About Me
I am Cade Lam, an animation student at Freestyle Academy from 2024-2026. Drawing and art have always been a huge part of my life. Ever since I was little I loved drawing characters from my favorite stories and even writing stories of my own. I am someone who believes that creativity is the most important part of human nature. Creativity defines us as humanity and is the reason for everything we have today. I want to be part of a world where creativity is encouraged and embraced.
Some of my core values in life are honesty, integrity, and kindness. These things are all important when it comes to creating a safe and respectful environment. I believe that everyone is deserving of honesty and kindness, no matter what. I also believe that you should always do the right thing, even when no one is watching. I follow these values in everything I do because I want to make sure that everyone I meet knows that they are respected and valued.
Outside of school, I am always working on learning new things and honing my skills. I play cello, I like crocheting, I like making little clay figures, and I’m self-studying Japanese. It can be a lot to balance, especially with school, but I find it extremely rewarding. There’s so many things that I want to make and a whole other world of media I want to watch and read. As I’ve improved in all these skills, I’ve been able to do so much more and I hope to continue learning for the rest of my life.
At Freestyle Academy, I will grew more as an artist. At Freestyle, I learned how to use a wide variety of tools and techniques that will help me achieve my vision for my art. I learned to be more creative. At this school, I was free from all the restrictions of traditional classes. With this newfound freedom, I created more art that was more meaningful to me.
I loved the supportive community we have at Freestyle Academy and how passionate everyone was about creating art. I am incredibly grateful for the space and skills that Freestyle has given me to explore my creativity freely.
Freestyle Experience Reflection
Freestyle forced me to go out of my comfort zone and try a lot of things I never would have tried without Freestyle. It taught me to be more creative and introduced me to so many talented, like-minded individuals.
Portfolio
Documentary
The Documentary Project was one of the longest projects I completed at Freestyle Academy. It involved months of research, conducting interviews with the community, and finalizing my findings in a magazine article and in an animation. This is the animation I created which details the story of my main interviewee, including her struggles with ballet and how cross country helped her build her confidence. A more detailed overview of my process can be found in the Documentary page.
Explorations
Note: read from right to left
The Explorations Project was a chance for me to explore any passion of my choosing and complete a long-term project around it. I chose to try creating a manga because I have always been enthralled by the works of professional manga authors, namely AidaIro which my work was inspired by. Having always wanted to create a manga of my own, I took this project as an opportunity to realize my goal. This is a story about two girls, one human and one vampire, and the tragedy that unfolds. A more detailed overview of my process can be found in the Explorations page.
Narrative 2 Animation
The Narrative 2 Animation was the second group animation I did at Freestyle Academy, and also the first 3D animation I did. My character is the short, muscular one, and he was created using Maya, ZBrush, and Adobe Substance Painter. The animation was done in Maya and edited in Premiere Pro. I learned a lot from this project, including modeling using professional software and how to collaborate on 3D projects. A more detailed overview of my process can be found in the Narrative 2 page.