Conversations with Yello Ugly Mug

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yello Ugly Mug.

Please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
YELLO UGLY MUG is a team of two animation directors: Muling Tzai and Olivia Lin. We became thesis partners and co-created a short animated film, Land of No Man, upon graduating from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2026. We grew up in different places — Taiwan and New Jersey, but we found common grounds in Asian culture, exploring fun visuals and the passion for sharing genuine feelings.

Before working together, we had little knowledge of each other. It wasn’t until our junior year of college, when Hurricane Milton was approaching Sarasota, Florida that we really bonded. We had to evacuate on short notice, and ended up renting a small Airbnb with our other friends as shelter. With no electricity for nearly a week, the only things we could do to kill time was playing card games and brainstorming for a film idea together.

We were both really drawn to the process of filmmaking by the end of school — seeing how a small idea becomes a story that moves others. There are many more mediums in animation we want to try, and many more worlds we want to create.
Which is why we decided to extend our partnership as YELLO UGLY MUG. Since then, we’ve been focusing on running the festival circuit for Land of No Man, as well as some collaborative commercial projects we can’t announce yet. There are a lot of things to figure out on our own, it is a little scary but also so much fun!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
During the making of Land of No Man, our timeline was always really tight. There was this mixed-media sequence we wanted for the film but were unsure of what approach to use that would still integrate seamlessly with the rest of the 3D film. With only a week left before a major deadline, we realized not only were we still debating what material to use, we also didn’t have the proper equipment to shoot anything. At first we were going to try using slime until we found out the Neighborhood Walmart only had blind boxes. Suddenly gambling twenty dollars on getting blue instead of fluorescent orange didn’t sound like a good idea anymore. Then we were driving around at 8pm on a Saturday night trying to find this specific cord, HDMI type-d to USB cable, to connect our loaned camera to our laptop. Since neither of us had a car at school, we asked a friend to help us drive to Walmart, Target, and Best Buy in exchange for a boba from KungFu Tea. We eventually found it and came home around 10pm, only to find out it still doesn’t work! We sat on the couch defeated for a good 30 minutes that night.

But when our lives are not in the chaotic process of filmmaking, there are also quiet weeks where we would be sitting there thinking “maybe we can’t do this.” Though it may sound cliche, believing that this is the right path for us and the right time to do it, became the most important mindset to push ourselves through. Whenever a friend, a stranger or family shares their thoughts from watching our film, the joy we felt through these exchanges are so unique. I think we will always be after that feeling.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We deliver organic and heartfelt stories through meticulously crafted animation. Both me and Olivia do not have that one pipeline across animation that we want to focus on, we like to participate in every stage of the production. From the storyboarding and visual development of pre-production to the finished work, there are always a lot of discussions involved. A lot of times we get excited and entertained by the ugly drawings we both would quickly do to explain our vision to each other. We hope to direct another animated short or an episodic piece in the future!

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
We are called YELLO UGLY MUG because we like mugs and we also believe there is a special appeal in ugly drawings.

The day we decided to work together we met up in a coffee shop downtown and ordered a strawberry matcha and a vanilla iced latte that both came in these wavy glass mugs. Fast forward a year and a half, we met up again at the same coffee shop, this time to come up with a name for our new studio. Remembering those wavy glass mugs and with a shared love for ugly drawings, we came up with the name YELLO UGLY MUG.

Pricing:

• If you have an idea in mind, or like our animation, let’s have a chat!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yellouglymug.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yellouglymug
• Other: yellouglymug@gmail.com