Interview With Digital Artist Lillian Wong

Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Lillian Wong is a 3D artist who graduated with a Bachelors of Media Arts in Animation from Emily Carr University of Art and Designs. Her works are full of colours and personality, with a style that is greatly inspired by her favorite childhood stories, and also her environment.

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What are your inspirations in developing 3D videos and images?

Pixar. I love their style, and how everything has so much thought put into it. The characters that they create are memorable and lovable, and that’s always been a trait that I want all my characters to have. The colours that they choose all complement each other, and every scene is always composed so perfectly and flawless. Pixar is a style that I love, and is a style that I would always try to emulate.

You studied painting, drawing, and printmaking prior to animation. What inspired you to get into 2D and 3D?

I’ve always wanted to get into animation. I started creating my own characters as early as I could remember, and developed a strong passion for drawing. Ever since I was little, I’ve always enjoyed watching cartoons and would imagine how it was created. I knew I wanted to be an artist in the animation industry, but I also wanted to start off with a strong foundation in traditional arts. I went to school for studio art to strengthen my skills in drawing, colour theory, composition, and just the basic knowledge of art, to better prepare myself for what lies ahead. I believe having strong background knowledge of art foundations has made me a better artist overall, and has made working in 3D easier.

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What techniques/tools do you use in creating your work?

I mostly use Autodesk Maya and Softimage for creating my models and rigging them, and use Photoshop for texturing.

A technique that I use quite often when creating my work is taking someone else’s style of a model that I like, and trying my best to mimic the style, but at the same time, adding my own unique style to it. I find that I can learn so much from trying to mimic another person’s style, and I also grow so much more in my techniques.

Also, having lots and lots of references is very important when creating anything!

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Tell me about your experience in making the RentGeek video?

It was a great experience working on the RentGeek video, and I learnt so much from every aspect of it. It was a lot of fun collaborating with other talented artists, and we were all able to get along very well. We worked really great as a team, and everyone was working equally as hard to make the best video possible for our client. Since no one lives close to anyone else, we did most of our commutating through emails and Facebook, and shared our files through our Dropbox. Near the end of production, everyone gave me their files for me to composite it all and sync up with the sounds, and were in charge of any changes that were assigned to us. Overall, it was great, and I would do it again and with the same crew.

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What achievement are you most proud of so far?

I would have to say getting accepted into Emily Carr University and graduating with a Bachelors of Media Arts would have to be my proudest moment. Emily Carr University was THE dream school, and to have gotten accepted into the Animation Program at EC was a dream come true. It took a lot of hard work and motivation for creating the portfolio for that got me accepted; Sleepless nights painting away in my basement, countless hours drawing away in my little black sketchbook, and the stress of just the application in itself.