Today we’d like to introduce you to Hsin-Ting Lin.
Hi Hsin-Ting, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born and raised in Taiwan, and I came to the US as a motion designer/animator a few years ago. I found my interest in Doodle since I was little. Even though I studied International Business when I was an undergraduate, I took some design, media, and photography courses and also double majored in digital content at college. Little by little, I built my skill sets differently from my peers. However, I didn’t start as a designer or an artist at the beginning of my career. It was because people around me always told me that designers were stressed and had to work overtime very often in Taiwan, not to mention their pay less than others. Thus, instead, I started as a marketing executive in an advertising team, who also corporated some of my computer skills at work. While after one year of work, I realized that my strongest skills at work were still my design senses and skills. Therefore, I honed my design skills more so that I can work professionally. Although at the beginning, I still worried that I would hate design and animation once I pursue it as my profession, I decided to pay for my passion and attended the School of Visual Arts for my master’s degree.
Fortunately, I didn’t lose my passion for design after I worked as a designer, even though there are always ups and downs during the journey, which I interpreted through my animation film “Delivery”. I also luckily had the opportunity to work in a creative agency and a design studio. This journey keeps providing me with new and analytic perspectives on the details and techniques behind when I watch animations and ads. Besides, my eyes tend to be caught by the motion design of the title sequences, main titles, and advertising unconsciously, which triggers my exploration of multidisciplinary design and animation, including 2D cel animation, motion graphics, and stylized 3D design and animation. Overall, my journey in motion design encompasses not only design and animation but also illustration and anything in between.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s not a smooth journey, for sure. To name a few, the uncertainty of the job market, the restriction of the visa, and the barrier of speaking a foreign language are all external obstacles to me. Whereas, I think the top of the challenges for me was the inner fear of incapability. There were always full of stunning works around us, which also caused me to lose my confidence.
Despite these never-ending obstacles, I believe in taking that insufficiency as the motive to push myself forward. Even though there is always someone who acquires the skills quicker and does better than me, I should focus on learning from them, and that’s how they came to their places as well. This mindset greatly helped me when I worked at my dream studio with those award-winning artists.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a designer/animator interested in making artwork based on human activities in daily life, extending my keen market sensitivity to observations of the city’s vibrancy and drawing inspiration from various living moments on the streets. I enjoy making joyful and playful motion graphics with versatile visual styles ranging from organic 2D illustration to 3D minimalism, which is mostly simple but full of adorable characteristics at the same time.
So far, the highlight of my work is my animation film “Delivery.” The film depicted a story I’d like to tell and the style I liked to achieve at that time. It also laid the foundation of my creativity in 3D pretty much. I also found that I like to infuse the imperfection of the human touch into the styles or textures of my works so that the viewers can relate it to their own. Thus, personally, I prefer to start with an illustration and stylize them in 3D rather than generating realistic artwork by computer. Even though my style might evolve as time passes, developing my personality is important for creating my work.
I also strive to incorporate more of my identity and anything representing where I’m from. Hopefully, there are more coming soon!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hsintina.work
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/hsintina.work
