We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yuxin Yang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yuxin below.

Alright, Yuxin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most impactful event for me so far has been my undergraduate graduate creation in 2022, Before Her Body Left, which also marks my debut work. It’s a surrealistic animated piece that delves into the complex relationship between self-acceptance, personal identity, and self-awareness. My experimentation primarily centered around the conceptualization and narrative of the entire film, utilizing my consistent two-dimensional digital art to preserve my current artistic style to the fullest extent. This work has been selected for over 30 film and animation festivals worldwide, including well-known ones such as Ottawa, Espinho, and Bucheon, and has also received several Best Student Animation awards too.
Beyond the accolades, the most significant impact of this work on me has been a shift in my perspective on the world around me. Prior to creating this animation, I focused more on expressing my internal emotions. However, through animation, especially in portraying characters and human nature, I’ve developed a greater focus on others after this creation, enjoying to observe social behaviors and attempting to fathom a person’s motivations. This process has been quite fascinating. Secondly, it has opened up my perception of time. I’ve transitioned from seeing an object to envisioning a sequence or a period of time. For example, when I see an orange rotted in the refrigerator, I seem to be able to imagine the journey from being whole to decaying, evoking a wondrous sense of time and space travel.
Additionally, this work has brought numerous new possibilities into my life. It has introduced me to more peers at animation festivals, led me to get scholarships to enroll at the California Institute of the Arts for top-tier education, and eventually landed me an internship at an outstanding animation studio. Since creating this work, my life experiences and industry exposure have continued to grow like a snowball rolling downhill.
Now, this work is guiding me in the production of my second short film. Building upon the themes explored in the first piece, I am delving into the continued exploration of caring for the psychological and emotional needs of individuals. Therefore, in my second work, I am focusing on the topics of individual historical traumas and how to cope with them.

Yuxin, 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?

【about me】————————-
I am Yang Yuxin, an independent animation director and freelance illustrator from China. I studied animation at Tsinghua University in Beijing for my undergraduate degree. Currently, I reside in Los Angeles and am pursuing a master’s degree in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts.I am not a natural-born animation director, my career choice is the result of my creative instincts and continual self-questioning.

【what type of creative works you provide】————
I primarily create independent animated short films. Having led a team of creative individuals, I have successfully produced an animation project in 2022 called “Before Her Body Left,” which has garnered worldwide recognition in over 30 animation festivals, including selection for prestigious events such as the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Currently, in my spare time, I am leading a team of 10 individuals to create my second short animated film.
Simultaneously, as a summer intern on the development team at Starburns Industries, I am taking my first steps into understanding the mature animation industry. My main role involves further developing early creative ideas for animation projects, primarily shaping the early stylistic concepts for animation projects in the creative funding stage, providing feedback on scripts to help potential projects secure enough investment for smooth production.

While the transition from artist to a commercial environment may seem like a significant leap, it is not contradictory to my initial artistic intentions. Compared to specific production technical roles, I find more enjoyment in positions akin to a director or art director, guiding the overall direction of an animation project. Furthermore, returning to my core belief of “creating to prove my existence,” I have always believed that expression must come from experience, and experience comes from the breadth of life. This implies having a richer life, which is an essential part of my dream pursuit. Therefore, to lead a fulfilling life, I am seeking a mode that fits me between artistic expression and commercial income, enabling me to sustain myself—after all, starving artists cannot create.
Hence, I am shifting my focus towards facing a broader audience while embedding profound philosophical expressions beneath the commercial facade in animated projects. This shift has drawn my attention to the American adult animation landscape, from “Rick and Morty” to “Bojack Horseman,” where I see this potential. Consequently, I have come to Los Angeles in the United States to study and began an internship at an animation company that worked on the earlier seasons of “Rick and Morty” during my first summer break. I hope to eventually establish an outstanding animation studio to produce high-quality content of this nature someday.

【how you got into your area】———————-

My creative instinct is a natural behavior. When I was in kindergarten, I loved to draw and paint. I felt an impulse to create on any blank surface I saw(table/wall/street…), It was a natural form of expression, and I found joy in creating.
However, as I matured in middle school, I started feeling a sense of emptiness. I began pondering the reason for my existence. At first, I thought I was my image (clothes/appearance/hairstyle), but I realized that my external presentation was influenced by consumerism and media trends, and human interactions also involved a tendency to “perform”, making the image unreal to me. Then I speculated, am I my history? Are the events I’ve experienced what define me as a person? But I later discovered that human memory is unreliable, and personal experiences are private, making it impossible to rely on history to confirm who you are or to make others truly understand you.

So, at that young age, I quickly fell into a period filled with nihilism and pessimism. I believed that human existence itself was meaningless. I couldn’t find out who I was or why I existed, and the sense of meaninglessness engulfed me.
Finally, I returned to art and found the answer within it. I am my expression, my creation, which includes painting, poetry, and everything related to art. Only what is created through my perspective, thoughts, feelings, and crafted by my own hands can truly represent me. My value will exist eternally within my creations and will continue to exist even after my death. As long as my creations can be presented to others, and even move and inspire them, I will also exist eternally.
After realizing this, art became the main theme of my life. Without hesitation, I became an art student in high school, determined to become an artist.
In my freshman year, I began to consider which art form to study. I wanted something that could satisfy my natural inclination for painting, allow for free expression, and enable me to maintain my passion professionally in the adult world. After a year of visiting museums and galleries, I discovered experimental animation, a multidimensional medium that highly respects the creative expression of the artist, which immediately attracted me. Thus, I entered the field of animation, and it was there that I found my passion.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There are two types of value, one for oneself and one for others. Setting aside the somewhat selfish core of “proving my own existence” (of course, I believe human selfishness is instinctual), the most important value is creating experiences for others.
The value of this “experience” comes in two forms. The first is making everyday life more interesting. I believe humans are aesthetic beings, which is also a sign of human evolution. Through viewing works of art, people gain a new perspective and aesthetic experience, thus enriching this seemingly mundane world with various rich interpretations.
The other form of “experience” is creating a deep psychological connection for people. Humans are also social beings, and communicating with another soul is our instinct. Therefore, people enjoy gossip and chatting to understand another person more. Art, originating from the unique experience of an individual life, allows you to see the artist’s deepest feelings. You can see what this person cares about, worries about, enjoys, and fears through the artwork. This sense of emotional connection is something that no other industry can create.
Moreover, animation as an art form is multidimensional compared to other art forms, offering countless possibilities for experiences, from visual to auditory, and from time to space. Therefore, I believe that creating experiences is the most important value of animation.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Just as I would answer the question of how I entered this industry, “proving my existence” is the ultimate goal that supports my continuous artistic creation—I exist through my creations.
Therefore, creating art is my sole way of combating the existential void in life. While I have ventured into the commercial environment, maintaining the creation of my personal animation projects in my spare time is crucial to preserving an original intention. Perhaps in the future, I will explore how to integrate the impact of this “creation” into the commercial sphere, thereby expanding my influence to maximize the meaning of my existence.
Another driving force I have gained from my recent internship experience is the concept of “forever young.” I have found that in the adult animation industry, my colleagues and superiors are brimming with personality, creativity, and boundless imagination. Aliens, space, evolution, potatoes, wizards, and magic. These themes are densely present in the world of adults, which has been a delightful surprise for me. I have realized that what moves me the most in the animation industry is to be able to surrounded by a group of people, regardless of age, who are filled with childlike wonder and imagination.
Therefore, in order to lead a meaningful life and stay forever young, I will continue to explore the path of animation art relentlessly.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yangyuxin.squarespace.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ayang_anima/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yyxanima

Image Credits

the one with the laurels is the work Before Her Body Left, other 3 are screenshoot from other personal animation works.