Hello! My name is Kyle Jhong and I’m a student at Freestyle Academy. At Freestyle, I took classes in Digital Media, Animation, and English, but I’m going to display my Animation work primarily here. Before Freestyle I dabbled in animation, but the program gave me the space to hone my skills through many projects. I’m proud of the work I have produced, and I’m grateful I was surrounded by creative, passionate, and supportive teachers and peers.
Outside of Freestyle, I like to produce music on my laptop and work on my video game, titled “Jaded” on Steam. I’ve enrolled at University of Rochester studying Brain & Cognitive Sciences, although I’d like to explore my breadth of interests more before choosing a definitive path.
I would like to know what I could improve to make my projects more visually interesting. How could I make motions more interesting? Are there any shots that are too cluttered, where I could improve my staging?
Thanks so much for taking the time to review my work.
Animated Documentary
For this project I interviewed my dad, Eugene Jhong. As an early programmer at Google, my dad was a materialist. When he realized he was still not happy despite achieving this level of materialist success he decided to pursue spirituality. His conversion from skepticism to open-mindedness gives insight into the façade of materialist success. I valued the insightful conversations I had with my dad the most throughout this project. He is a greatly intelligent, calm, and open-minded person, and picking up the little pieces of wisdom he dropped was very enjoyable.
I used Adobe PhotoShop to animate this, drawing with a pastel brush and animating on the timeline. Working on a tight timeline, I used a more simple style so I could focus on the color and motion, and it really paid off as I was able to finish just in time. I pushed myself to make every shot interesting, but not so cluttered that it distracted from my dad’s words. Overall this is the project I’m proudest of because it was incredibly ambitious and the message is meaningful to me.
Animation Reel
For the production of this reel, I used Adobe After Effects. I enjoyed making the motions and transitions in this video, although they are very simple. For the individual projects within the reel, I’ve used programs like PhotoShop, DragonFrame, Maya, ZBrush, and Substance Painter. I’m proud of the breadth of skills I’ve gained through completing animation projects in many different mediums.
Reflection
My time at Freestyle has been invaluable, and I’m sad it’s coming to an end. I’ve met so many inspiring people I hope to keep in contact with after I leave to college. I’ve gained an incredible introduction to a whole new set of digital-media skills in Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and more.
Freestyle has allowed me to explore a lot of animation mediums and improve animation principles like easing and staging. With not a lot of prior drawing experience outside pixel art, I was a little worried when we first started, but now I feel much more self-assured in my ability to animate. I’m not entirely set on pursuing animation as a career, but it has been gratifying to animate for class and for my game outside of school.