3D Artists like Clara Chou Experiment with Different Forms of Animation to Tell Unique Stories
“The internet is still very much the wild west of entertainment and experimentation. I believe that we all grow through experimentation and I respect artists who come up with creative ways of portraying their stories. Everything that we do as filmmakers or animators is in service to the story. 3D animation is particularly powerful at suspending an audience’s disbelief and portraying new worlds. Animation is a world of endless possibilities in terms of storytelling.” — 3D Artist Clara Chou
And, in service of that “storytelling,” 3D Artist Clara Chou has worked in various areas of animation working for commercial houses to independent and large studios, like Pixar Animation. Relying on her assets, like meticulous planning and preparation, and her easy facility in collaborating with others, Clara calls herself “an animation generalist with a specific focus on animation and layout,” and further explains, “Animation as an industry is incredibly versatile, so I’ve been fortunate to experience many different projects.”
For example, Clara has enjoyed working with Coby Palivathukal who founded Glorious Goats Animation in 2022 with the goal of telling unique stories using innovative technologies. This animation studio’s “existential” web series, The Fridge, follows various food items like “Master Mayo” as they seek to cope with suffering, mortality, and the challenging search for meaning. The series has successfully averaged 2M+ views and 200K+ likes on Instagram per episode, along with 300K+ views with 50K+ likes on TikTok per episode.
As a layout artist and lead animator, Clara was responsible for creating cinematic sequences with camera and mocap animation inside Unreal Engine, a powerful real-time engine, and powerful tool for 3D animators. She tells us about her role creating those sequences inside Unreal Engine: “For The Fridge, I created the character models in Maya based on my director’s unique style, imported those models into Unreal Engine, composed all of the cameras and layout, and then animated the characters to those cameras. My director would then work on the facial animation by scanning his own face and applying the mocap data to the characters. I was also in charge of the first pass edit, and my work would be provided to assist editorial, sound design, and music. I was also responsible for technical tasks such as creating and managing the Unreal Engine project files as well as creating the background characters and props.”
“Clara Chou, the lead animator and layout artist for the viral web series The Fridge and the 3D scenes in Battle for Dream Island, played an essential role in making these projects so special. Her creativity and skills in animation brought the characters to life in such a fun and engaging way that no one else could have replicated, and her eye for design made every scene pop. Clara’s work added so much personality and polish to the series, helping them stand out and become fan favorites. She truly went above and beyond to make these shows the best they could possibly be and because of Clara, the content was truly unique and beloved.” — director Coby Palivathukal
Admitting that “one of the reasons that I love being an artist is that every project is very unique.” Some of her other projects include: Date Everything, an experimental dating game that brings life to everyday household objects, and was featured in 2024 Gamescom and San Diego Comic Con, and it also garnered 375K views for its announcement trailer; and, Battle For Dream Island Again, a surreal 3D animated web series which has earned over 5M+ views and 117K+ likes on YouTube.
She adds, “Working on these varied projects, I can always learn something new and work on something special. And the outcome is always different from what I imagined but very satisfying, because you know how much work and effort you invested in the art. We’re growing with our art, every decision that we make during the production connects ourselves with our work. Being able to express myself through my art is a very wonderful feeling.”
Clara Chou further explains her strengths and what she brings to the table:
— Can you expand on this asset, your ability to anticipate beforehand the complexity of an animation?
— For example, if I have a project that requires me to model, rig, animate and render a complicated character, then I’d need to know just how complicated the animation is. More complicated animations might require more intricate rigging. And more intricate rigging requires detailed topography. All of these processes take significant time and there has to be a balance between the departments to get the job done. So, I am able to look at an assignment and understand which elements might take longer than average and I can make suggestions accordingly to get the job done within a reasonable amount of time. For example, I might suggest simplifying the animation or shortening the duration of animation. I might even apply a blend of hand keyed animation and motion capture data. I might simplify the model if I know that the animation does not require complicated topography and spend more time rendering.
— Master Mayo says in The Fridge, “What happens in the past and future doesn’t matter because I have this moment and for that I am grateful.” How can an animated web series teach human lessons?
— This is why I was so drawn to Glorious Goat’s work. I think that the point of The Fridge series was always existentialism and I respect Coby Palivathukal’s unique style of animation. Coby majored in Philosophy and minored in Film and Media Studies at Stanford University. It is really cool to work with him and see how the contrast between the look of his characters and the deep conversation actually makes his work so extraordinary. I even think that his style enhances the poignancy of the underlying message because if you were to just look at the style of the series then the theme would be completely unexpected. Animation is great at playing with form. There is no one way that a character should look, and reality can bend to the needs of the story.
— What did you contribute to Date Everything?
— Date Everything is an experimental dating game that brings life to everyday household objects. It’s a very surprising and entertaining game within a fully interactive 3D environment. My work has included 3D animation and rigging, as well as 3D camera layout. I absolutely improved my rigging and animation skills, which are used in many of my other projects. Even though I worked on the game, I was still shocked by the scale of the narrative and interactions when I played through everything. I think that a lot of people will really enjoy it and appreciate its very unique point of view for storytelling.
— With Battle For Dream Island Again, how did you build the characters to help the story?
— This web series revolves around a bunch of anthropomorphic objects who are competing in a competition to win the grand prize of Dream Island, a luxurious island. I employed a similar method to what was done for The Fridge. I brought the existing 3D models in Unreal Engine and tweaked them to match the 2D character designs as much as possible. Because these 2D characters are jumping between different worlds, the creator thought it made sense for us to recreate a 3D world for their characters to exist in during the alternate reality sequences. The biggest challenge was to make sure the 3D characters match the design of the original 2D characters, whom the audiences are very familiar with, thus ensuring the continuity of the story. We went back and forth on several versions of the designs, adjusting the colors and proportions of the assets. Finally, we made the characters that we believe best represented the 2D characters.
— How can animation enhance storytelling beyond traditional live action?
— This is a great question. I think there’s a magic of animation that can make imaginary things believable. Like, I would be very scared if a huge sponge puts on pants and shoes and starts making burgers for me. But I would believe it in animation, it’s SpongeBob! Animation can add charm and magic to the style of the story, but at the end of the day it’s still the story that matters the most! Some stories are perfect for live action and others are perfect for animation! We are all storytelling mediums. The process of animation also allows for more time and creative flexibility. We are not beholden to existing scenery or logic. We can really create anything that we need to tell a story.
— What projects are upcoming and what are your goals?
— I hope to work in as many studios as possible. I love working for studios where I feel like I’m really contributing to the team. I’d also love to work on a feature film one day. I just started working as a layout artist for a Pixar cooperative short film called The Other Side. I think that the story is very beautiful. It’s about a man on the train to the afterlife, attempting to change his fate. This is another film that really explores deep messages about grief and peace, which is a topic that I don’t usually touch upon in my personal work. I believe this will be a great opportunity for me to learn about different perspectives and styles of visual storytelling. I will also keep working on the Happy Meal Digital Experience and The Fridge season 2, so that’s very exciting. I’d also love to start making my own short films again. I have a few fun ideas similar to Relax and Mallow Out that I’d love to explore. I hope to use these shorts to explore my vision and skills as an artist. Maybe that’ll lead to directing a bigger scale of projects in the future.
Drop in on Clara Chou’s website, and check out her IMDb and LinkedIn pages.
