than the final result.

By valuing the process of deformation and fluidity, Illusion aligns with the principles of the Experimental Practice course. The film is not just a finished product but an ongoing exploration of artistic possibilities, demonstrating how process-driven innovation can lead to unexpected, boundary-pushing outcomes in animation.

We invited a dancer to demonstrate how students can use body language to communicate with each other. We then recorded the students' free body movements behind a white curtain. Finally, I used these video references to create an experimental animation called "Illusion," which explored the transformation from realistic human figures to abstract subjects.