We were lucky to catch up with Haiting Fu recently and have shared our conversation below.
Haiting, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?
It was the year 2014. I was going to attend the SCAD summer program in Lacoste, France. As a Chinese, I will have to apply for a Schengen visa to enter France. By the meantime, my US student visa was going to expire. So I had to fly back to China to update my US visa first, then come back to Atlanta, US to apply for the Schengen visa. But during that time, I will have no valid ID on me and I needed somewhere to stay for a few nights. So I posted it on social media for help. After a day or two, a girl responded on my post and said I can stay at her place during that time. She is a SCAD student too, which is awesome! She not only just offered me a place to stay, showed me around in Atlanta, and also kept me accompany during the visa application process. I was very anxious about the whole visa thing but the God has sent an angel to help me. That is the kindest thing that someone has done for me, and I will remember it forever.
Haiting, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a 2D/3D character animator, working at Primal Screen in Atlanta. I have always enjoy doodling and watching cartoon/anime since I was a kid and I started learning about professional drawing and painting back in high school. Before I enrolled in collage, animation program just started to bloom in China. So I decided to choose it as my career path to see how it goes. I ended up loving it and kept pursuing it in Savannah College of Arts and Design as master degree. Now I am working with other talented people on projects from Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, CNN and etc.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think the society should realize how much time and efforts that artists have to put into their work. Choosing a career path as an artist takes courage and passion since it is very expensive and not high-income guaranteed. People who want to become artists are idealists and dream chasers. They usually love doing what they are doing, but it does not mean that they should do it for free, or very low rate. People sometimes come to me, or my other artist friends, asking for a free drawing or portrait without mentioning the commission fee. It happens more often when they are relatives and friends, and sometimes the artists are too embarrassed to say no to them. I hope that the value of artists are more appreciated and respected.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
As an artist, I love every second when I am working, especially when collaborating with other talents on a great project. Since my graduation in 2016, I have been working on many awesome projects with different artists at Primal Screen, such as “S is for Seasons” for the “letter of the day” sequence on Sesame Street’s 51st season. The piece came out beautifully and I even got teared up when watching the final piece. Sometimes I get to work on my favorite show. We did a trailer for “Adventure Time X Immortals Fenyx Rising”. I animated Finn and Jake, the 2 of the most popular characters of Cartoon Network. It was super exciting to have opportunities like this. I would say that the most rewarding aspect is being a part of creating something fantastic, and bringing happiness to the society.
Contact Info:
- Website: Haitingfu.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/haitingart
- Facebook: Www.facebook.com/haiting.fu
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/haiting-fu
Image Credits
Primal Screen