38sr | Art Blog

Hello, I'm Li Cree! | 2D Animator, Storyboard Artist & Character Designer | 28 | NY-LA | ENG | 한국어 | 日本語 | Business Inquiry: [email protected] | DO NOT REPOST | Currently at WB Animation |

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Industry Qs

For anyone who wants to send an ask about the animation industry, please add #industryQs in the ask! I figured this would be a good way to distinguish these questions since they require a bit more time and thought to answer haha.  Thank you to those so far who have sent in questions, it’s been fun to hear them! ^^

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I was rewatching/ listening to worlds beyond numbers and only just realize you animated the trailer for the first season!? I was wonder how does that work like did one of the casts reached out to you or did you see a posting for it??? I'm a huge fan of DND live shows and was always curious how artist get these types of opportunities anyways hope you have a great day - NYC DND anon

Hello NYC DND! Oh yea, I did animate half of the WBN first season trailer a while back. Man that brings back memories haha. I actually was approached by the trailer's director to work on the project. Apparently, they had followed my social media for quite some time and when they saw my anime work that's what gave them the push to email me. I'm still a newb when it comes to DND so I had no idea what the campaign was or who the cast was. Luckily, I have a friend (her name is Danica) who is a huge fan of D20 and WBN so she helped me a lot on understanding the characters, the world and overall story. Fun fact: She's now does the storyboard animatics for WBN and that was a case of she made a fan animatic of one of their sessions and it caught the cast's attention. So they hired her to make animatics for their show now. So yea, WBN was a case where the director noticed my work and personally reached out to me and then in turn purposed to the team/cast to hire me as the co-animator to the director (they can animate too). They said yes and they rest is history haha.

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hello ! i got here from your 2022 animation reel and i enjoyed watching it a lot :) , i have a question because i would like to learn how to draw simple anime faces / characters during my school holidays but i do not know where to start , i tried following youtube guides for 2 weeks but i feel like I'm making little progress , drawing perspective is especially tough for me >_< .

Hello Espen! Ah, I see. I'm assuming you're still pretty early in your art career/development so right now you might be feeling growing pains. It's all good! Every artists goes through this process so don't feel like you're making little progress. In fact, you're probably making a lot of progress but you don't see it just yet. In regards to your question, the best way to learn the specific thing you want to draw is to study artists who draw the way you would like to. While Youtube videos are a good start, it's also imperative you research the artists you want to emulate and do drawing studies of their works. This way you can better understanding the artistic decisions being made to achieve the visual style you like. And once you start building that muscle memory doing repetition in studies, you'll be able to execute that in your original work. But if I'm being honest, there's never really going to be a moment where you've "figured it all out". As artists, we're always constantly learning and growing so as long as you're open to that you'll continue to develop at a good pace.

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hi li ! I'm from Singapore and been following your animation journey for awhile now , I have a question that I would like you to answer , when you work on different animes / shows , does it take you sometime to adjust to the art style or line work that they demand and if it is easier after many years in the industry?

Hello hello! Oh, adapting to different art styles.... I do think has you gain more experience you'll be able to develop the skills to analyze, deconstruct and reconstruct different visual styles much quicker. But the actual act of "drawing on-model" will still always take some time. Personally, it takes me 3 episodes to adjust to a visual style of a show (regardless if it's animation, character design or storyboards). You'll never hit a home run on the first try so I think giving yourself 3-5 episodes to get acclimated is generally what U see with other artists and within myself.

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Holy shit, have you read My Adventures with Diana Prince on ao3???? The author actually referenced YOU as their inspiration! 10 whole chapters from just a single piece of fanart! You HAVE to read it if you haven't yet - it's got everything! Kaiju Ivo fight! Dates and polycule memes! A freaking friendly battle between Clark and Diana! Thank you for drawing that one piece of art that gave us THAT 💖💖💝💝💝

YES! I've actually heard that someone wrote a whole fanfic from that one piece of art and it makes me so happy so many people have been reading it! This is honestly greatest honor you can give me. Fuck Oscars and Emmys give me ao3 fanfic of my art haha.

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This is more of an observation than a question, but your drawing of Aquaman in MAWS style is giving me Sailor Moon vibes🌙

I am a fan of Sailor Moon (and magical girls in general)!

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Hi, ms. Cree. I am an IMMENSE fan of MAWS! I ADORE your art-style for the characters. I know you’re only the character designer, but do you know how much longer until Season 3 premieres?

Sorry but under legal contract I can’t provide those details whether or not I have the exact dates. 😅 Please be patient and stream the first two season episodes in the meantime to help boost the show and tell the studio you want more!The team is working very hard to give yall a fun season 3.

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I honestly LOVE your character designs for MAWS and your own fanart! 😍

Congrats on the new series, "My Adventures With Green Lantern"! 😁

Finally, if it's not too much of a bother, how would you draw the character designs for your ideal Justice League? Or, at least, what founding members would you choose for it?

Ooooh hmmmmmmmm, I'd probably go pretty basic with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern...probably add in Flash and Hawk Girl. I'm honestly more of a Teen Titans fan when it comes to DC teams though so I have a lot of opinions on that haha.

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It’s Superman’s birthday and to celebrate the MAWS crew has new merch for fans! Available online at HotTopic~

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Incredible insight. I assume the clashing of two difficult cultures caused many of the issues with JJBA: Stone Ocean after Netflix funded and exec'd a Japanese studio?

I wouldn’t know since I did not work on the production nor do I wish to spread misinformation.

When it comes to shows that are collaborations from both America and Japan, there’s just a whole other added level of obstacles that is dependent on each production’s needs and wants. I’ve worked on two anime productions that had ties with American studios: Moonrise and Lazarus. Both of those productions had varying degrees of American corporation decisions that manifested in different ways. So, it’s hard to give a catch all answer for other shows that might on paper say it’s a collaboration between both animation spaces when in reality each production has issues unique to them and you can’t really predict/assume every show goes through the same obstacles.

But does that mean there are cultural differences that can cause friction? Yes that does happen sometimes. American storytelling is inherently different than Japanese storytelling in not just visual style but in editing, pacing, hell even down to the story structure (American uses three act while Japan adopts a four act structure). If you’re not in the same page on a singular vision and goal, it’s only inevitable you’ll run into disagreements that will trickle down into the production team who has to produce the art for the show. And this isn’t just for American x Japanese productions, but really any production that has two different cultures and pipelines come together.

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hi li cree :3 , I have a question regarding the show invincible , i was wondering if you knew why the show's animation is extremely simplistic and lack proper details / lighting , I think any Japanese studio could have done it better and make it more exciting for the fans to watch .

Hm….okay. Normally I would have deleted this kind of question but I do want to shed a little light since I think the audience’s scope of animated productions isn’t giving them the context they need to understand why American animated studios don’t look like anime even though anime is working with less time and money (usually). I want to preface my thoughts and opinions on this matter are not the absolute nor should be taken as the gospel truth. This is coming from the perspective of someone who has and is still currently working in both American and Japanese animation professionally. Spoiler alert: Both sides have broken systems and it’s a matter of choosing your poison.

Firstly, no I do not know the full details as to why Invincible looks the way it does. While I have theories as to why I don’t want to spread misinformation since I have friends who did work on the show and I know for a fact there that they did their damnest to make the best show possible. The sad truth is that there are factors beyond the artists’ control that have serious altering effects on how a show is made, looks and even distributed. And those decisions, Anon, are things you as an audience member have no idea about and that’s okay. Because you just want to enjoy your media haha, but let me pull the curtain back a bit give more context why every show you watch is a miracle.

Secondly, and I’m trying to say this as nicely as possible, please don’t say something like “a Japanese studio would have done better”. I do understand from your perspective Anon you might be referring to how Japanese studios can make visually diverse and appealing shows with smaller budgets and shorter schedules. But please understand even in Japanese animation, their pipeline isn’t perfect either (just like the American animation pipeline). Both spaces suffer from the same issue of the money that’s invested in animation doesn’t get distributed to the artists properly. It just manifests in different ways when you compare the two pipelines (at least that’s what I’ve noticed while working in both spaces). Each side is doing their best to make the show as great as possible, but there is still higher executive management decisions that can have ripple effects on how a show turns out.

For the case of Japanese animation, I think we can all agree that how they view animation isn’t the same as America. Animation in Japan is very much a medium of storytelling and consumed by all ages while in America it tends to be put down as lesser than live action. In addition to that, anime doesn’t really have the same executive structure that happens in American animation studios. By that I mean, high up executives very much have a say in how a show looks, how the story is written, and even who gets voiced (ie. celebrity voice casting). These executives can sometimes be helpful, others not. Sometimes they come late after you’ve already storyboarded a whole episode and one executive can say, “I just don’t get why this character has to fight though” and that can derail a whole entire episode in order to fix that one executive note.

Stuff like that doesn’t really happen in anime (and if it does that stuff is decided way before layout and genga begins). I’ve never worked on an anime where an executive gave a note that changed a whole episode at a whim. And I think because there isn’t that constant back and forth that’s why artists who work on anime have the literal space to make the source material shine (though that does not change the fact that better working conditions are needed). In America, that just isn’t the case and I think what audiences are feeling with Invincible in particular is how that corporate executive decision making can hurt a show not just on a visual level but also hurt the health of a production. And most of the time, the people who actually make the show…the people I know personally who go in day to day into the studio, storyboard artists, designers, production people…they do want make a good looking show. They really do. And I’m including the animators in overseas studios who also want to make a good show and do their best work. They all seriously do but they aren’t given the time, money and space to flourish. There is so much more behind how animation is produced on a large scale like TV than just “the artists were lazy” or “these artists would have done it better”. The money management, production scheduling, executive notes, safety and practices notes, legal notes, casting non celebs or casting celebs, studio politics, and just so much more that has ripple effects to the shows you watch.

Every show that makes it on screen is quite literally a miracle. Whether it’s American or Japanese, so much not just work but passion and love goes behind it. Every production artist/worker wants to give you the audience the best story they can deliver under the circumstances that are often not ideal. In the case of anime, you have the autuership and space from corporate meddling but not the time and money. For America, you have a little more time and money but not the autuership due to corporate meddling right from the development stage.

I hope that didn’t come off as abrasive, Anon. I just don’t want you to think the production artists on Invincible weren’t giving it their all for the show. Also, I don’t want you to misunderstand that giving it to a Japanese studio is the golden solution to every American show’s problems. It’s way more than how the final animation looks, it’s deep rooted in the system in which animation is produced in America that is broken and doesn’t allow us to flourish. And Japan does have its problems too (the grass isn’t always greener on the other side). So I hope next time you watch a show and you notice if the animation looks a little off, instead of thinking X studio would have done this better…I hope you think about “Oh, I wonder what factors within the studio didn’t allow the artists to flourish like how I see on this other show.” Often times, it’s the system that isn’t benefitting the workers anymore rather than the workers not doing their jobs.

I hope that answered your question.

[38sr]

babe new my adventures show dropped

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hello :) i was curious what considerations you have before taking up a gig if a studio reaches out to you and if you will become more inclined to work with them if it an animation / anime you enjoy a lot ?

Hello again, Beyonder! Hm, to be honest I have an hierarchy of what I consider when choosing projects: People, Project, Payment People meaning who I will be working with and will they challenge me? Will I like working with them? What can I learn from the people on the project? Project meaning if I vibe with the production's story tone. Bonus points if it's something I'm already a fan of but that doesn't heavily sway my decision as much as it used to a couple years ago haha.

And lastly payment. I'm not saying I don't care about money (I do 'cause bills gotta be paid). But I don't really chase money or big titles that would get me the big bucks. As long as my needs are meant, I'm okay. I think overall, especially since this year is my 8th year working in animation, what I want out of my career is to keep making cool stories with people I admire/love working with.

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#industryQs Hello and thank you so much for sharing your animation and industry knowledge :) What is your process for animating a difficult scene like difficult movement, angle, acting, etc?

Hello Anon! I'm glad my posts can be helpful for you and others haha. Oh my process for animating a difficult scene....so something I like to do is thumbnail out all the poses of an animation in my sketchbook before doing it digitally:

I do this type of thing when the animation is more so about character acting rather than high octane action. It helps me figure out all the poses I need (and can alter) so that I'm not staring at my Cintiq pulling my hair out haha. My process for animating complex action scenes is a bit different. I have this thing where I'll do a rhythm pass before I even draw any figures. It's hard to explain into words but basically I plot out all the rhythm (timing, spacing, frame exposure, speed) of each figure in the shot with just dots (colored coded). Doing this rhythm pass helps me create variation in timing for each character so that they all don't feel one note. I guess in way, it's like creating an orchestra piece with different instruments that will play at different times but in harmony with each other. I did that a lot on Castlevania Nocturne since the action set pieces feature at least 5 characters moving at once. You don't want two characters to move with the exact e same timing and spacing so you gotta add variation to build a rhythm that will be pleasing to the eye. Once I get that rhythm pass down I pretty much go into drawing rough mannequins and lock down my essential key and breakdown poses. At this stage, I'm also thinking how to build that rhythm and contrast between key poses by playing with the spacing of the drawings (halves, thirds, favors). For action, you can get away with being less accurate (anatomy wise) and having less drawings since it'll play super fast. But the drawback is that you have to be an incredible draftsmanship and animator to understand what poses you need, what poses you can omit, and what poses you can intentionally break. Castlevania required a lot of that since it's heavily inspired by sakuga fights haha. But all in all, when it comes to animating complex action scenes I focus a lot of nailing down the rhythm in the rough key/breakdown stage of animation that way my in-between and tie down process is much easier since I did all the heavy lifting right from the start. I hope that answered your question!

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hi li ! i have a question , how do animators like yourself make characters mouth sync with the dialogue on the screen , is it harder if it is in a language you don't speak ( like anime for instance )

Hello! Ah well for anime it's pretty rare for me to have audio so sometimes I have to make a rough estimate of the lip sync. Otherwise, if I have the audio I just upload it into the file and use audio scrubbing to plot of the mouth poses haha.

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I know this is gonna be a strange one, but I do have an industry question;

I've been looking for a job for the last 4 years post-grad, I've tried every bit of advice I've gotten over my 6 years in school and 4 years out. Is it too late for me?? Or more so what advice would you have at this point?? I'm starting to feel really negatively about this venture, and getting a day job has been just as difficult;;

Hello Sky! Hope it's okay to call you that. Ah post-grad job hunting.....I don't miss that period of my life at all. Before I begin, just want to preface that what I say going forward is strictly from my perspective/experience. I am not the absolute of the animation industry so if what I say doesn't align with you, you do not have to follow it haha. Alright, advice for post grad job hunting.... Well, I think I want to start off giving a bit of context for the animation landscape these past 4 years that has been rough for everyone (trust me it'll come back around to your question): 1.) COVID Pandemic

This one might be a confusing for some people because when COVID hit in 2020, the only facet of entertainment that was able to keep going was animation. If you remember, during this time streaming numbers went up because people were stuck at home, every studio was launching their own streaming platform (HBO Max, Disney+, Peacock, etc.) and celebrities were given animated shows because live-action had stopped dead in its tracks. This period allowed artists outside of California state to get hired because what's the point of capping the talent to the local area when we're already working remotely? In short, it was a boom. But an exponential boom rather than a gradual boom. You never wanna grow too fast because you'll crash out quicker (and harder) which leads us to our second factor.... 2.) Netflix's first ever round of layoffs in summer 2022, streaming actually isn't profitable?????

In short, this year is when Netflix's growth finally stopped and was the beginning of The Great Animation Contraction. Other studios who were looking to Netflix as a the new model of distributing/creating entertainment had realized Netflix wasn't invincible. As well as their business model. So naturally, they got scared and and take action (aka layoffs). I was affected by these layoffs while working at Marvel Studios and many artists got laid off at studios to save face from the mistake that was streaming (though at this point studios were still double downing on it). Also, around this time live-action was slowly restarting thanks to vaccines and social distancing protocols. So those celebrity studded animated productions dwindled down (and also they caused so much havoc for us animation workers because most of those celebrities had no animation production experience). Which now leads us to...

3.) Mergers everywhere! Yeah, uh, mergers fucking suck. People kept losing their jobs because companies kept absorbing into each other and multiplying their debts to ungodly dollars amounts! Apparently no one took a math class and understood if you multiply any number by zero you will always get a zero. These merger also caused more shows to get shelved and canned, making the job market even slimmer. And by then we get to 2023 and the....

4.) WGA, SAG and TAG Contract Negotiations By now, studios have realized that streaming is losing them money because it costs a butt load of money to not only create a streaming site, but also maintain it, update it, create new media for it, acquire established franchises for it, and maintain the current library. Streaming shows aren't being advertised like they used to on cable so shows don't last beyond one or two seasons. Worker contracts are becoming shorter and shorter (I had a co-worker who had a 3 month contract! Isn't that insane?). And what happens in the midst of this streaming meltdown?

WGA, SAG and TAG are gearing up for their contract negotiations. And as we know SAG (actors) and WGA (writers) did strike which good for them! But now there are no live-action jobs and once again, animation (TAG) is the only one running because our negotiations don't officially start until 2024. At this point, so many animated productions have been cancelled left and right for the sake of "saving money and cutting costs". And the effects were very much being felt in the animation work force. Some animation workers were starting to leave the state of California to more affordable cities, some getting day jobs as baristas, hell some leaving the industry all together. It didn't help that studios were kind of withholding production greenlights 'cause 1) they're greedy corporations 2) these strikes were putting pressure on them. And when we did enter 2024 for our contract negotiations, that contraction was at the tightest. The job market for animation had become so bone dry that you have director-level talent taking entry level jobs to stay afloat. But because of that new, emerging artists are blocked out from breaking in. Anytime a job listing would go up people would go in a frenzy and try every thing they could to get the job. That's how little shows were in production this year specifically. Of course, by now it is public that TAG has ratified the contract (meaning we will not strike). But up until then, studios were quite literally waiting with baited breath for the duration of negotiations. A ton of stuff was in development but nothing was getting a greenlight in fear of a strike. So many animation workers at this point have been laid off for at least 2 years, got priced out of LA county, or got so burned by the industry that they left for a more sustainable paycheck. At this point of the post you're probably thinking, "Why is she talking about all of this and not answering my question?"

And the reason for that is because I what to highlight you didn't miss your chance. You unfortunately graduated at a time where the circumstances were not good for breaking in for the past 4 years.

I'm not saying this to deter you from animation either. I just want to be transparent and honest about the current state of animation because it really has been bleak for the past 4 years. So it's not your fault but rather the industry was just in a seriously bad drought. Both emerging and veteran artists have been struggling to find work and when they do it didn't even last for 6 months. Hopefully, with the renewed contract studios will start greenlighting productions again so everyone isn't fighting for one job opening. But I can't tell 'cause I am not Raven Baxter haha. But what advice can I give during this tough time? Start developing your own projects. Things may be pretty dry right now but now is the time when you can create and develop your own original stuff that can be used in your portfolio. Short or long form, showing progress videos, just create. Because once you start working it's gonna be hard to find that personal project time (trust me I'm going through that right now haha). Also, you'd be surprised how just doing your own thing can garner the attention of someone who does have the power to hire you. How do you think I got to work on the shows I have in the animation industry? Almost all of my jobs happened because I was just creating my own thing and it just happened to match the sensibilities of a show produced by a Hollywood studio. And if I had any additional advice... it would probably be don't think that Hollywood is the only way you can tell your stories.

This one is more of....a recent revelation I've had after going through a pretty bad work experience but Hollywood isn't the only way you can be a storyteller. Whether it's comics, games, streaming, animation, or film....the Hollywood system isn't the end all be all. And by Hollywood system I'm referring to breaking into a big studio like Disney, Nick or something and trying to get your own movie/tv show to win an award or something. That system often works for a certain group of people and fails other groups. That's why I say develop and create your own thing because you might find something that fits your creative voice more than Disney or any other Hollywood studio. Maybe that's inconsiderate of me to say as someone who's been incredibly lucky to work in the animation industry for almost 8 years now....but I still wanna be honest that there are other avenues that isn't the Hollywood way. All in all, please don't give up or beat yourself up. The current state of animation within America was out your control and resulted in many artists struggling to find a job. You aren't too late. In fact, I would say now is your time to do your thing in preparation for when that hiring boom comes again (or you can just take another route to tell your stories). I hope that answered your question!

[38sr]

#industryQ Is it recommended to include fanwork in the style of a or even the show/company you're applying for? Specifically talking about animation demoreels for students fresh out of school with no professional experience.

I feel like I've answered this before but while I'm in the camp of making fanart and fanfic, I would implore you emerging artists to create their own original work. The reason why is because on the job you'll be taught how to draw in the style of the show and sometimes getting hired is about whether or not you have the sensibility the team is looking for. And what is that sensibility? It's hard to define 'cause every show is different and therefore will have different needs. That's why original work is so fun to make because you can communicate what you like and it still be uniquely you. And 9 out of 10 times, there is at leats one person in animation who vibes with the sensibilities you have. Again, I'm not saying you shouldn't draw fanart because I'd be a hypocrite when I have gotten jobs from drawing fanart (never the full reason why but a good portion of how I got them). But you also wanna showcase who you are an as artist outside of fanart. I hope that answered your question!