Knock-Knock Animation 動畫導演
Animation Director at Knock-Knock Animation
莊絢淳 Nick Chuang
YEARBOOK 2024
Nick Chuang－Secret Strat “A” for Character Animation
Hi! I’m Nick Chuang, Knock-Knock Animation studio's animation director. I graduated from the College of Design at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. My student animation project “The Magical Eyeball” (2009) has received Germany's Red Dot Design Award and several international film festival awards. This work is also the first work from Taiwan to be an Official Selection in Austria’s Prix Ars Electronica Animation Festival, a top-level event in this field. My later animation projects – “Switch Man” (2015), “My Son NN” (2018), and “Mazu Pilgrimage” (2020) – have been shown at 220 film festivals and won more than 40 awards. My works had been screened in 15 countries: Taiwan, the US, Canada, France, the UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Austria, Russia, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Brazil, and Mexico.
My studio specializes in playful character design and performance animation. Our designs’ cute style and eye-catching creativity closely adheres to business thinking, attracting many international brands to partner with us: Disney, LINE, Morinaga, Tencent Games, Vieshow Cinemas, Muvie Cinemas, Pandora, Bondee, and more. Our commercial works “Moloka” (2022) and “The Multiverse of Happy Generation” (2023) won the New York Film Awards and several gold awards. Knock-Knock's works have garnered nearly 300 international awards, awards-nominations, and selections in international film festivals, breaking the award record for single animated short films in Asia.
I remember that the first animation work I submitted to an international film festival was “The Magical Eyeball”, which I created in 2008 before I graduated from NTUST College of Design. Several years later, I developed the concept for my second work “Switch Man” (2015), which has received 205 awards, awards-nominations and shortlisting in many film festivals, breaking the award record for a single animated short film in Asia. My third work, “My Son NN” (2018), and fourth work, “Mazu Pilgrimage” (2020), have received more than 250 international film festival awards and shortlist selections. So far, Knock-Knock’s original video animation “Moloka” (2022) and commercial animation “The Multiverse of Happy Generation” (2023) have won nearly 300 international awards, and that number is still rising. I’m pretty sure now it may not be just luck. Seems like we must have “gotten something right” for our original video animations and commercial animations to win so many international awards.
There are four general concepts that I would like to share with you:
What story themes are most likely to win awards?
I remember the first film festival I participated in was SIGGRAPH Asia held in Japan. The huge selection of works from different countries and in different genres really amazed me. Lots and lots of really interesting “stories that would never appear in Taiwan” appeared in that international film festival. That surprised me: How could there be so many fun, boundary-less ideas that could be turned into stories? It reminded me of when I was studying at university, and how we would always hear that works with themes related to Taiwanese culture were more likely to win awards. When I was a judge in some big competitions in Taiwan, I’d often see that a lot of stories were indeed restricted to some specific themes, which was a pity indeed. What I want to say here is, it’s not that culture-oriented topics are bad. What I want to stress is that the culture-oriented topics are good, but there are still many other topics or stories that also need to be opened up and encouraged, to develop that strong, diversified competitiveness.
My opinions are as follows: If you want your work to be warm, then it needs a sufficient degree of infectiousness. If you want to touch people, then you need plot elements that make people shed tears embedded within the design. If your design is focused on humor or laughs, then you have to make people feel happy. If you want to specially highlight your super cool visual effects, then they have to be cool that people want to fall down in admiration. To sum up, every style and subject has things that could make it awesome. As long as you can identify and properly present them, any theme has a high chance of winning.
Moving people is the most fundamental rule
Once you’ve chosen your theme, the next step is to analyze what the essential elements are to move your audience! This is a very important step, because creating animations and stories is not about making things for yourself or your echo chamber. There may be thousands or tens of thousands of works submitted in an international film festival, which the judging panel needs to review within a short period of time. That means we need to design our films well, so that every second, every scene, possesses hooks that can touch people. Make it so that viewers are naturally directed into the animation's story, evoking vivid emotions. This is not limited to international film festivals; you’ll achieve the same effects in commercial works.
About Appeal
We all know that it is very important to make a work appealing. But the term “appealing” used here doesn’t just refer to being cute. It’s also got to make people really like the thing, really love it. To create appealing elements, stories, emotions, background music, visual effects, performance, and story beats, you need purposeful design. An animation needs many appealing elements if it’s going to make people want to watch it, and then possibly remember it. It requires a lot of observation and effort to achieve true appeal. When we find a good video on the Internet, we tend to just click the follow button; we “just feel like” we “already got it". Adding a video to your playlist doesn’t mean you understand that good work. Instead, to understand what’s good, you need to analyze and deconstruct the work; then you need to practice and learn from those elements, so you can gradually internalize them and become part of your own abilities. Only then will you be able to identify, retrieve, and utilize the superpower of appeal.
In fact, I have a lot more to share about international film festivals. There’s no single 100% guaranteed-winning strategy; however, grasping some good approaches will indeed enhance your chances of winning. I encourage every one of you who loves character animation to really pour your heart into your work. By doing the right things with the right methods, your work will convey the warmth you want to give people. I hope that Taiwan will have more and more new works giving off sparks and warmth on the international stage.
Jumping Outside Yourself
Egotism may be 70% of creating a work. However, if you want to touch people and win awards, you have to jump outside of this 70% frame to figure out better strategies. For example, where do you need to put the laughs? Where does the drama come in? What styles most easily bring out your theme? A plot point may touch you, but will it touch your audience, too? Have you fallen into self-satisfied screenwriting? If the answer is “Yes”, you may end up aimlessly, randomly submitting for thousands of international competitions in a scattershot way. Even if you are lucky enough to be selected, it will be very difficult for you to find a foot in the door at festivals in other different countries. That’s why, you’ll discover, a really outstanding work will be recognized in any film festival, whatever the festival’s home country or focus. Perhaps we should pay as much attention as possible to what these successful works get right.
Disney Tsum-Tsum CM
Designed exclusive themed animations for the full range of Disney Princesses.
MOLOKA
A space-travel-themed animated short film that has won awards from 29 film festivals, including being recognized as Best Animation at the Los Angeles Film Awards (LAFA).
THE MULTIVERSE OF HAPPY GENERATION
An opening animation for an annual brand conference that has won awards in three film festivals, including the New York Film Awards.
Mazu Pilgrimage
A themed short film created during the COVID-19 pandemic, to inspire and encourage people; has won six Gold Awards, including Germany's Red Dot Design Award.
Mr.Cloudy G | Mr. Cloudy's Infinite Inspiration
Knock-Knock launches new IP for the cloud world.
Line Bank | New Year Animation
New Year anicard designed for LINE Bank.