Since I was teenage and studying in the vocational school, my major was Graphic Design. Later when I went to study master in New York, my major was still Graphic Design. However, my first international award had begun from animation, although I was not originally from the animation department, I was very interested in it, I bought books and attended some classes for self-studying, and cheeky to ask seniors everywhere. I think if the perseverance is enough strong, luck will come. After <Cutting> had been nominated in the Underground Short Film Festival, Berlin, Germany in 2007, I had continued to win the awards other international film festivals such as I CASTELLI ANIMATI in Italy, Annecy in France, and ACM SIGGRAPH in USA.

Animation is cool, and disfavored by very few young people. In my twenties, I was fascinated by this creation that requires highly technical inputs, and day and night dig into the latest special effects released on foreign professional websites. However, the technique of software has been changing very rapidly, and moreover, new things learned today become old tomorrow. Some splendid technique that I found cool in the past has become not much particular by now. Therefore, I am not only willing to share animation techniques, but also a belief. No matter what your background is, you can give it a try as long as you like it.

Anyone wants to make animation must have a story in heart, and the story is the script. Visualization of the script coupled with the narrative element, "time", can become the animation clips. To make the picture says more stories, or to let the picture speak more in place, we need to learn so many camera movement techniques, editing skills, and special effects. I cannot tell you these aren’t important. These techniques are like the swords of warrior, of course, more attention must be better, but if a mortal get the Yitian Jian (Heaven Sword) or Tulong Dao (Dragon Sword), what achievements can they obtain? Mysteriously speaking, being a knight-errant is simply the heart, and the heart of an animation is the story script.

We cannot deny that "technique" is the flesh and blood of animation, but the more important should be that "idea" is the soul of animation. There is a saying in Eastern Physiognomy, the outward appearance springs from our heart. A man’s appearance interprets his innermost world, whereas the implication of an animation relies on how it is to be presented. When you come up with a story to tell, you had better begin to plot your storyline, write or draw, rather than dig into technical problems, which can be made up later.

Here I am going to share my two animated works, <Cutting> and <Suitcase Travel>, and talk about their stories and my competition experiences.

<Cutting> is my first animated short film. Like many people, when I was writing a script, the idea got stuck, and felt like headache for not knowing how to arrange the story. So, I figured out a solution, tentatively called "head and tail method".  Firstly, setting up the beginning and the end of a story, and then start imagining what should really happen from the beginning to the end, and gradually arrange the appropriate, interesting plots, directing the movie to the pre-set ending. This method does make me more efficiently complete the script, and better grasp the contrast between the beginning and the ending of a whole movie, thus extends the story tension.

In my senior year, I visited Li,Huan-Chang, the master of paper cutting in Taiwan, for a project in university. Master Li’s skill is brilliant; with a pair of golden scissors in his hand going around, he turns a paper into red vines or delicate patterns. Sadly he feels, no one has yet come to succeed his heritage. In the past, paper-cutting used to be important traditional arts, and had been playing significant roles in people’s life. However, it is not as favored anymore as it used to be. He said, paper-cutting is no longer matching the modern city. I was deeply touched by his saying, and became his apprentice. I also feel paper-cutting can be involved to modern life once again, and determine to fulfill this ideal with an animation work.

Hence, when writing the script of <Cutting>, the beginning scene was set to be the paper-cutting master cutting paper, while the ending was the whole city covered by paper-cuts. Then what should be organized between the beginning and the end? I listed my ideas step by step: First, the paper-cuts are vines that widespread along the streets. Second, the paper-cuts keep growing and climb from the streets to high buildings. Third, the paper-cuts bloom into various patterns of flower and birds on the top of floor. Such fragment of thinking can not only echo the beginning and ending, but also lead to a rhythm of story during the process.

After finished the script <Cutting>, I decided to shoot several real street scenes in Taipei city, then synthesized it into paper-cuts, which presents a visual art that paper-cuts has returned to the city, extended and widespread again. With this concept, I began to learn 3D real shot synthesis. At this moment I have clear objectives and firm beliefs to improve my knowledge on the software required. The technical problem had been soon overcome. The entire progress of making the animation has a great rhythm and is enjoyable.

The next year after finish <Cutting>, I went to New York to study. As one is wandering outside, the foreign land is inexplicable soft. But New York is beautiful, with four distinct seasons, and different to Taiwan. I had just arrived here, felt anything fresh even an ordinary street. Then suddenly I wanted to make a short film and shoot the New York scene to talk a traveler likes me with the subtle pleasure and loneliness in the heart.

I had written <Suitcase Travel> script, in fact, which describes my self’s fantasy of travel. Can you imagine travelling in a world inside the suitcase? One day, a girl found an extremely large suitcase in a forest; she got in, and started a wonderful journey. In the world inside the suitcase, various kinds of boxes rained from heaven, and she traveled around everywhere in her suitcase, but need not take any means of transport, even on the grass. She saw a huge mountain piled up by suitcase ... Finally, she brought back a suitcase ​​from this fantasy world to commemorate the end of a happy journey. A bit nonsensical, exactly what I was feeling, and suddenly I came to New York with carrying baggage, felt like some dream had been realized, and like just beginning to chase a dream.

Animation Work＜Suitcase Travel＞ － Script

<Suitcase Travel> had been shot in Manhattan, Central Park, New Jersey, Queens, Brooklyn, and other places of New York, and the shooting process was very hard, but for a country bumpkin who just arrived in New York, it was very interesting. In the second year in New York, even if you had told me that traveling in these places can be stamped and exchange for prizes, I did not bother to toss. You can feel this from the movie. <Suitcase Travel> fills with the freshness for a wandering newcomer, and at that time, New York was full of surprises for me.

Animation Work＜Suitcase Travel＞

Animation Work＜Suitcase Travel＞ － suitcase

Animation is so interesting, as long as there is an idea, you can do, to achieve, to make pictures tell a story, and let others to appreciate, to understand, or in the future while looking back, let you see your self’s original “heart” and  the passed roads more. Such an emotional idea is universally accurate; as long as you tell a story in your heart faithfully, it’s not difficult to win prizes in international competitions. If you are interested in animation, you can begin right now.