We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Xindi Zhang a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Xindi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
Being an artist brings more than happiness to my life. Because art-making occupies the majority of my life, it’s hard to differentiate it between a job and a hobby. Working as a regular employee before, I understand how tedious the regular job could be if I’m not devoted to the work. However, when I submerge myself in art creation, because it matters so much to me, it brings strong emotional turbulence that sometimes I wish to work on a regular job. It’s always an ambivalent question: whether to turn your hobby into your job or totally separate your job and your hobby.
Xindi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Xindi Zhang is an indie animation director currently studying at the University of Southern California. Coming from a game art background, Xindi is familiar with game engines such as Unity and Unreal, and various digital art techniques. After she found her true passion in indie animation, Xindi Zhang shifted her career path but brought skills from game art to her animation projects. Unlike her game art, Xindi explores personal and emotional drama through her filmmaking. Her first short, “I’m Good.” started to gain attention from various film festivals.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I graduated from my undergrad, I worked very hard in a game company in Shanghai, even though they didn’t really push me to do so. Until one day, my workaholic lifestyle ruined my spine. The sudden accident wasted a lot of my savings. I laid on my bed for a week, thinking about the meaning of my life. I found out my passion for visual art is storytelling. However, being a game artist wouldn’t let me tell my own story. I worked hard for others’ ideas for years but barely worked for myself. After I returned to my work, I noticed that my interests didn’t align with game studios. My colleagues usually play some games during the lunch break, whereas I always watch animations. This realization reminded me of my first animation class in college. The crude animation I did in that class reflected me the most. Therefore, I decided to take off and pursue what I truly love.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
It was a tough decision for me to shift my career path because I knew how hard it is to feed myself if I wanted to work on indie animations. Society overlooked animation as a form of art and underestimated how prevail animation is in our lives. To make this industry better, it’s essential to raise attention and respect for this art form. Animation could be as diverse and serious as any live-action film. With that notion, the public and entertainment would embrace the variety of animation works, therefore welcoming more indie works. The increasing demand for moving images nowadays should create more opportunities for animation. There should be platforms and organizations to showcase animators’ work and connect them with potential clients, creating a sustainable hub to support this Nitsche group.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.xindizhang.com
- Instagram: @xindizhangart
Image Credits
Personal photo by Elijah Sun