There's this feeling every time you start with a blank canvas. It's hard to describe. I know I feel fear. I also feel excitement. I also feel anxiety and serenity. An eclectic, contradictory cauldron of feelings and emotions are what overwhelm me when I first start. But isn't that a fitting description of every transition stage of life? The blank canvas could be an empty white screen on my computer monitor, it could be starting the daunting task of running 40+ miles around Mt. Hood, it could be mustering the courage to talk to a stranger at the table across from me. The blank canvases of life are where the unexpected moments happen, moments that define you and the choices you make going forward.
I find many parallels between my constant need for physical travel and my daily craft of motion design where I am moving pixels across the screen. Creative energy emerges from movement in and around me, fast and slow. Whether that be breaking my personal record in the marathon to sitting still at a coffee shop in Cinque Terre, Italy overlooking the undulating waves.
My passion for design and filmmaking became cemented on a trip to my mother's homeland in Cambodia where I film documented my family's harrowing experiences under the Khmer Rouge. We all have stories to tell, and it was then I started to see myself more of a storyteller than just a person with a craft. I then weaved in and out of the filmmaking gamut until finding so much joy in motion design that it became my focus.
I started as a one-person freelance shop from the start of my motion design journey resulting in my broad experience; I straddled between many boundaries from 2D animation to 3D modeling to VFX to frame-by-frame animating to designing particle generative systems. I also have fiddled with HTML/CSS/Javascript/Python/VEX in attempts to create. Being a generalist motion designer I have touched many design points in my design career from film to software UI design and this I feel gives me a much larger tool set to take inspiration from.
I've always striven to find work and passions that force me out of my comfort zone while having the potential to leave a lasting impact. So my fit at Qwake, a small startup which strives to undertake extreme expeditions combined with the novel use of tech in an attempt to address global issues, was seamless. Having never worked in the sports industry I ventured out and soon found myself creating motion graphics full-time for the Golden State Warriors where the fast-pace environment has really kept me on my toes.